The concept "support" in the oral English political discourse

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Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University

The concept “support” in the oral English political discourse

Yevdokymova I.O.

Pelivan O.K.

Khapina O.V.



Annotation

The article presents the research on oral English political discourse which is aimed at distinguishing features characteristic to the formation of the concept “support”. Different types of support have been studied that have allowed us to define the definite peculiarities of the lexical and grammatical levels.

It has been singled out the oral political discourses accumulate all possible concepts existing as the addressee is the nation who believes their representative, in this case the Prime-Minister of the UK, and the questions touched upon are of utmost importance.

Thus, among vivid concepts used in the oral political texts it is necessary to state: vital (the lives of the citizens are the first thing to be disturbed about), national (the health of the nation is at threat), political (the speaker represents the policy and the actions worked out by the government), ideological (values, ideals and standards that are at the front at the time of speech creation) and economic (economic situation in the country and in the world because of the important reasons: illness and war as they both generate problems on the side of the trade and further development) concepts.

The results of the study showed that two samples of oral discourse refer to an emotional (comprises a lot of emphasis) presentation of social (deals with the society and its problems) informative (provides necessary information to understand the situation and its influence upon the near future) and instrument (explains the practical help, support, actions that are organized or in the process of their preparation) support.

The research proves the discourses differ in structure: explicit and implicit way of the concept “support” depending upon the slogan meant in the text: “the national mission” (the support of the idea of the boost vaccination against Omicron) or “the clear mission” (the support of Ukraine which should deal with all the spheres of life: to help economically, diplomatically, politically and military).

Depending upon the slogan used in the speech different language means are put forward in order to form the concept “support”: either lexical means and/or grammatical ones.

Key words: political speech, oral discourse, concept, support, addressee, mission, Ukraine, Covid.



Анотація

Євдокимова І.О., Пеліван О.К., Хапіна О.В. Концепт «підтримка» в усному англомовному політичному дискурсі

У статті представлено дослідження усного англомовного політичного дискурсу, яке спрямоване на виділення ознак, характерних для створення та відображення концепту «підтримка». У роботі досліджено різні види підтримки, що дозволило визначити певні особливості лексичного та граматичного рівнів.

Виокремлено, що усні політичні дискурси акумулюють усі можливі концепти, оскільки адресатом є нація, яка вірить у свого представника, у даному випадку прем'єр-міністра Великої Британії, а питання, які торкаються, є надзвичайно важливими.

Так, серед жвавих концептів, що вживаються в усних політичних текстах, слід виділити: життєвий (життя громадян виступає первинним питанням турботи країни), національний (здоров'я всієї нації під загрозою), політичний (мовець представляє політику та дії, які готові до виконання та розроблені урядом), ідеологічні (передають цінності, ідеали та стандарти, які стоять на передньому плані на момент створення промови) та економічні (вплив на економічну ситуацію в країні та світі через певні драматичні причини: хвороба і війна, оскільки вони обидві створюють проблеми з боку торгівлі та подальшого розвитку країни).

Результати дослідження показали, що дві промови усного дискурсу відносяться до емоційного (включає великий акцент на емоційну подачу інформації та передає занепокоєння мовця) викладу соціального (обговорюється суспільство та його проблеми) інформаційного (надається необхідна інформація для розуміння ситуації та її вплив на найближче майбутнє) та практичного (пояснюється практична допомога, підтримка, дії, що організовуються або знаходяться в процесі їх підготовки) концепту.

Дослідження доводить, що політичні дискурси відрізняються за структурою: недвозначний і безумовний спосіб передачі та створення концепції «підтримка» залежно від гасла, яке мається на увазі в тексті: «національна місія» (підтримка ідеї посилення вакцинації проти «Омікрон») або «чітка місія» (підтримка України, яка відноситься до багатьох сфер життя: допомоги економічної, дипломатичної, політичної, військової). Залежно від слогану, який використовується у промові, для формування поняття «підтримка» висуваються різні мовленнєві засоби: лексичні та/або граматичні.

Ключові слова: політична промова, усний дискурс, концепт, підтримка, адресат, місія, Україна, ковід.



