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This study explores the mechanisms of manipulative influence within German-language economic discourse. The empirical material consists of articles from the Köln Institute for Economic Research, detailing external trade cooperation between Germany and China during the years 2020 to 2023. It has been found that metaphors, borrowings, idiomatic expressions, expressive language, and emotives — comprising combinations of evaluative connotations — exert a covert manipulative effect on communication participants. At the grammatical level, the use of adverbs in the superlative degree and modal verbs in the preterite subjunctive form enables the construction of narratives that downplay the significance of China’s successes as an economic competitor. The analysis reveals that manipulation within economic discourse is intentionally obscured, possessing an implicit nature. It has been determined that portraying the Chinese economy in an unequivocally negative light is impractical; however, there are noticeable trends towards diminishing the significance of its successes, negatively evaluating business activity, and exaggerating the perceived threats posed by China to its business partners. The novelty and relevance of this research lie in addressing the techniques of manipulative influence in shaping the linguistic worldview within economic discourse — a perspective that has not yet been explored, as such texts are often considered objective documents grounded in scientific statistical data.

The research paper focuses on the mechanism of semantic parser for automatic text analysis and represents some results of analyzing news with a total volume of 2.2 million clauses. This mechanism models the processes of text comprehension and in this paper it is applied to the evaluation of the text influence on the reader. The parser constructs a semantic representation of the text and maps the meaning of each clause to a particular frame belonging either to the set of 300 emotional or to the set of 4500 rational frames. Comparing the frames of pro- state (federal) and blocked sources in Russia, the authors show that the most frequent frames in federal news represent an interactive dialog between the media and the speaker (note, add, recall, etc.), while the most frequent frames in blocked news introduce the speaker’s utterance that has become known to the news agencies (report, write, say, etc.). This reflects the remoteness of the editors of blocked news from Russian speakers. The federal media more often report about funny or unexpected purchases, as well as about how federal employees rescue people, and this agenda should make a positive impression. The blocked media, on the other hand, are more likely to mention court sentencing and death, which should have a negative impact. The natural-language inference constructed via frame combinations is shown to enable the recognition of emotional situations in derived meanings that are not explicitly expressed in the text and, thus, it allows to analyze automatically more compound mechanisms of manipulation.

Background. The article focuses on the manipulative influence issues in sports analytical articles. Nowadays our life is significantly affected by sport and key sports events are covered by mass media. Since one of the major functions of mass media is the function to influence the reader, an attempt to analyze the mechanisms of manipulation within the framework of sports discourse seems to be reasonable. Based on the theoretical research study, it is established that manipulation is primarily characterized by its covert nature. In the practical part an analysis of linguistic ways of representation of manipulation on lexical and syntactical levels is given. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to define the mechanisms of manipulation in sports analytical articles and to analyze their linguistic side. Materials and methods. The research material comprises 7 sports analytical articles of 2024 taken from digital versions of the British magazines such as The Guardian and The Sun. The main research methods include analysis and synthesis of theoretical materials, discourse and contextual analysis together with descriptive method. The methods enumerated have given an opportunity to obtain accurate data on linguistic representation of various ways of manipulation in sports discourse. Results. The results of the study have shown that sports analytical articles possess a significant potential to influence the reader due to some manipulative methods such as hedges, labels, first person pronoun in a plural form, rhetorical questions and multiplication. The ways of linguistic representation of these manipulative methods are analyzed. Practical implications. The research results can be used for further investigation of ways of manipulation within sports analytical articles as well as in the development of courses on speech influence and sports discourse.

Большое разнообразие дефиниций речевого манипулирования и его языковых составляющих создают различные интерпретации в понимании этого явления. Цель работы состоит в выявлении и описании семантических характеристик антонимических средств в публичных выступлениях Дональда Трампа в период 2023-2024 гг., способствующих реализации стратегии манипулирования. Методологическую основу исследования составляет совокупность таких методов, как лексикографический анализ словарных дефиниций, компонентный анализ и метод корреляций. Среди антонимических пар наиболее продуктивными в текстах выступлений Дональда Трампа являются комплементарные антонимы, которые позволяют политику акцентировать внимание на различиях между своими взглядами и мнением оппонентов, создавать контрасты, положительно характеризовать своих сторонников и представлять противников в негативном ключе.

