TOXICITY AS A COMMUNICATIVE TACTICS OF THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN THE USA

Abstract

Political discourse is an institutional communication, a speech practice that responds quickly to the historical and social challenges of the present, changing the communication strategies and tactics of political figures in different countries. Political discourse is intentional, usually aimed at achieving a specific political goal by a politician, which is most often to explain his or her rightness, persuade opponents, and win the favor of voters. The most active communication strategies and tactics are reflected in oral political discourse: speeches, debates, interviews, etc., because during oral interaction, politicians use signs of different semiotic systems, including paraverbal and extralinguistic ones: aggressive and destructive linguotoxic speech acts, communicative deviations, manipulative constructs that harm the opponent, including at the prosodic and kinetic levels. Political discourse is semiotized in the media discourse: it is in the media discourse that both open and covert political struggle takes place, and technologies of influencing public opinion are demonstrated. The political discourse in the United States is heterogeneous and often aggressive, due to the large number of parties, factions and political movements that coexist amidst fierce competition and mutual rejection, which is reinforced by the acute socio-political atmosphere, as well as political issues such as gender and racial discrimination, immigration, and others, which have become a catalyst for aggressive verbal, para- and non-verbal behavior of political figures aimed at discriminating against their opponents. It was in the United States of America that the term "toxic political discourse" was coined to describe the state of public political rhetoric caused by the influence of talk political TV and radio shows, where commentators deliberately provoke participants to emotional confrontations. In the period of active globalization, the study of communicative tactics and strategies of political discourse is relevant and important, especially given the fact that the United States is one of the key powers in the international arena.