Emocinė-ekspresinė leksika kaip kalbinė politikų portretų kūrimo priemonė naujienų portale „delfi.lt“

BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ Institute of Lithuanian Language EMOTIONAL-EXPRESSIVE LEXICALS AS A LINGUISTICAL MEANS OF CREATION OF POLITICAL PORTRETS IN DELFI NEWS PORTAL. EN KEY WORDS: emotional-expressive vocabulary, stylistics. However, our “free press” (L. Jakimavičius was the first to put the quotes on it) announces only the “end of the world” every day. The principle of freedom of the press is violated simply by the fact that readers have almost no choice. The media is becoming more and more tabloid. It imposes topics on society, talks only about life's handicaps and almost does not provide constructive, creative information. Even when objective information is presented, the manipulative superstructure of the tabloid programmes an inadequate emotional reaction in an inexperienced person. (V. Juknaitė, „Išsiduosi. Balsu: esė, pokalbiai“, Vilnius, Lithuanian Writers’ Society Publishing House, 2002, p. 168.) INTRODUCTION Looking at the news portals of the online media, it is obvious that press workers (journalists, editors, headline creators, etc.) use language, more precisely, stylistically marked means of language expression as a strong creative power that shapes public opinion. It is precisely because of the formation of public opinion that mass communication means – the media – are sometimes called the fourth power, although the main function of the media is the dissemination of information and knowledge (Gudonienė 1999: 23; see also Mažylė 2012: 163; Petrauskis 2012: 6). The online media has become a source of manipulation, affecting the attitudes and behavior of the subjects involved in the communication act, although journalists must remain rational, do not encourage readers’ emotions and do not overstate their assessments as press workers (Juodytė 2011). One of the ways of shaping public opinion is the manipulation of emotional-expressive vocabulary. The article examines the emotional-expressive characteristics of articles published in the news portal delfi.lt from October 2012 to June 2014 and from September 2015 to June 2016. Agnieszka Aleksa. Emotional-expressive vocabulary as a language tool for creating portraits of politicians in the news BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 portal delfi.lt | 2 lexicon, which describes Lithuanian political actors (a total of 464 examples of usage were collected). Online media news portal delfi.lt journalists writing about 1 Lithuanian politics, the main communication goal is to inform the public and critically evaluate political events (Arcimavičienė 2010: 6). In the examined examples of emotional-expressive vocabulary, political events and the behaviour of political actors are elaborated, here “the words used in the texts, whose meanings best reflect the world view and values formed in the consciousness of the participants of the discourse, become important” (Būdvytytė-Gudienė 2013: 6). The aim of the article is to investigate how and with what emotional-expressive vocabulary are created portraits of politicians (i.e. what character traits and behavior). LITHUANIAN POLITICIANS – SOCIAL ANTI-HEROES – IMAGE CREATION In order to influence, representatives of online media consciously use emotional expressive vocabulary, which is defined in the Dictionary of Terms of Speech (hereinafter – DTS) as “words that have a constant connotation of expressiveness and emotionality in speech. Emotional and expressive are minor and kind words, as well as rude and familiar words, etc.," it expresses directly or indirectly the evaluation of public figures. It is precisely the axiologically marked means of linguistic expression that present public figures as prominent social antiheroes. “The irresponsibly generalized selfish behaviour of individual politicians, officials, and the manifestations of corruption led to the establishment of a negative stereotypical attitude towards all politicians, members of the Seimas, and officials: <...>” (Žibartas 2012: 19), which is why the news portal delfi.lt has a marked tendency to portray almost all Lithuanian politicians as social antiheroes (cf. Žibartas 2012: 17). One way to create such a portrait of politicians is to describe them with new words. There are two types of new words (Pikčilingis 1975: 156), which are also found in the online media portal delfi.lt: 1) visual new words (new words that are constantly appearing in the language, which identify new concepts); The language of the examples of usage presented in this work has not been corrected, except 1 for simple proofreading errors. Agnieszka Aleksa. Emotional-expressive vocabulary as a linguistic tool for creating portraits of politicians in the news BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 2) okaziniai naujažodžiai (nauji žodžiai, vartojami vietoj įprastų reiškinių arba daiktų vardų portal delfi.lt | 3 and providing additional information or performing another emotional-expressive function) (Aleksaitė, 2014: 6). 