ON THE FUNCTIONS OF ANTONOMASIA IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

Political discourse carried out with powerful linguistic and extralinguistic means is utterly linked with the usage of antonomasia. In fact, it is the language of politicians used as a tool to manipulate the audience. Political speech is not necessarily a success because of its correctness or truth, rather it may be a matter of persuading valid arguments.

Political discourse as a teaching and persuasive, impressive and effective speech is one of the means to give solutions to the most important problems of constructing optimal speech interchange varying from political negotiations to orations and appeals (including the ones in the mass media). It is a well-known fact that the audience of politicians is very large, and their aim is to make the audience believe or agree with them, accept their viewpoints or at least share their approaches to the solutions of these or those problems. In this regard the role of proper utilization of antonomasia in political discourse becomes of utmost importance as it presupposes the realization of a particular language function in terms of the politician’s intention to send the necessary information to his audience, either readers or listeners.

In the scope of the present article we focus on the study of the functions of antonomasia in political discourse and apply the methods of observation, discourse analysis, as well as the descriptive and explanatory methods.

Hence, in political discourse stylistic devices are frequently used by politicians to carry out this or that particular purpose of utterance and in this connection the usage of antonomasia is not an exception.