The article examines fraudulent discourse – a special type of discourse, the purpose of which is to take possession of other people’s property and obtain benefits through deceit or breach of trust. The author differentiates the legal understanding of the phenomenon of “fraud” and its perception in the ordinary worldview. It is proved that the concept of fraudulent discourse should include a number of communicative acts qualified by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation as theft or extortion. The central genre of fraudulent discourse is the speech genre “swindle” / “con game”, based on the conscious and purposeful manipulative influence of the initiator of communication (fraudster) on the addressee (victim). Nowadays, the wide spread of remote communication determines the predominance of “swindle” using various technical means that provide synchronous or asynchronous interaction between the subjects of communication. The “swindle” / “con game” genre embodies the formulaicity of fraudulent discourse and is implemented through a limited number of strategies, each of which uses a stable set of means of influence. The main strategies are the appeal to fear, the appeal to luck and creation of the illusion of routine. As part of the fear appeal strategy, three tactics are distinguished, namely, the tactics of instilling fear for one’s prosperity and well-being, the tactics of instilling fear for the safety of a family member, and the tactics of instilling fear of public reprimand. The analysis is carried out by a continuous sampling method and is based on messages (more than 400 units) of potential victims or victims of technically mediated fraud, presented in the form of a narrative and posted on various communication resources in the media space.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the binary conceptual opposition “We – They” in modern English political discourse. One of the frequent ways of speech manipulation in political discourse is the use of the binary conceptual opposition “We – They”, which has the central role in political discourse in general. It is established that the analyzed opposition is variable and can be used at different levels – external and internal.Materials and Methods. The speeches and statements of the President of the United States of America Joe Biden for the period from January 2 to February 24, 2023 are considered as the material of the study. The frequency of use of lexical units used to represent the opposition “We – They” is determined using the LancsBox corpus manager application.Analysis. It is identified that various strategies and tactics are used in political discourse to influence the recipients of information by politicians due to the need to prove their opinion, convince the recipients of the correctness of actions, emphasize their importance and significance for the whole country. The primary objective of the study is to systematize the discursive tools of speech influence in political discourse, which are based on conceptual oppositions.Results. The significance of the results lies in the possibility of using the obtained data for an adequate perception of the information presented in the political discourse, on the one hand, and for creating own political texts, on the other hand. The scientific novelty lies in the analysis of modern material and in the effort to build a linguistic model of the use of the binary conceptual opposition “We – They” in Joe Biden’s political discourse. The novelty is also characterized by the statistical data provided, obtained using automated text processing and the creation of an electronic corpus, which can be further expanded by speeches of other political figures. The adaptability of the developed electronic corpus opens up the possibilities of the further computer-aided study of binary conceptual oppositions in political discourse with reference to the methods of digital linguistics.

The article considers the multidimensional phenomenon of speech manipulation and the role of mass media in forming public opinion. Linguistic studies show that speech manipulation also includes social, political, and psychological components. Mass media plays a significant part in creating a culture of relationships, influencing the behaviour and intelligence of any society. This explains why it eventually shapes public opinion by manipulating the consciousness of the audience using an extensive arsenal of linguistic means, which may express both verbal aggression and verbal collaboration. The paper considers the reasons why this phenomenon emerges in the language of mass media, its interpretations, and forms of expression, including its method, intensity, and purposefulness. The use of the discrediting strategy, which appears to be the most common for speech manipulation in modern mass media, is analysed. The strategy can be formed explicitly or implicitly, starting with title and subheading (the headline complex), and using different language means. The study identifies linguistic indicators of speech manipulation within the discrediting strategy which represent different tactics of direct and indirect accusation, opposition, solidarity, and rejection. They key functions of headline complexes are hence considered. Linguistic and functional analysis has revealed main indicators of speech manipulation while quantitative analysis has identified the most frequent linguistic means that indicate speech manipulation in the articles focused on economic and political issues.

