MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF THE SPEECH PORTRAIT OF A MODERN POLITICIAN'S PERSONALITY

Ursul K.V.¹, Ursul V.I.²

Ursul K.V.

Russian State University for the Humanities
e-mail: ursul-16@mail.ru

Ursul V.I.

Moscow State Technical University
e-mail: vitalii_ursul@mail.ru

Currently, the process of modeling is one of the most pressing challenges in many fields of knowledge, and political linguistics is no exception. This relatively new area of research requires the introduction of additional tools to "complete" and organize the impressive body of accumulated knowledge. One of the fundamental components of this field of knowledge is public speaking, which is studied very thoroughly within linguistics due to its "process of language use, the result of which is the creation of a text" [6, p. 31].

When touching upon the concept of text at the intersection of linguistics and politics, it is first necessary to distinguish between the concepts of political text and political discourse.

Political discourse, like any discourse, is a phenomenon subject to change, primarily diachronically. It is well known that the speech of a politician always reflects the currents of the era and socio-social sentiments. At the same time, one should not neglect the fact that an individual politician, under the given conditions of a particular communicative situation, will, using their available administrative resources, strive to advance their political views and those of their party supporters, drawing on their socio-cultural and life experiences. At the same time, the verbal expression of political sentiments should be constructed in accordance with existing norms of political rhetoric, but only in a way that does not completely coincide with the patterns of behavior currently available to potential opponents in the political arena [10].

Within the framework of the research, it is of fundamental importance to distinguish political discourse from other types of discourse due to its universality. Despite its at first glance assignment to the strictly political sphere, this type of discourse is in many ways applicable to very diverse areas of social life. It is capable of penetrating many areas of human life, harmoniously combining with new trends in public life. A number of works devoted to the examination of various perspectives of this direction, such as: substantive-thematic and communicative-pragmatic [9], testify to the comprehensive "coverage area" of political discourse, including "both institutional and non-institutional types of discourse, the author of which is a politician or which is addressed to a politician as a discourse of response to political events" [Ibid.]. Accordingly, we are dealing with discourse in public political activity, that is, the public speeches of politicians, the political discourse disseminated by journalists in the media, and the political discourse of citizens of the country. For citizens of the country, this area is not a professional one, but is accessible due to the influence exerted directly on them with the goal of establishing a certain political world order. Today, it is necessary to conduct a detailed analysis of political discourse in order to identify and describe the current ways in which the authorities influence the worldview of citizens of a given country. Linguists are attempting to understand how social inequality manifests itself at the level of communicative activity. Thus, the scientific community is attempting to find ways to prevent social conflicts [3, p. 23].

The concept of political text is a relevant research area in linguistics. At all times, the primary purpose of creating a political text has been to influence public opinion or the opponent's worldview. To achieve this goal, a political text must possess a range of communicative and speech characteristics in order to inform citizens about a particular socio-political phenomenon by influencing socio-political sentiment. It is also important to consider the fact that, to be as informative as possible, a text must be vivid and memorable. At the same time, another function of political text in this regard cannot be overlooked. This is the function of persuasion and motivation to action: the political audience must be convinced of the reasonableness of the arguments presented and, if necessary, in certain specific situations, encouraged to take specific actions to achieve political goals [1, p. 22].

Politicians use political text to influence their audiences and communicate with the public to achieve specific goals. Political text is a key component of a politician's overall image, embodying their overall political profile. When analyzing political text, special attention should be paid to the political language itself.

Political language is a language created to achieve specific political goals; it reinforces value and ethical attitudes in society, influencing both people's behavior in general and everyday language in particular.

Political linguistics views language as the foundation for compiling a speech portrait of a political figure. In this regard, the anthropocentric approach to describing linguistic personality tends to view a person's personal characteristics as fundamental to the processes of speech production and speech perception [2, p. 7].

At the heart of speech portraiture lies the concept of the speaker, or the concept of linguistic personality. The term linguistic personality was introduced into linguistics in the 1980s by Yu. N. Karaulov. This led to a gradual increase in interest among linguists in the study of linguistic personality in the context of speech portraiture [4, p. 81].

At the same time, it should be noted that the concept of a speech portrait is not a direct object of linguistic science, due to the fact that the portrait itself is constructed long before it becomes the focus of a linguist-researcher; it is formed by a separate social group in the process of modeling the social identity of an individual within a given socio-social framework [7].

The above-mentioned position of D.S. Gordashnikova seems fundamentally important for the research we are conducting, since it is precisely in it that all the essential characteristics (structural components) of the image of a political figure are revealed.

Within the framework of linguistic science, an image is modeled in the process of implementing the following fundamental communicative functions of language in speech [5, p. 81]:

1. differentiation of personality among others;
2. impression made on the public;
3. target audience orientation.

These functions, in the process of their verbal implementation, allow scientists to identify a set of key factors influencing the final portrait of the speech of an individual politician, such as: the melody of speech, the abundance of personal pronouns, the use of brightly colored stylistic devices and figures of speech.

As an example, let us analyze D. Trump’s election speech, which is mostly replete with the pronoun «we» («our»).

