SYNCHRONOUS STUDY OF THE RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY IN THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSE OF THE XXI CENTURY

Abstract

The article examines the role of religious vocabulary in the implementation of communicative strategies and tactics in the American presidential discourse of the 21st century. A synchronic study of the presidential ritual discourse was conducted on the material of the president’s farewell speeches; Christmas addresses of the Heads of State to the nation and jubilee / festive speeches dedicated to important dates, awarding of prizes, opening of forums, festivals, exhibitions; the study of orientational presidential discourse was conducted on the material of the annual message of the US president to Congress, interviews, and speeches of presidents on the occasion of various events; the study of the agonal presidential discourse was conducted on the material of presidential election debates and election speeches. The Christmas addresses of American presidents are the most “saturated” with religious vocabulary, while the farewell and anniversary speeches are almost identical in terms of the frequency of use of religious lexical units and are close to the corresponding indicators recorded in the inaugural speeches of American presidents. High indicators of the frequency of the use of religious vocabulary in Christmas addresses can be explained by the actual thematic orientation of these speeches. The strategy of forming the emotional mood of the addressee through two tactics – unity and taking into account the value orientations of the addressee – is most widely used in the ritual genres of the presidential discourse of the 21st century. The strategy of forming the emotional mood of the addressee through three tactics – taking into account the value orientations of the addressee, appealing to emotions and unity, as in the case of ritual genres, is most widely used in the orientational genres of the presidential discourse of the 21st century. However, the campaign strategy and self-defense strategy, which are not fixed in the ritual genres of the 21st century, find their realization in the orientational presidential discourse. We observe the lowest indicators of the frequency of the use of religious vocabulary precisely in the agonal genres of the presidential discourse, which is especially clearly observed in the debates. In our opinion, such a low frequency of use is explained by the spontaneity and unpreparedness of some genres, especially debates.