Statement of the problem

The public political speeches are the tool of interaction of ideological arrangement and political position of a leader which is addressed not only to his/her nation, but in many cases, to the whole world. The appeal of a political leader is aimed at expressing a wide variety of meanings and concepts. It is a contrast of means of logic argumentation based on the language means of all levels to influence upon the addressee. This appeal should touch upon emotional and psychological feelings of the nation/s. This impact is realized through definite concepts that highlight the strong points of a politician. The concepts depicted in the speech must appeal to feelings of listeners, national conscience and demonstrate the picture of the world.

The society of today, the integrity and news that are overcoming all the countries of 2020-2022 have made a big impact on the vocabulary of speeches of the leaders of all countries. Covid-19, Ukraine, war, support is the widely spread concepts of todays' realia. The urge for health and peace through help from other countries influences the topic of public speeches of well-known people.

Task statement. The aim of the present paper is to analyze the ongoing changes in the presentation of reports and speeches of the leader of one of the most influential country: Boris Jonson, the former primeminister of Great Britain.

The object of the research is the concept “support” in the speeches of the British Prime-Minister.

The subject of the investigation is language means of pragmatic realization of the concept of support in the oral English political discourse.

The article is aimed at distinguishing the concept of “support” in general, its types and peculiarities in reference to two different political discourses in the realization of one political leader.

The research is based upon the vast variety of methods among which it is necessary to distinguish inductive-deductive method that includes sub methods such as analysis, comparison, conclusion, systematization; method of typology which goal is choose and single out characteristic, statistic and quantitative adaptation of oral political discourse.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Concepts are the key clues of political speeches. They are ideas and valuable items to which politicians appeal in their oral discourses. Such texts express the policy of the nation, the tendency and the way of the ruling party of a state. Therefore, the analysis of the discourse of such kind might touch upon undecisive questions of the society or give a clue to its realization.

Any oral political speech consists of a list of concepts that are taken to a primarily attention in the political discourse. There is an undiscussable true fact, and many scientists claim is to exist, there is a certain set of concepts in the texts of such kind where power, people and the speaker itself are of great importance. What is more, there are many other concepts that can't be taken for granted: social, political, vital, national and cultural, moral and aesthetic, religious, economical, ecological, etc.

In this article we offer to dig into the function of some of them:

- everything connected to life and its priority is referred to vital concepts;

- social equality and justice, any discrimination deals with social concepts;

- ideological and political values, norms, rules, ideals, standards of political behaviour relate to political concepts;

- historical past, culture, philosophy, ideology help to create national and cultural concepts;

- humanism, equal rights, dignity, brotherhood, unity are the qualities of moral and ethical concepts;

- harmony, traditions, cultural uniquity correlate to aesthetic values and in its turn concepts;

- the address to the higher power such as God composes the elements of religious concepts;

- economic situation in the country or the world melds economic concepts;

- problems in the sphere of the nature and environment protection form the basis of ecological concepts.

A pronounced word is a powerful means of influence upon recipients that can affect dramatically and manipulate by millions to the main goal of its leader of the definite country.

The term support is meant by different scholars in various ways. We propose to, first of all, study the meaning of this term and, secondly, the types of support existing.

The term “support” is defined in many ways:

- to help someone, often when they are, he or she is having problems;

- to take care of someone by paying for his or her food, clothes,

- to give encouragement or money to someone or something because you want them to succeed [1].

As we can see from the definition this term implies a wide spectrum of synonyms such as help, solving problems, care, payment, encouragement, money, idea to succeed.

Thus, some scientists, among whom we can name Langford and later on Mander, interpret support as “an interactive process that can help individuals cope with challenging or stressful circumstances” [2; 3]. Another researcher Sarason claim that the provider of the support and the recipient fulfil definite social roles where their relationship is aimed and affected by attachment processes [4].

There have been differentiated different types of support. Such investigators of support as Ekstrom- Bergstrom A., Thorstensson S., Backstrom C. have singled out its 4 types: emotional, appraisal, informative and instrumental. The general aim of support is to realize basic needs of people: feeling secure and safe [5].