2013: 80) In the media, politicians are often named with new words with a negative emotional evaluation, of which the most popular are puns with the accent power- (see also Girčienė 2013: 80), e.g.: „niek. The name of the representative of the authority" and the visually new word valdžiažmogis, -ė "mink. iron. a person in power; bureaucrat", e.g.: "That's what I get. That’s what I miss” – Lithuanian citizens write complaints on the internet, moaning about their poor life, complaining about employers’ arbitrariness and accusing government officials of not caring for them and not creating conditions for getting better wages. (delfi.lt 2015 10 06, Andrius Tapinas) Today I walked past the ruins of the “Lietuvos” cinema, covered with plywood, in the capital. Some ridiculous disgusting person, smudging the whole Old Town with stupid sentences, has already written there: “Lithuania – heart to heart, thief to thief.” People walk, read, smile. How beautifully the authorities have carved it, they say to themselves. The government knows now. (delfi.lt 2016 03 02, Andrius Užkalnis) Journalists, when writing about public figures and seeking to present politicians as bright social antiheroes, more often use occasional new words in their publicistic style texts, whose referential (information transmission) function is overshadowed by the emotional-expressive function, since the decisive factor in the creation process of occasional novelties is the need for a newer, more expressive expression, rather than the attempt to identify new 2 realities (Girčienė 2013: 79). For stylistic reasons, borrowed words are also used, e.g. : But to say that it makes people go shopping in Poland is a sign of a political retard. Yes, this is another piece of rhetoric used on Saturday by Andrius Kubilius, who shot so well when he explained that he meant the bus mechanism. Understand, retarder is a braking system and nothing wrong, but still everyone will think of retards in the government, which would mean mentally retarded, and it will be very funny. (delfi.lt 2016 03 14, Andrius Tapinas) 2 The New Words Database (ND) contains more puns with strong negative connotations, the first accent of which is valdžia-, e.g. valdžiadurnis, -ė „laugh. "Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden". who has seized power", valdžiasnukis "derogatory name of the representative of the authority" and valdžiavyris "iron. a man in power”. Agnieszka Aleksa. Emotional-expressive vocabulary as a linguistic tool for creating portraits of politicians in the news BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 portal delfi.lt | 4 In the publicistic style text, the word retarder of the newly borrowed root is used, the first meaning of which in ND is “slower (car braking system, allowing to slow down the vehicle)”. a brake on political processes”. nenaudoti įprastų stabdžių)“, patekęs į politinį diskursą įgyja ironiškąjį ekspresinį atspalvį ir Journalists also use metaphorical nouns, e.g. : S. Skvernelis, on the contrary. The Sejm moths didn't bite him. Even when getting into rags, the Interior Minister wins. A drug addict thief escaped and disarmed two cops? In any country, the Minister of the Interior would have a fork. And here, the jump in Skvernelis’ ratings takes the breath away even from the country’s highest-ranking politician. (delfi.lt 2015 12 20, Rimvydas Valatka) For the noun kandis, which in the Lithuanian language dictionary (hereinafter – LKŽe) is defined as “zool. a small moth, whose caterpillars chop clothes, eat grains, flour, plants, etc.”, is given a figurative meaning in order to emphasize the wrongdoing, the damage done by Lithuanian politicians. Plg. LKŽe: kandis ‘prk. skauda, žala’. Since “[s]peech reflects all of our evaluations – socially accepted, traditional, ‘objective’, forming the basis of moral norms, and completely personal, individual, subjective <...>” (Gudavičius 2000: 119), there is no doubt about the connection of texts in the journalistic style with the worldview and world-perception created by language, because “[v]isual discourse records not only the worldview of language, the conception of the world characteristic of a particular culture, but also more substantial changes in the perception of the world, which are inevitable in texts describing everyday topics <...