Images of Russia in American Political Discourse: Verbal Representations

Abstract

The article analyzes qualitative verbal representations of the image of Russia in American political speeches from February 2022 to February 2024. Methods. The volume of the studied material amounted to 200,000 characters and included about 50 public speeches and transcriptions of press conferences of the political and military leadership. The study used comparative, interpretive, conceptual and descriptive methods. Analysis. The analyzed material reveals typical, recurring concepts associated with Russia, which are found in all the texts under consideration; convey a negative image of Russia in the linguistic consciousness of American linguistic culture; New images related to the current political agenda were also identified. Results. The authors present the results of a study of manipulative tactics and verbal means of their implementation within the framework of the representation of the conceptual image of Russia in modern American political discourse. It was determined that the means of nomination and verbal representations are determined by the concepts "no freedom of speech", "corruption", "weak evil enemy", "appalling tyranny", "human rights violations", "authoritarian nature", "totalitarian state", "threat to democracy", "axis of evil", "inevitable defeat", manipulation techniques are also used, including leveling facts and contrasting meanings.