This article examines the concept of “newspeak,” created by J. Orwell in his novel “1984,” which functions as one of the means of manipulating the political consciousness of people. The article focuses on the linguistic manifestation of newspeak in the speech behavior of modern German politicians. It reveals two main functions of newspeak in the speech of modern German politicians: confusion and reinterpretation of established concepts. The article explores the corpus of lexical means of German political newspeak, which are realized in the form of framing, empty phrases, paradoxical word constructions, borrowings, neologisms, clericalisms, lexemes with ambiguous meaning, and words with multiple meanings. Among the grammatical means peculiar to newspeak in German political discourse, the article describes the inclusive pronoun “wir,” passive voice, and the conjunctive irrealis in combination with the adverbial modifier of manner. The pragmatic means of realizing newspeak in German political discourse include the imposition of presuppositions, weak efforts to fulfill the intentions, and hyperbolization. The conclusion is drawn that, unlike in totalitarian societies, politicians in democratic countries use newspeak to compensate for the failures of their party, which turns out to be unable to fully implement its declared intentions, mainly through linguistic manipulations.

Целью данной статьи является анализ лексико-грамматических приёмов речевого манипулирования в политических англоязычных текстах и выявление наиболее часто и наименее часто использующихся. Пропаганда, рассматриваемая в поле политического дискурса, направлена на изменение отношения людей к обществу, в котором они живут, к его главным ценностям и приоритетам. Речевые манипуляции в политике реализуются не только в выступлениях политиков, немаловажную роль в этом процессе играют СМИ и интернет. В политических текстах языковые манипуляции представлены весьма широко – а именно, совокупностью приёмов, и имеют несколько целей – сформировать и навязать аудитории определённые взгляды, а также – побудить её к действиям, желательным для манипуляторов.

The article considers the multidimensional phenomenon of speech manipulation and the role of mass media in forming public opinion. Linguistic studies show that speech manipulation also includes social, political, and psychological components. Mass media plays a significant part in creating a culture of relationships, influencing the behaviour and intelligence of any society. This explains why it eventually shapes public opinion by manipulating the consciousness of the audience using an extensive arsenal of linguistic means, which may express both verbal aggression and verbal collaboration. The paper considers the reasons why this phenomenon emerges in the language of mass media, its interpretations, and forms of expression, including its method, intensity, and purposefulness. The use of the discrediting strategy, which appears to be the most common for speech manipulation in modern mass media, is analysed. The strategy can be formed explicitly or implicitly, starting with title and subheading (the headline complex), and using different language means. The study identifies linguistic indicators of speech manipulation within the discrediting strategy which represent different tactics of direct and indirect accusation, opposition, solidarity, and rejection. They key functions of headline complexes are hence considered. Linguistic and functional analysis has revealed main indicators of speech manipulation while quantitative analysis has identified the most frequent linguistic means that indicate speech manipulation in the articles focused on economic and political issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of globalization of society, information becomes not just the sum of knowledge necessary for mankind, but a means of manipulating the consciousness of millions of people, a way of inciting hatred and enmity. Verbal crimes are committed against both human rights and freedoms and against the peace and security of mankind. In recent years, both in Russia and in Belarus, verbal offenses of an extremist nature have become more frequent. For the Belarusian and Russian linguistic and legal discourse, this is a fairly new phenomenon, the interest in which predetermined the purpose of this study - to study the phenomenon of verbal extremism in the aspect of the national legislation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. The factual data were conflictogenic texts with extremist focus that were analyzed from a legal standpoint (Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus and Articles 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The methodology of the research comprises the method of parametrization and logical-linguistic, comparative and lexicalsemantic analyses. The object of the research is verbal expressions of extremism. In this study, attention was paid to both the theoretical study of the phenomenon of verbal extremism and the practical analysis of conflictogenic texts. Common signs of verbal extremism are: abstractness, heightened emotional background of transmitted information, pseudo-non-involvement of a person in its dissemination. The main mechanism of sowing (inciting) discord is the use of expressions stating the superiority or exclusiveness of the dominant group as compared to the biological, social or moral defectiveness or depravity of the subgroup. The verbal mechanism of sowing (inciting) hatred is creation of defective or hostile images of the subgroup, when its members are attributed either a desire to lead parasitic lifestyles at the expense of the members of the dominant group, or they are accused of innate hostility to the dominant group and conspiring its destruction. The results obtained indicate that the Belarusian and Russian legislation reflects a similar understanding of the category of verbal extremism, which indicates the gradual harmonization of the legislative systems of Russia and Belarus in terms of assessing crimes against the peace and security of mankind.