>” (Kvašytė, Papaurėlytė-Klovienė 2013: 108). It is the emotional-expressive vocabulary used in the articles of the news portal delfi.lt that shows the stereotypical image of politicians prevailing in society. Political figures are presented as social antiheroes in the news portal delfi.lt because of their attributed negative character traits and behavior. First of all, journalists tend to ridicule politicians for their lack of determination, apathy for the interests of voters and unwillingness to take important and favourable decisions for the society. In order to emphasize this characteristic of politicians, metaphorical nouns, figurative verbs, jargons and traditional phraseologies are used. Journalists, in order to write more offensively and insolently about the indecisive, apathetic representatives of the authorities, use metaphorical nouns with a strong negative emotional charge, e.g. : Agnieszka Aleksa. Emotional-expressive vocabulary as a linguistic tool for creating portraits of politicians in delfi.lt BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 news portal | 5 It will be worse in Germany and some other European countries. The Nazis with their hands in the air could hardly expect a more favourable environment than today: the impotents of power not only surrender in their inaction and powerlessness, they simply leave the court, and the opponents can kick the balls into the empty goal. The game is basically over. (delfi.lt 2016 01 08, Andrius Užkalnis) This metaphorical noun impotent should also be discussed in terms of ethical stylistics. According to Kazimieras Župerka (2005: 25), “very often the addressee ‘catches’ language expression as unethical when it is stylistically marked, updated, expressive”. The metaphorical noun impotent is used in the publicistic style text in a figurative sense as "a man helpless in a certain situation". Plg. In the LKŽ “who is sexually impotent” and in the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian Language (hereinafter – DŽ6) “sexually impotent man”. Here sexual impotence is equated with political, but the chosen means of linguistic expression is not ethically appropriate and rather offensive. In order to shape the audience’s assessment of political processes (Juodytė 2011: 70– 71), journalists choose figurative verbs and jargons to describe politicians’ actions, e.g. : The government is grumbling about UAE, while neighbours are choosing nuclear energy [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 03 27, Ramūnas Bogdanas) Butkevičius does not change. As Finance Minister, he went to Druskininkai when the annual budget prepared by his ministry had to be defended in the Seimas, and left this hard work to his deputies. (delfi.lt 2013 09 21, Ramūnas Bogdanas) In the first example, the figurative verb mindžikuoti, used in the figurative meaning of “not being able to decide, not being determined”, and the jargon išsiplauti in the second sentence, meaning “to withdraw in order to avoid responsibility”, highlight the negative characteristic of politicians – indecision. Apathy of politicians to the interests of voters, unwillingness to take important and favourable decisions for society is also revealed by traditional phraseologies, e.g. : Police reformers are hiding their heads today, because the shadow of recent events, when the police did not react properly to reports, falls precisely on them – who drastically cut the funding for the police and did not move a finger to keep the police system from bleeding. (delfi.lt 2013 04 07, Virginija Baltraitienė) AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Emocinė-ekspresinė leksika kaip kalbinė politikų portretų kūrimo priemonė naujienų portale delfi.lt | 6 BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 The Phraseology Dictionary (hereinafter – PhD) includes the phraseology to not move the finger in the meaning of “do nothing”. Although the expression of traditional phraseologies fades slightly in comparison with incidental phraseologies (cf. Butkutė 2008: 46), nevertheless, in order to influence and shape public opinion, journalists more often choose traditional phraseologies rather than incidental phraseologies. 2.The delfi.lt news portal uses traditional phraseologies and figurative verbs to create an image of politicians acting idly and irresponsibly (cf. A little room... 2013: 9th place. : The conclusion to be drawn from what has been said is that a crisis of governance arises when the law is ignored. (delfi.lt 2012 11 08, Aloyzas Sakalas) Politicians will spend billions accumulated for pensions [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 10 17, Romas SadauskasKvietkevičius) Negative emotional assessment of politicians is revealed by the traditional phraseology of FŽ to look through the fingers of “not paying attention, not worrying” and the figurative verb “šnek” included in the LKŽ. to waste, to exhaust”, which is used to denote irresponsible actions of politicians. 