Lexical characteristics of official speech of the leaders of Japan and Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article examines the problem of political discourse of Japan and Russia. On the example of official speeches of prime ministers of Japan (Shinzo Abe 2020, Suga Yoshihide 2021, Fumio Kishida 2022) and Russian president Vladimir Putin (2020-2022) the lexical characteristics of speechesof the heads of state during the pandemic COVID-19 are revealed. The discussion around the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 is still relevant around world. Data on the infection can be found on all digital information platforms: from blogs to social networks, in international and regional media, in speeches of politicians and speeches of heads of state. In this study, we used qualitative content analysis and contextual analysis of the texts of the speeches of the president of the Russian Federation and the prime ministers of Japan. When systematizing and summarizing the results of observations, a descriptive method was used. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the official appeals of the first persons of Japan and Russia are considered in the context of identifying the lexical features during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the study we come to the following conclusions: in the official speeches of the prime ministers of Japan and the president of the Russian Federation in 2020-2022 there is a general tendency to use vocabulary characteristic of the official business style. However, the speeches of Japanese politicians are dominated by the use of facts, statistical data, accuracy in statements, the speech is more formal. Putin's official speeches are more emotional, with a relative democracy of statements aimed at achieving a certain communicative effect. The President of the Russian Federation uses common words and expressions more understandable to the society, rarely overloads the text with exact data or dates, introduces epithets into the speech to compare or more accurately describe the situation. The problems of identifying stylistic, structural and other characteristics of political discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic are highlighted as a research perspective.

1. Dankova, N. S. Representation of a pandemic in the media: a metaphorical image of war (based on American newspapers) / N. S. Dankova, E. V. Krekhtunova // Scientific dialogue. – 2020. – No. 8. – P. 69–83.

2. Petrenko, D. A., Likhachev E. V., Chernyshova M. V. Means of linguistic expressiveness in the image of COVID-19 (based on the German political media discourse) // Scientific Dialogue. – 2020. – No. 7. – P. 194–20.

3. Pushkareva, E. A. Military metaphors about the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in political discourse / E. A. Pushkareva // Student science and the XXI century. – 2021. – V. 18, No. 1 (21). – Part 2. – P. 504–506.

4. Russian language of the coronavirus era. - St. Petersburg: Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2021. – 610 p. – ISBN 978-5-6044839-1-6.

5. Official website of the Prime Minister and Government of Japan. – URL: https://www.kantei.go.jp/ (Date of access: 01/18/2022).

6. Official site of the President of the Russian Federation and his administration. – URL: http://kremlin.ru/ (Accessed: 20.01.2022).

7. Budaev, E. V. Foreign political linguistics: textbook / E. V. Budaev, A. P. Chudinov. – [3rd ed., erased]. – Moscow: FLINTA, 2018. – 352 p. – URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/109524 (Date of access: 02/16/2022).

8. Soldatkina, T. A. Military metaphors in political discourse during the pandemic / T. A. Soldatkina // Languages, cultures, ethnic groups. Formation of a linguistic picture of the world: philological and methodological aspects: Collection of scientific articles based on the materials of the XIII All-Russian (with international participation) scientific and practical conference, Yoshkar-Ola, March 26, 2021 / Edited by E. V. Romanova. – Yoshkar-Ola: Mari State University, 2021. – P. 18-22.

9. LU Xueying, LIU Shoujun, ZHAO Rong, Murayama Discourse and Abe Discourse from a Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective, Socialsystems: political, legal and economic studies (2019), 22: 257-273. – URL: https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2433/241039 (Date of access: 09/30/2021).

10. Sheigal, E. I. Semiotics of political discourse / E. I. Sheigal. – Volgograd: Change, 2000. – 368 p.

11. Zelinskiy, V. V. Discursive space of modern forms of communication: monograph / V. V. Zelenskiy. – Krasnodar: Kuban state univ., 2011. – 162 p.

12. Chudinov, A.P. Political linguistics (general problems, metaphor): textbook / A.P. Chudinov. – Yekaterinburg: Ural Institute for the Humanities, 2003. – P. 280.

13. Deik, T. A. Strategies for understanding a coherent text / T. A. Deik, V. Kinch // New in foreign linguistics – No. 23: Cognitive aspects of language. – Moscow, 1985. – p. 159–172.

14. Polyakova, A. A. Means of speech manipulation in the American pre-election discourse (based on the electoral speeches of D. Trump and H. Clinton): dissertation of a candidate for the degree of philological sciences: 10.02.04 / A. A. Polyakova. – 2019. – 238 p. – URL: http://www.dslib.net/germanskiejazyki/sredstva-rechevoj-manipuljacii-v-amerikanskom-predvybornomdiskurse.html (Date of access: 05/15/2021).

15. Altunyan, A. G. Analysis of political texts: textbook / A. G. Altunyan. – Moscow: Logos, 2016. – 384 p. – URL: http://www.studentlibrary.ru/book/ISBN9785987044797.htm (Date of access: 4.11.2021).