Sukhovetska L. Realization of Linguo-Pragmatic Potential of the Incentive Intention in English Political Discourse (Case Study of the Electorate Speech).

The research focuses on the analysis of the linguo-pragmatic potential of the incentive intention as a mechanism of speech influence of the electorate upon the subjects of power in English political discourse. The thesis has singled out an electoral segment within the political discourse. It is interpreted as a cognitive-communicative activity produced by common citizens with the purpose to influence the subjects of authority. Implementation of the incentive intention serves to be the main tool in the performance of that influence. The paper has identified the range of strategies objectifying the incentive intention in the speech of the electorate. This range includes such strategies as: negative evaluation, precedence, appeal, menace, demand, warning and prohibition. The analysis of the lexical aspects of the strategy of negative evaluation and the strategy of precedent has demonstrated the properties of the vocabulary used in the speech of the electorate. The variety of syntactical constructions typical of the strategies of appeal, menace, demand, warning and a prohibition has been disclosed. A special attention is given to the semantic peculiarities of those constructions. The socio-linguistic research of the strategy of precedent has determined the socio-cultural sources of the phenomenon of precedent involved in the realization of the incentive intention. The socio-linguistic analysis of the strategy of appeal has resulted in the determination of the stages of social-political opposition. The strategy of appeal has a nature of agony, since the statements realizing it mostly aim to fight a political opponent. It also serves to be a mechanism of self-organization of society. The research has described the range of demands addressed by the electorate to the authorities and has concentrated attention on its lexical presentation. These demands are regarded to be the voice of the people, since they reflect their interests. It has been defined that the strategy of warning helps the electorate to express desire to minimize harm from possible negative consequences. It has been ascertained that expressive and categorical parameters in the incentive utterances are correlated on the basis of the category of intensity. The intensified expression of the will of the speaker turns an incentive utterance into a categorical one. The dominant function of the expressive resources of phonographic, lexico-semantic and syntactic levels is to make incentive utterances sound categorical.