3.It emphasizes not only lazy, irresponsible, but also amoral behaviour of politicians, when the desire to honestly represent the interests of the electorate is overshadowed by political power, desire for profit. Metaphorical nouns and occasional phraseologisms are used to highlight the immoral behaviour of political actors. Metaphorical nouns (nouns and adjectives) used in the online media portal delfi.lt can be divided into two groups: 1) visual words of figurative meaning, which are further divided into two smaller subgroups (definitions of some words of figurative meaning are included in DŽ6 or LKŽe, while the figurative meanings of other words are not fixed in dictionaries, although they are widely used in usage and are well understood by readers); 2) occasional words of figurative meaning (their definitions are neither in DŽ6, nor in LKŽe) (Aleksaitė 2014: 2). In the texts examined, visual metaphorical nouns predominate, e.g. : Agnieszka Aleksa. Emotional-expressive vocabulary as a linguistic tool for creating portraits of politicians in the news BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 portal delfi.lt | 7 The second goal is to push into the centers of power and privilege and to try to maintain their warm, profitable and cozy niche in the Seimas. In other words, to secure for a long time a place at the table of power, against the privileges and privileges of which they have fought so fiercely, fiercely and uncompromisingly. (delfi.lt 2013 01 29, Karolis Jovaišas) The author of the text, choosing the visual metaphorical noun lovis in the meaning of “source of profit”, degrades the representatives of power, assuming that public figures are motivated to seek power by personal interests, more precisely, the desire to profit. The authorities are ridiculed by using incidental phraseologies, e.g. : Higher a little hesitant (perhaps), but does as commanded or gently asked. Maybe he does just from a good heart, or maybe he got sweets in the paw - who will now explain. (delfi.lt 2012 11 12, Vytautas Landsbergis) The author of the article, using an occasional phraseology – a figurative combination of words that has frozen in one journalistic text and rarely leaves the boundaries of this text (see also Butkutė 2008: 16–24) – to get sweets in the paw, i.e. “to take a bribe”, indirectly hints at the fact that politicians’ behaviour and decisions can be influenced by bribed gifts, because there are such political actors who seek to make unlawful profits by using their positions. Obviously, these examples of usage do not mention specific individuals, therefore sending readers a generalized image of immoral, dishonest politicians. 4.The delfi.lt news portal considers politicians as social antiheroes because they are unable to manage the state, and the methods of management chosen by these public figures are inappropriate. This characteristic of politicians is illustrated by the forms of figurative verbs (attributive participants), foreign language insertions and visual novelties. Attributive participants “have retained the adjective nature of their category relatively well and, having no controlled or affixed words, are often difficult to distinguish from adjectives” (Ambrazas 1971: 8), so their use in the news portal delfi.lt is no different from metaphorical adjectives, e.g. : The higher education reform pushed by the previous government was only partially successful: the will to decide given to students did not promote the quality of studies, but image battles, universities did not join and optimize as expected, and the availability of free higher education even decreased. (delfi.lt 2013 01 26, Marijus AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Emocinė-ekspresinė leksika kaip kalbinė politikų portretų kūrimo priemonė naujienų portale delfi.lt | 8 BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 Širvinskas) In this text of journalistic style, the verb form (attributive participant) pushed, -a is used in a figurative sense “about the one who is to be accepted, elected, appointed, cursed”. Plg. DG6: push "prk. to try to get someone into a certain position" and in LKŽe: to push "prk. hiding the real goals, make them accept, curse". The news portal delfi.lt also uses foreign language inserts to create portraits of politicians as social antiheroes, e.g. : Coalition: krugovaja poruka [article title] In Russian there is an expression “krugovaja poruka”, which could be translated into English as “attachment”. This term is used among criminals. When a new member joins a criminal gang, he is given a criminal task to break the law, get dirty and become as vulnerable as the other gang members. Then the new member becomes loyal and reliable, because his fate is closely linked to the fate of the common. We can see that these methods are being transferred to today's politics. Recent votes show that the