AGONALITY OF ENLISH POLITICAL SPOTS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of the specificity of agonal character of the discourse of English political spots. The definitions of the notions «agonality», «political spot», «homeostasis» are given, the specificity of the manifestation of agonality in political communication and its advertising is revealed, means of actualization of agonality in the discourse of political spots are analyzed in the article. Agonality is viewed in the article as a notion, connected with rivalry and struggle for the sake of gaining of a victory or an advantage over opponent. Agonality is part and parcel of political communication aimed at the сontest for power and its legitimization. Agonality is typical feature of the discourse of political spots that is a type of political advertising, created for shaping the image of politicians involved in electoral struggle. Agonal character of the discourse of English political spots signifies a struggle between political candidates, actualized by the opposition «in-group – out-group», as well as means of expressing of homeostasis and aggression. The notion of homeostasis is connected with actions of politicians, verbal in particular, taken for the sake of forming, maintaining and strengthening of their own positive image with the aim of gaining and preserving power and authority The key means of expressing homeostasis in the discourse of English political spots are lexical units with positive connotations. They are used to characterize politicians, their actions, programs, parties and attitudes towards voters. Positive сalls and slogans as well as means of addressing to voters revealing the tactics of solidarization and the tactics of narrowing the distance between them and politicians also fulfill the function of homeostasis in the discourse of political spots. Negative lexical units, invectives, obscene vocabulary used in unofficial Internet sources of politicians are means of expressing aggression in the analyzed type of the discourse. Their use may be accompanied by non-verbal means that intensify negative contents of the texts of English political spots, statistical data creating the perception of reliability and objectivity in them, calls to struggle with political opponents.