This article provides a multi-analysis and comparison of the concepts of linguistic effect and mind games by means of language. Those have acquired the greatest relevance in the modern digital world, i.e., the world of network communications.Through comparing dictionary and scientific definitions, as well as a number of criteria, one may distinguish the basic similarities and differences between linguistic effect and manipulation of consciousness. One may also find a description of the key features of mind games using language, as well as the definition of the concept of speech manipulation, along with a univocal negative moral and ethical assessment of this phenomenon. The general correlation of the concepts of linguistic effect and manipulation of consciousness is also provided.

The article is devoted to the analysis of polycode advertising texts placed on food packaging. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that at present, when the decision to purchase is often made directly at the point of sale, the role of information on the packaging has increased many times over. This fact makes it necessary to analyze modern technologies of influence and manipulation that are relevant for this type of discourse. The author considers the text on the packaging as a communicative and structural holistic message, consisting of semiotically heterogeneous elements, characterized by high pragmatic and expressive saturation, aimed at encouraging consumers to make a purchase of a particular product. A typology of functions performed by the information on the packaging is proposed. The main polycode tools that ensure the effective implementation of these functions are considered. As the most frequent polycode techniques used in the text on food packaging, the author identifies the following: an emphasis is made on a unique component in the composition, categorization of the target audience according to certain criteria, the use of means of expression, including provocative metaphorization, appeal to authoritative opinion, the use of stylistic visualization, technologies of narrative and storytelling, etc.

This article explores the material of social and political nature, the manipulative power of words, and their direct impact on consciousness and behavior. The authors focus on neologisms as a lexical means of speech manipulation that generates additional connotations, obscures understanding, misleads, and creates conflicting situations. The article analyzes some aspects of the theoretical study of political discourse as a powerful resource for creating a favorable image and such a phenomenon as “winning over with the word”, the relevance of which is expressed by the current political situation in the world.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how the concept of hatred is represented in American political discourse. The problem of intensified hate speech requires thorough linguistic investigation as political discourse is becoming more openly conflictual. The empirical material of this study comprises public speeches by American politicians, politically themed analytical articles in the press, posts and statements of politicians in social networks. The main method is that of functional-linguistic analysis of discourse. The author analyzes confrontational communicative tactics, e.g. discrediting, scorn, insult, accusation, mockery, etc. The objects (or victims) of such rhetoric are political opponents of the subject of speech, who may have different points of view, religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds and social status. Hate speech, which is an extreme form of how the concept of hatred can be verbalized, may be directed against confessional and ethnical groups. The paper puts special focus on communicative goals and intentions of the discourse participants who resort to hate speech. Usually it is the desire of the subject of speech to publicly demonstrate disrespect, mock, belittle the authority of opponents and favorably represent oneself in the eyes of the audience. The rhetoric of hatred comprises such typical means as negative and offensive epithets and metaphors; hyperbolic, comparative, rhetorical and lexical constructions with the pragmatical meaning of irony. In situations, when the subjects of speech emphasize the difference between them and their opponents (national, religious, social etc.), the functional fields of the concept of hatred and the “in-group/out-group” concept may overlap. In these cases, the communicative goal of the speaker is to alienate political opponents and emphasize their dissidence in a negative way.