Langford and Mander describing emotional support speak about a sense of safety and allocation that this type expresses meaning love, empathy and trust [2; 3].

Being sure in one's competence and skills is the key point of appraisal support. It is meant help in self-evaluation and its goal is to work out reassurance of a person.

Solving problems by means of providing information to help is the usage of informative support.

The most important among all is considered to be instrumental support as it implements practical assistance in order to solve the problem [2; 3].

Speaking about the concept of support the first thing that is highly studied is the social support. The researcher Jorunn Drageset in the article Health Promotion in Health Care by the term support means “emotional support, belonging in a social community, being valued, practical help, and information and guidance [6, 137-144]”.

Social support has been under study by many scientists such as Kent de Grey R, Uchino B, Trettevik R, Cronan S, Hogan J., Cutrona CE, Russel DW., Sarason BR, Sarason IG, Pierce GR. They claim this term to be understood from a subjective viewpoint, whereas the main idea is the support of many kinds such as emotional, esteem, social integration, net-work, supply of information, tangle assistance [7; 8, 37-67; 4].

The investigator J. Drageset claims “social support involves that you experience security and closeness, can have the opportunity to care for others, that you belong to a social net-work, feel respected and valued, and participate in a community with mutual obligations” [6, 142].

english oral political concept support



Outline of the main material of the study

Intension for security, prosperity, health of the nation that is what we see in the speeches of well-known politicians one of whom is the former Prime-Minister of the UK Boris Johnson. Being an emotional and brave leader of his country, his speeches are the utmost bright and vivid examples of realization of the concept “support”.

The material under study has been based upon two speeches made in the protection of his own country (2021) as well as Ukraine (2022) that comprises around 2000 words: Prime Minister's address to the nation on booster jabs: 12 December 2021 [9] (986 words); Boris Johnson makes statement on Ukraine invasion [10] (971 words).

Both speeches are addressed to the nation/s that is a part of a society, so it is clear that the material under study is referred to a social support. Besides, at the same time they contain elements of the informative support as they explain the situation of the time being to the people. What is more, either in the case of providing the next step of vaccination, or the real help to the country badly needed it, the discourses produce instrumental support or, in other words, practical help: the booster discourse explains the necessity to do the 3d vaccination, while the urge for aid to Ukraine discourse persuades the recipients to assist in all the spheres of life to defend the country under threat. Both political discourses are pretty much emotional as their main goal is to influence millions of recipients in order to follow the given information, thus they are simultaneously defined to emotional support.

The research of the concepts used in the studied texts has allowed us to state the general features characteristic to every political discourse, such as: vital, national, political, ideological and economic concepts.

The care and support of the lives (vital concept) is the task that should be realized and guaranteed in every country. The “vaccine” text expresses the speaker's anxiety of the growing number of deaths again and those who are infected, to “give aid help to another country” text realizes the anxiety of two types: it is concern of the people of the other country, but, at the same time, about the citizens of their own as well, as if the threat is not stopped it might come to their country too.

National concepts of the texts are observed in the two types of menace that the population might overcome: illness of any kind and war.

Political concepts are clearly expressed by the fact that these political speeches are realized by the person elected by the nation, spoken to the benefits of the nation and supported by the representatives of the government and its laws.

Ideological concepts take one of the leading roles in the formation of these discourses as they demonstrate the goals of this nation: be healthy and live in peace.

As to economic concepts: in the “covid-against” text support it is implicit, but meant to be; isolation during Covid-19 influenced upon the degradation of many ventures as a result the budget of the country hasn't received a huge amount of profit. In the text to “support Ukraine” a definite sum of money of help and humanitarian aid are mentioned.

The investigation of the thesaurus has allowed us to state there are two types of support that are expressed in the samples of political discourses: implicit (the fight with Omicron) and explicit (the help to a country in need). It is clearly stated as the word “support” itself is used only once in the first text and 19 times in the second one (besides the synonyms such as help (3 times) and needs (3 times) have been used as well).

It is necessary to clarify the stages of the study of the oral material that add to the influence of the creation of the concept support:

- the analysis of the function of different types of addressees;

- the study of the organization of the practical help to fulfil the aim of the speech.