We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams. Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And yes, together we will make America great again [15].

An analysis of V.V. Putin's speech, for example, reveals a somewhat different "image" picture of political speech: personal pronouns predominate, primarily in the first person singular, for example: I believe, I assure, etc.

I think so It is my duty and the meaning of my whole life to do everything for Russia, for its present and future – peaceful and prosperous, for the preservation and continuation of our great people, for the well-being of every Russian family. I assure you you, the purpose of my life and work will be, as before, serving people, our Fatherland. For me, this is above all else. [13].

A detailed analysis of the above examples leads to a number of very logical questions in this regard, namely: how do the speeches of politicians differ from each other if, in their socio-political focus on influencing the population with the goal of informing and creating certain moods in society, each of them is guided by a generally accepted set of unspoken rules.

Upon closer examination of the speeches of leading political leaders, linguists agree that each politician is unique in their own way. This manifests itself primarily in the performance of the nominative function, namely, the differentiation of their personality from others. The individual psychological characteristics of a given politician will therefore lay a solid foundation, which will subsequently serve as a litmus test for identifying the distinctive features of a particular political image as a whole.

At the same time, it's important to note that the individual psychological characteristics of the same person are revealed differently depending on the external situation in which they interact with the public. The dichotomy of a speaker's personal characteristics manifests itself most clearly under the influence of various extralinguistic factors. Thus, the same political figure, while attempting to achieve the same goal, appears completely different to the "audience" because that same audience exerts its "personal" influence on the speaker, facilitating the formation and further manifestation of an individual set of personality and psychological traits under given conditions.

As part of the ongoing research, we propose constructing a model for the formation of a speech portrait of a politician's personality, based on generally accepted norms of portraiture in painting.

Before describing this type of model, we believe it's important to note that, according to M.S. Zolotykh [8], the first depictions of humans lacked faces as such; that is, individual portrait features characterizing personality were described figuratively, primarily because humans perceived themselves as an integral part of nature, a single collective. Portraits began to appear in art only when humans came to recognize their uniqueness, their dissimilarity from other members of a community, group, etc.

Fig. 1. Scheme of constructing a portrait in painting

Thus, we propose to take as a basis the presented on Fig. 1, a model of portraiture from art history, supplementing it with corresponding personality-psychological descriptions based on the field of political linguistics.

We explain the connection with painting by the fact that the principle of creating a portrait of an individual on paper by an artist, where a certain emotion of the sitter is captured, is comfortably projected onto the field of political linguistics, since we are talking primarily about the dichotomous components of a politician’s personality, which manifest themselves differently in different communicative-speech situations, which, in general, is clearly explained using the material of art history, since, figuratively speaking, «look/facial expressions» are precisely those dynamic components that change in accordance with a very specific «situation», while the so-called basic features, such as: «nose shape, eye cut, facial oval» – are invariably present in every communication situation.

Let's turn to Fig. 1 (left to right). The first part of the drawing, which is a sketch, depicts the person themselves, without a clear idea of what they represent. For the purposes of this study, this is simply a person delivering a text/speech to an audience.

The second part of the drawing is the identification of key points in the spoken text, the analysis of textual coherence, and the formation of a first impression of the speaker based on the text heard.

The third part of the drawing is about giving a specific "shape" to the speaker/orator. Emphasizing individual speech-psychological characteristics at the text level.

The fourth part of the drawing is a comprehensive picture of the personality with a description of individual characteristics based on the public speech listened to.

As examples of this type of portrait modeling in linguistics, we will examine the speeches of two political figures, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. To analyze the topic covered in this study, we will use the texts of their speeches, which cover various situations of interaction with society, and which, in one way or another, present different shades of representation of their political personas.

Inaugural Address of J. Biden, January 20, 2021.

With unity we can do great things. Important things.

We can right wrongs.

We can put people to work in good jobs.

We can teach our children in safe schools.

We can overcome this deadly virus.

We can reward work, rebuild the middle class, and make health care

secure for all.

We can deliver racial justice.

We can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world [14].

At first glance, one can certainly note the predominance of the pronoun in the highlighted key points in the speech of the US President we, our ("we" and "our").

Let's compare the text of J. Biden's inaugural address presented above with another of his speeches, where he speaks out regarding the situation with the accusations brought against Britney Griner.

It took painstaking and intense negotiations, and I want to thank all the hardworking public servants across my administration who worked tirelessly to secure her release. People all across the country have learned about Brittney's story, advocated for her release, stood with her throughout this terrible ordeal. And I know that support meant a lot to her family. I'm glad to be able to say that Brittney is in good spirits. She — she's relieved to finally be heading home. And the fact remains that she's lost months of her life, experienced a needless trauma, and she deserves space, privacy, and time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained. We never forget about Brittney. And we've not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years. This was not a choice of which American to bring home. We brought home Trevor Reed when we had a chance earlier this year. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we are not giving up. We will never give up [16].