The research featured suggestive potential of religious discourse. The authors interpret suggestion as an effective tool that allows its users to plant an idea or attitude into the mind of the recipient, the latter being unaware of the object of suggestion. The paper focuses on the problem of interaction between rational and emotional-subjective sides of communication. Suggestion is defined as a way of linguistic manipulation based on the sensory-associative sides of consciousness. The authors study the means and methods of linguistic manipulation of personal attitudes using religious texts as specific examples. The suggestion makes the recipient adopt and include new information in the existing system of views, thus leading to a certain transformation of the worldview, which changes the motivational basis of behavior and may trigger hostile intentions and extremist actions. Suggestive techniques make it possible to avoid legal punishment by disguising facts that can be used to prove the presence of conflict-generating elements in the discourse. Such texts are used to create a certain emotional state, thus facilitating motivation, further contacts, and formation of opinion.

The article is devoted to the analysis of manipulative strategies and tactics in political discourse. The analysis is based on Donald Trump's speech, which was delivered at the UN General Assembly in 2018. The paper studies the manipulative speech strategies and tactics used by the politician, their characteristic features, linguistic peculiarities of their implementation and the aims of their use. Political discourse defines the necessity to use certain speech strategies and tactics in political speeches, which altogether are aimed at creating an image of a politician and manipulating the consciousness of listeners. Implementation of such strategies and tactics in a proper way can evoke the desired emotional response and have an effect on choices people make. Every politician is unique in using their own strategies and tactics, but, in most cases, such tactics are more or less similar as their target is to create a positive image and make people follow or believe this or that politician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the usage of the construction ne ja/ty li + a noun or an adjective in the Russian texts. It is used for the expression of polar addresser’s emotions (discontent, disappointment, joy, admiration). A rhetorical question that has a characterization of an addressee (you are an X, aren’t you?) or an addresser (I am an X, aren’t me?) dictates to a listener the certain understanding of specific of his communicative relations with the addresser. The addressee is deprived of any rights to describe an addresser by himself; an addressee has to agree with arguments or argue against them basing not on the addresser's point of view but as a result of pressing of addresser on him.

This paper presents the nominal semantic classes involved in the construction "I/you + particle + noun." The I-type is usually associated with self-justification and self-praise, while the You-type is associated with reproach, persuasion, order, and request. The usage of such words as jažemat′ or tyžvrač on the Internet suggests that the determination of the addressee's and sender's identity may be seen as a form of struggle for leadership. I/you constructions can be divided into two gropus: the one with nouns that denote kinship or gender and and the other that collocates with nouns that denote occupation. The former group is characterized by symmetry of the I/you constructions and commonest words these constructions collocate with (a mother, a son, a man, a woman etc.), while for the latter group the use of constructions with I and constructions with you is asymmetrical. When the speaker nominates the interlocutor using one of these constructions he/she gets the upper hand in the conversation and thus limits the actions of the addressee, who cannot argue because such statement of the obvious deprives the latter of grounds for disagreement: tyžvrač, you're a doctor here, aren't you? and you cannot beat it. We show that the relationship between the speakers in the constructions we study is mobile, and the possibility of completing the dialogue with an open conflict is minimal, since the identification of the addressee makes it clear that he/she must behave in accordance with the sender's presupposition and cannot go beyond the line of restrictions set by him/her. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies the possible impact on the addressee by manipulating. The analysis was applied to the manipulative strategy of the syntax complexity by the targeted and motivated selection of the best linguistic units of semantic pragmatic content. The relevance of the parliamentary discourse study is dictated by the need to search the best ways of speech influence on the audience for the parliament members, on the one hand, and the need to understand the real intentions of the audience and latent methods of language manipulation, on the other hand. The purpose of this article is to consider and identify the peculiarities of the mechanism of linguistic manipulation in the parliamentary speeches of the UK at the syntactic level. The study analyses the texts of the parliamentary political discourse of Britain on the issues related to the situation in the Ukraine in 2015. As a result, it was found out that the most frequent are the following means of manipulation: repetition inside a statement, antithesis, anaphora, syntactic parallelism, ellipse, inversion, rhetorical question, graduation, anadiplosis and epiphora. The study of such a mechanism of manipulation with the help of linguistic means and understanding its laws are important because they help to avoid the psycho-technical effect of speech manipulation, aggression or even speech abuse.

