Semantic neutralization of current socio-political terms as a factor of psychological adaptation in present-day communicative conditions

Olga Vasilyevna Shatalova; Tatiana Yuryevna Pavelieva

Olga Vasilyevna Shatalova Institute of Philology at Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russian Federation https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1656-0443
Tatiana Yuryevna Pavelieva Institute of Philology at Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russian Federation https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6859-1554

Keywords: Semantics, linguistic persona, communicative environment, mass media, the Internet, psychological adaptation.

Abstract

The study investigates the attributes of functional transformation occurring in the semantics of some notions that are characteristic of the current socio-political environment, including: “war”, “a militant”, “an extremist”, “a terrorist”, “a suicide attacker”, “a separatist”, “a rebel fighter”, “an air strike”, “a peacekeeper”, “a refugee / refugees”, and “cyber warfare”. The experiment carried out within the framework of the study aimed to discover the peculiarities of perceiving the aforementioned notions by individuals a given community. Based on the results of several conclusions regarding the semantic transformation of the concepts in the present-day communicative environment were made. The article describes the qualitative and quantitative results of the testing undertaken during the experiment – the testing indicates that Russian language speakers subconsciously tend to neutralize negative connotations, which is conditioned by various socio-psychological factors and the etymology of socio-political terms.

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Author Biographies

Olga Vasilyevna Shatalova, Institute of Philology at Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russian Federation

PhD in Linguistics, Professor of the Institute of Philology at Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russian Federation

Tatiana Yuryevna Pavelieva, Institute of Philology at Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russian Federation

PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Institute of Philology at Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, Lipetsk, Russian Federation

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