The analysis of discourses has proved the texts contain various kinds of addressees that fulfil definite functions: represent the speaker and his team, show the audience of reference, narrate the participants of the process. All the specific features registered in the discourses are depicted in Table 1.

Table 1

The analysis of the addressees used in the political discourses

The addressees	Address to the nation	Number of uses	Statement on Ukraine invasion	Number of uses
		91 cases	100 %		122 cases	100 %
Personal pronoun	We	36	39,5	We	25	20,3
	I	10	10,9	I	23	18,7
	You	19	20,8	They	13	14,2
The country	The UK	5	5,4	The UK	7	5,6
				Ukraine	15	12,0
The helping organizations	NHS	5	5,4	The House	5	3,7
				NATO	1	0,7
				Other countries	1	0,7
People who help	GPs	2	2,1	Allies	3	2,2
	Doctors	1	1,5
	Nurses	1	1,5
	Scientists	2	2,2
	Volunteer vaccinators	1	1,5
The care about people	Friends	3	3,2	Ukrainians	4	3,2
	Colleagues	1	1,5	Ukrainian people	9	6,6
	Loved ones	1	1,5	President of Ukraine	2	1,5
	Family	1	1,5	Family	3	2,2
	Patients	1	1,5	Government	2	1,5
				Cabinet	1	0,7
				Friends	5	4,0
				Relatives	2	1,5
				Refugees	1	0,7

According to table 1 we can single out the following features:

- the speaker associates himself with the nation due to personal pronouns (first text: I (10,9%), we (39,5%); second text: I (18,7%), we (20,3%)) and his speech is on behalf of his nation (you (20,8%) or for the sake of the nation in need (they (14,2%));

- the country of the support is a necessary item mentioned in the texts of such category (1^st text: the UK only is realized 5,4%; 2^nd text - the UK is used in the amount of 5,6%, country (Ukraine) being helped - 12%), although the emphases upon the influence by means of a multiple repetition of the country is observed;

- the support is not done by one person: there is a definite group of people who work together in realization of the problem. The address to the nation (used 8,8%) is characterized by a wider variety of vocabulary: GPs, doctors, nurses, scientists, volunteer vaccinators; whereas for the 2^nd text this part is of less importance (2,2%);

- the strengthening of influence upon the listeners is organized due to mentioning people whose health the speaker is worried about. As a result, a vast number of synonyms is depicted in the discourses: the 1^st text is presented by the following correlation of people taken care of (get only 9,2% cases): friends, colleagues, loved ones, family, patients; in the 2^nd text the proportion of words used is exceeding (21,9%). These words are all meant Ukrainian nation: Ukrainians, Ukrainian people, President of Ukraine, cabinet, government, family, friends, relatives, refugees.

The research of the organization of the practical help to depict the main goal of the discourses has distinguished the key phrases typical to each of the understudied material: the 1^st text - the national mission, the 2nd - the clear mission.

The intensification of the seriousness of the situation in both cases is expressed along a wide variety of expressive adjectives, nouns of help perception, verbs of protection.

The clear mission is organized via explicit usage of adjectives and nouns of the concept support:

- where this word is given utmost importance in the creation of the image of assistance: double support, international support, logical support, additional support, engraving support, military support, diplomatic support, political support, economical support, domestic support;

- the synonymic rage is varied due to the following expressions: fierce defence, military aid, humanitarian aid, humanitarian impact, 500-million- dollar package, amazing addition.

The creation of the discourse of the national mission undergoes the tendency of implicit realization of the concept learned. The words support is not used, but meant. It is clear that the speaker is for the vaccination in order to save his nation, the health of the nation. That is why two-way vector of textual structure is observed: the lexical and grammatic during the description of a problem and its solution.

The drawing of the portrait of the illness is done with the help of the negative meaning of vocabulary to show the seriousness and the threat of the situation: covid alert, bitter experience, tidal wave, hospitalization, patients, front line, countless lives, seriously ill, lead to deaths. Whereas grammatical patterns (Present Continuous Tense) are used to depict the growing disturbance of the government of the country:

We are now facing an emergency in our battle with the new variant, Omicron.