This paper determines through the linguistic analysis the possibilities of verbal extremism aimed at manipulation with the actions and behavior of the recipient. The texts presented online in the Internet telecommunication network are investigated. The communicative attitudes to the control over the recipient's behavior, as well as the linguistic features of their implementation in the text are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trevor Wishart, York-based electroacoustic composer and sonic artist, discusses his most recent piece,Encounters in the Republic of Heaven, a piece in four acts created from manipulated recordings of the spoken word, after his keynote speech to the Symposium for the Performance of Electronic and Experimental Composition (SPEEC) on Friday 11 January 2012, at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda's College, University of Oxford. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nowadays much attention in linguistics is paid to the study of manipulative kinds of texts which function within the political discourse. This paper deals with the linguistic means that the British political leaders use to actualize empathy and compassion. Despite the basic statements of Darwin's theory these manipulation targets are considered to be the important mechanisms of tribal human behavior by many ethologists. The pre-election speeches of the British political leaders taken as linguistic data are regarded in the article with the help of intentional analysis and the analysis of stylistic means and vocabulary which are used by the producers. These methods let us understand how the producers of manipulative messages which consist of manipulative speech acts apply to the recipients' empathy and compassion. The results of such analysis show that the most frequently used linguistic means of realization of this manipulative strategy are nominating lexemes, associative lexemes and some stylistic means (anaphora, simile and some others). These results also let us conclude that using of ethological data in linguistics helps the researchers understand the mechanisms of linguistic manipulation in the British political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with two parenthetical word combinations. Reflections on the place parenthetical constructions occupy in modern Russian may be found in direct statements of people writing on the Internet. Recently, both in colloquial Russian and in the language of Internet forums we have seen substantial changes in the expressions chosen for parenthetical constructions and in the functions of these constructions as a whole. For example, constructions such as na minutocku and stesnjajus' sprosit' are now used as parentheticals. The paper analyses meanings and usages of these two particular phrases. In some cases they point to the speaker's intention of being over-obliging and considerate of the interlocutor, while in other cases they reveal the author's ironical stance. Most interesting, however, are the cases where these constructions form part of a rhetorical technique aimed at suppressing the interlocutor by means of demonstrating one's own superiority. Parenthetical words in this context function as the most efficient ways of manipulating the partner's position. The paper also discusses the results of a survey reflecting the attitude of native speakers to both traditional and new parenthetical words and constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine whether kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI) could develop phonological awareness skills through computer intervention and whether speech manipulation (i.e., slowing speech rate and enhancing transitions) in instruction produced additional learning. Method: The effects of a computer-supported phonological awareness program on a variety of items, including word analysis, syllable analysis, rhyme, phoneme analysis, syllable synthesis, and phoneme synthesis, were tested following a pretest-posttest 1-posttest 2 design. Twenty-four kindergarten children with SLI in the Netherlands received 3.5 hr of phonological awareness intervention via a computer program using either normal speech (12 children) or manipulated speech (12 children). A control group of 12 kindergarten children with SLI played computer vocabulary games. Results: The results showed positive effects of the intervention for the normal speech group. Eighteen weeks later, the effect size was still substantial; however, no additional effects of speech manipulation were found. Clinical Implications: The results suggest that kindergarten children with SLI benefit from computer intervention for phonological awareness skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]