For the presented speech, as we see, in addition to the above-mentioned characteristics, the presence of impersonal forms is also characteristic, as well as a number of sentences with a predominance of the pronoun I ("I"), where J. Biden shares his own position on the issue with the public. Sentences containing the pronoun I The president primarily uses "I" statements to create a more supportive/inviting atmosphere, so that the public can "feel" his emotions, sense his involvement, empathy, and trust. Analysis of video footage of Biden's speeches shows that the phonetic component of his speeches harmonizes harmoniously with the text he delivers.

The dynamics of his speech portrait in various situations of interaction with the audience can be largely demonstrated in the fourth part Fig. 1, this is the situation when his speech acquires an additional «finishing» tone in accordance with the surrounding conditions and the topic of the speech.

Now let us turn to a series of speeches by V.V. Putin.

Election speech, February 12, 2004.

Dear friends!

First of all I want to thank Everyone gathered in this hall and ready to work together. And, of course, I would like to thank everyone today who is ready to support me in the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. Sure, that the current head of state should not engage in self-promotion – We had to do this for four years: hold rallies, make up all sorts of beautiful fairy tales, beautiful, but far removed from our real life. At the same time, I think, What я Just must report in front of my constituents and the whole country for the fact that was done over the past four years, and report to the people what I intend to do over the next four years if the citizens of Russia place their trust in me on March 14. But before I say what has been done, let's remember the state of affairs. the country was located in late 1999-early 2000, and what were the reasons and factors that influenced this situation. The country had a fever from strikes by miners, teachers, and other public sector workers. Tax rates were constantly increasing, and fiscal policy as a whole was aimed at basic survival. The situation was getting worse The fact that by this time Russia had largely lost its independent position on the international stage. And those forces in the world that continued to live by the stereotypes of the Cold War and, despite the "sweet" speeches, continued to view Russia as their political rival, –they supported in every possible way everything that could preserve this state of our country for as long as possible [12].

Unlike J. Biden, Vladimir Putin uses verbs more often than pronouns in his campaign speech. Verbs are predominantly in the first person singular. It's also worth noting that Putin's campaign speech contains a greater number of impersonal constructions, thereby emphasizing his lesser sense of empathy and compassion than Biden's, and his greater emphasis on the results of his work.

Next, let us consider V.V. Putin’s address to university students on the occasion of Russian Student Day.

Dear friends, good afternoon!

Can you see me, can you hear me? I'm glad to see you all too.

Today, according to a long-standing, good, and wonderful tradition, Tatiana's Day is celebrated in our country. Я I sincerely congratulate you, all students, postgraduates of Russian universities, and graduates of different years on the Russian Student Day. Wish Success in life, in your studies, in your profession, of course, and of course (this is especially relevant today) good health to you, your family, loved ones, friends, love—you are all young people—and reliable, good friends. Taking this opportunity, I want to thank you for perseverance, endurance, willingness to learn, and acquire new knowledge even in the difficult conditions of the epidemic. Of course, We This has already been discussed more than once, Understand, that in the past, frankly speaking, difficult months you have been missing the exciting, unique, and engaging student, university atmosphere. Sure, that, if not all, then the vast majority, missed direct communication with friends, with mentors. Today We We will certainly discuss some problematic issues and tasks, but I would like to talk about some steps now. We The number of state-funded places at universities has already been increased. In the upcoming academic year, an additional nearly 34,000 state-funded places will be allocated. I will note, which will primarily be awarded to universities in the regions of the Russian Federation. Thus, at least 60 percent of Russian high school graduates will be eligible for free higher education programs. We will increase the number of budget places. After all, the number of school graduates will also grow in the coming years, thanks to the positive results achieved by our family support programs, birth rates, and demographic development. [11].

As we can see, when the president communicates directly with the people, he tries to use more markers in his speech that bring him closer to his citizens. In more formal situations, the emphasis in his speeches, through the use of his speech patterns, falls on the achievements of the country as a whole and on the successes of society.

Based on the conducted research, we came to the conclusion that, despite the identity of extralinguistic factors, in order to achieve the same communicative goals, the presented personalities use partially directly opposing elements of textual emphasis when influencing the public. Turning to Fig. 1, Using this associative example, we can hypothesize that, in the first stage of forming a speech portrait of a person, the portrait of various political figures will be uniform for many and will be perceived by the public in the same way. In the second and third stages, the public will be able to observe differences in speech portraits at levels such as "temperament/character," "age," and "historical era." And already in the final, fourth stage, deeper differences in speech portraits emerge, at the level of psychological state and the specific phonetic, grammatical, and lexical features of the speaker's speech.

Thus, the dynamics of a modern politician's speech portrait manifest themselves in a contradictory, dichotomous combination of relatively stable components of the constructed model, manifested in the reliance on a fairly stable set of linguistic means employed; and highly fluid units, generating inconsistency, manifested in the varying sets of components that underlie the general linguistic factors aimed at achieving general political goals. However, political rhetoric is quite capable of altering approaches to achieving these same goals to accommodate a changing political environment. And in this context, the stability of a politician's speech portrait will hang by a thread, requiring the maximum concentration of other communicative resources to maintain a relatively dynamic model of the politician's speech image within the given socio-political framework.

Literature

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