The place of the phenomenon of manipulation in political discourse

Abstract

The article examines issues of political manipulation from the linguistic point of view. Diversified review of studies of the phenomenon of political manipulation was accomplished and the role of means of language in the process of manipulation was described. It is postulated that manipulation inherently belongs to the people`s speech and in particular to the speech of the politicians. In this respect, it is deemed to be wrong to study manipulation in an exclusively negative light. The focus of the research is the effect of the manipulatory impact and this interest is predetermined by the emphasis on the linguo-pragmatic aspects of communication. 

Political discourse is characterized by manipulative features in order to conduct a propaganda conflict, which is achieved using various linguistic units and methods, such as nominalization, euphemisms, precedent phenomena. The political discourse of the media has a huge impact on the formation of public opinion, which is done with the help of the above tools of speech manipulation.

The article examines the features of manipulative technologies of political discourse. The severity of the problem of the manipulative potential of speech is determined by direct communication between the institutionalized addressee and the mass addressee, which takes place in the political discourse of the media. A brief analysis of the types of manipulation depending on the nature of information transformations is given, which determines the presence of specific features of the language of politics, as well as the use of special tools that contribute to the implementation of the main functions of political discourse.

According to the author, the media are forming a new political reality in which manipulation technologies become a key instrument of political behaviour of the masses.