coalition is cemented without shame by the criminal principle mentioned above. (delfi.lt 2012 11 28, Kęstutis Masiulis) The author of this text chooses the Russian language insertion krugovaja poruka in the title of the article very responsibly, he not only explains the meaning of this term used by Russian criminals, but also indicates why the criminal term is suitable to describe Lithuanian politicians. The comparison of politicians and representatives of the criminal world creates an extremely negative portrait of Lithuanian politicians as social antiheroes. The news portal delfi.lt is not lacking in visual novelties, made with prepositional forms from the names of politicians – social antiheroes, e.g. : 3 Believing that A. Butkevičius’ opinion will not change by Monday, I am trying to imagine how he will succeed in convincing the representatives of the three parties of the ruling coalition in the Seimas to forget everything they have spoken about V. Landsbergis these days and vote for the awarding of the Freedom Prize to him. Because the result of the 3 first vote was not The following new words were added to the ND: gražulėjimas "iron. making like Petras Gražulis (member of the Seimas, characterized by an exceptionally strong manner, behavior and declared views)“, gražulesnis, -ė „lauk. "Gražulis" (in reference to the LR Seimas member Petras Gražulis), "gražuliada" (an ideology opposed to genderism, promoted by the LR Seimas member Petras Gražulis), "juok. as typical of Gražulis (in the sense of Seimas member Petras Gražulis, famous for his extreme opinion on LGBT)” and grazulizmas “mink. The extreme views of LR Seimas member Petras Gražulis as a phenomenon". As can be seen from the data provided by ND, the novelties pavardė yra itin produktyvi, siekiant sudaryti menkinamąjį, ironiškąjį ar juokaujamąjį atspalvį turinčius bei conveying the negative emotional assessment of the Seimas member P. Gražulis. Agnieszka Aleksa. Emotional-expressive vocabulary as a language tool for creating portraits of politicians in the news BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 portal delfi.lt | 9 Some sort of curious coincidence, which also happens in the Seimas, when the last parliamentarians left in the hall before the end of the sitting, who have not yet had time to walk out, approve at first reading an honestly not even read beautiful or syssy bill. (delfi.lt 2015 11 29, Romas Sadauskas-Kvietkevičius) In this example, the visual novelties gražuliškas, -a and sysiškas, -a are used for the meanings of “unconsiderate, hasty”. It is obvious that in the publicistic style text, an allusion is made to members of the Seimas who are distinguished by hasty, unconsiderate decisions and statements. The adjectives made from their names are given not individual, but generalized meanings. The news portal delfi.lt is full of stereotypical opinions (Gudavičius 2000: 61–62) about the eloquence of politicians, even their intellectual abilities, which have an emotional aspect of evaluation, and therefore the image of politicians who are unable to manage the state and who are unable to explain political processes to voters is formed by figurative verbs, their forms (predicate participants, participles), metaphorical nouns and traditional phraseologies. The news portal delfi.lt uses emotional-expressive lexical means (figurative verbs, their forms (predicate participants, participles) and metaphorical nouns made from them), revealing the unarticulated speech of politicians, e.g. : Soviet surrogate origins of antiquity, whispering about the artistic value of the Green Bridge, former Communist Party brainless, representing Lithuania in European institutions, whispering about the economic damage of sanctions against Russia and the need to find a dialogue with criminals, as much as possible deny any possibility of linking pseudo-art or economic benefits with propaganda (targeted disinformation). (delfi.lt 2016 01 28, Aurimas Navys) After that, only vague mumbling of Vilnius politicians was heard, that something is being done in Brussels corridors, that they hear, maybe (in the voice doubt) the Kremlin is angry about active participation in pushing forward the Eastern Partnership project. (delfi.lt 2013 09 17, Valentinas Mitė) L. Graužinienės screams à la “bad Skvernelis, very bad” are not even as quoted. When the Speaker of the Seimas, with a serious face, explains that at the time when the police caught the fugitive with a machine gun, the Minister of Interior was asleep, because he himself told her so, it remains only to comfort that when God gave people humor and a sense of reality, one of the future Presidents of the Seimas was picking up the sprouted and rotten potatoes in the kolkhoz storehouse of the country’s “leaders”. (delfi.lt 2015 11 22, Rimvydas Valatka)