Theoretical bases of the sociological study of political discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the possibility of using basic multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of discourse, which are widely used in sociological tradition, for the analysis of the political sphere of society. The concepts of M. Foucault, E. Laclau and Sh. Mouffe, and T. A van Dijk, in which discourse is defined as a complex sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is largely determined by socio-cultural factors and influences the formation of semantic structures are considered. The common and different in philosophical assumptions and methodological foundations of the French structuralist discourse analysis, critical linguistics, social semiotics, socio-cognitive analysis, and other approaches to the study of discourse are emphasized. Attention is focused on such matters dealt within the framework of these approaches, as the subject of discourse, structure that influences it, the relationship between discourse and social and cultural development specific to the different spheres of public life.