Omicron is doubling here in the UK every two to three days.

On the other hand, the solution of the problem existing gives hope to overcome the illness: vaccination program, vaccine protection, booster campaign, battle emergency, extraordinary effort, level of protection, keep safe, less severe, overwhelm, launch, accelerate.

The variety of grammatical structures is more varied:

- Present Continuous Tense is used to show the actions in progress:

Today we are launching the Omicron Emergency Boost.

We are opening up the booster to every adult over 18 who has had a second dose of the vaccine at least three months ago.

- Future Simple Tense is realized to ensure future tasks and aims:

The UK Government will provide additional support to accelerate vaccinations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We will also assist this emergency operation by deploying 42 military planning teams across every region.

We'll set out further steps in the days ahead.

- Modal verb “must” is resorted not to give choice, but explain necessity:

We must act now.

- Imperative constructions call on to begin an action:

So, let's do it. Let's Get Boosted Now.

Get Boosted Now for yourself, for your friends and your family.

Get Boosted Now to protect jobs and livelihoods across this country.

Get Boosted Now to protect our NHS, our freedoms and our way of life.

Get Boosted Now.

The finishing lines tend to be the climax of this speech as anaphoric repetition with the parallel constructions forming the round repetition organize a vivid and influential impact on the addressee urging listeners to act immediately.



Conclusions

The comparative investigation of the concept “support” in the oral English political discourse has allowed to differentiate the following results:

Both discourses refer to emotional social support of informative and instrumental types where vital, national, political, ideological and economic concepts are realized.

The speeches are organized on the name of the ruling government as they contain the linguistic elements of such type (usage of personal pronouns) and address to the nation/s (personal pronouns and words of the family group: family, friends, colleagues).

There have been distinguished two types of support: explicit and implicit.

Explicit support realizes the slogan: “the clear mission” where this concept is created by means of lexical level alongside in the combination of expressive adjectives and a wide variety of synonyms of the term “support.

Implicit support realizes the slogan: “the national mission”. The structure of concept “support” is more complicated as it comprises two phases: the growing threat and the support of the actions to avoid this danger to the nation. Thus, not only the lexical level (words of threat aimed at helping to create a growing anxiety), but grammatical one (different tenses: Present Continuous, Future Simple, Present Simple; modal verbs; and a chain of imperative patterns that build up the climax of the speech: the appeal to immediate action) are used as well.

As the studied discourses refer to oral speech a very precise intonation organization is fed down that helps to emphasize the concept “support': the temper of the voice is strong, tense and persuasive; the tone of phrases is high or medium; the key words are singled out with the help of either the low falling tone or the high falling tone together with the change of tempo and emphatic pauses.

The perspective of this research is considered to concept support of oral political discourses on the be the comparative analysis of prosodic means of basis of auditory and electro-acoustic analyses.

Bibliography

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2. Langford, C.P., Bowsher, J., Maloney, J.P., & Lillis, P.P. Social support: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25(1), 1997. P. 95-100.

3. Mander R. Supportive care in midwifery. Wiley-Blackwell. 2008.

4. Sarason B.R., Sarason I.G., Pierce G.R. Social support: an interactional view. A Wiley-interscience publication. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley; 1990.

5. Ekstrom-Bergstrom, A., Thorstensson, S., & Backstrom, C. The concept, importance and values of support during childbearing and breastfeeding - A discourse paper. Nursing Open, 9, 2022. 156-167.

6. Drageset J. Health Promotion in Health Care - Vital Theories and Research. P 137-144.

7. Kent de Grey R., Uchino B., Trettevik R., Cronan S., Hogan J. Social support. Oxford Bibliogr Pscychol. 2018.

8. Cutrona C.E., Russel D.W. The provisions of social relationships and adaptation to stress. In: Jones W.H., Perlman D., editors. Advances in personal relation-ships a research annual I. Greenwich, CT: Jai Press; 1987. p. 37-67.

9. Prime Minister's address to the nation on booster jabs: 12 December 2021.

10. Boris Johnson makes statement on Ukraine invasion.

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