Учебное пособие 1427

PT Barnum went to great lengths to draw audiences and wasn’t above lying or crafts manipulation long before Disney got their hands on Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid

[6].

Then there follows an exercise to practice the vocabulary of the video. The teacher asks students to come up with their own sentences containing the phrases that were used in the video and were given in the previous exercise.

The final task of the work on the video is each student’s giving an oral talk on the topic “Lessons of the History of Public Relations”, in which the use of the vocabulary of the video is required. The talk should not be a mere retelling of the video. Performing this assignment, students are encouraged to mention some other facts from the history in public relations which they know.

When working with the “f l i p p e d c l a s s r o o m ” technology, the teacher acts as an assistant and adviser on the way of students’ knowledge acquisition, the main task being not just to teach, but to teach to learn, that is, to show the most convenient way to obtain information, analyze it and use it correctly [9].

The work on the topic “The History of Public Relations” continues by applying another interactive method of b l e n d e d l e a r n i n g – the c a s e s t u d y . Let’s look at how it is conducted using the example of a much-hyped PR campaign that Edward Bernays organized for the Lucky Strike tobacco business (it is mentioned in the viewed video).

Students are given Internet links to the description of the PR campaign (c a s e ) [10, 11, 12], which they get to know on their own. The content of the c a s e includes the following facts:

In the 1920s, it was considered taboo for women to smoke in public. George W. Hill, President of the American Tobacco Company, realized that his company was missing a share of the market. In 1929 he hired Edward Bernays to change the taboo and persuade women to start smoking. Bernays contacted psychoanalyst Abraham Brill to understand the societal perceptions that discouraged women from smoking. Brill told him that for feminists, cigarettes were like “torches of freedom” that symbolized their nonconformity and freedom from male oppression. Bernays used this information to build a strategy. He contacted a female friend and asked her to find a group of women to march in the New York City Easter Day parade. He asked her to tell the press that a group of women’s rights marchers would light “Torches of Freedom”. The women lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed:

“Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of Freedom”. At the end of the twenties and in the early thirties, Bernays attempted to convince women that forest green, Lucky

Strike’s cigarettes pack colour, was the most fashionable one. Letters were written to interior and fashion designers, department stores, and prominent women of society pushing green as the new hot colour for the season. Balls, gallery exhibitions, and window displays all featured green after Bernays got through with them. Bernays held a “Green Gala” at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel for some of society’s most prominent trend-setters The result was that green did indeed become a very popular colour for the 1934 season, Lucky Strike kept their pack colour and the company saw a miraculous jump in the sales of cigarettes.

After reading the description of the situation, students use a standard scheme working on the c a s e s t u d y [13]. First, they write the summary of the c a s e , single out the problem; identify the “actors” (people and organizations who are interested in solving this problem); establish a chronology of events from present to past; identify obstacles (issues) that may arise on the way to solving the problem; indicate options for solving it, highlighting those that are most effective; develop recommendations; make an action plan based on recommendations; write a

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 2 (33), 2021 ISSN 2587-8093

conclusion. Since the PR campaign in question belongs to history and does not require today’s decisions, its analysis is carried out in the past tense, the present and future tenses are not used. The content of the c a s e s t u d y at each stage is discussed in a free debate. In our particular situation, we can expect that after the general discussion, the c a s e s t u d y will look like this:

-The Summary: Realizing that the American tobacco company Lucky Strike was not gaining enough profit its president turned to a prominent public relations specialist Edward Bernays to break the taboo against smoking for women, encourage them to smoke in public and make the forest green colour of Lucky Strike’s cigarette packs fashionable. Edward Bernays managed to recharacterise women smoking as a sign of social progress, which led to a great rise of Lucky Strike’s production sales.

-The Problem: The chief goal of the PR-campaign for Lucky Strike is to raise the company’s revenue and present women smoking as a symbol of nonconformity and freedom from male oppression.

-The Cast of Characters: American women (1), the American tobacco company Lucky Strike (2), PR-specialist Edward Bernays (3), psychoanalyst Abraham Brill (4), women’s rights marchers (5), interior and fashion designers (6), department stores (7), prominent figures of society (8).

-The Chronology: In 1934 green became the premier colour of the fashion season, Lucky Strike kept their pack colour and female clientele intact (1). In 1930 Bernays

convinced interior and fashion designers to incorporate the green colour into their new season designs (2). On the 1st of April 1929 an article entitled “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of Freedom” was published in the New York Times (3). Edward Bernays staged a demonstration at the 1929 Easter parade, having fashionable young women photographed flaunting their “Torches of Freedom” – Lucky Strike cigarettes (4). Earlier in 1929 Bernays contacted psychoanalyst Abraham Brill to understand the societal perceptions that discouraged women from smoking (5). Before that also in 1929 George W. Hill, President of Lucky Strike hired Edward Bernays to encourage women smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes (6). In the 1920s, it was considered immoral for women to smoke in public (7).

-The Issues: American people considered women who smoked such social outcasts that prison sentences were handed out to punish this kind of immoral behavior (1). Lucky

Strike’s green packaging put women off buying them, as green wasn’t a desirable colour (2).

-The Options: Lucky Strike cigarettes were linked to the women’s liberation movement

(1). Women were taught to smoke properly (2). The green colour was made popular in interior and fashion designs (3). All the three options seemed equally effective. The issue of gender equality was already widely debated in the twenties, women actively sought to take jobs. This became an urgent social problem. The second and the third options for solving the problem were not less effective, since they related to the field of aesthetics, which was not less important for women than social issues.

-The Recommendations: Edward Bernays thought that prominent women should demonstrate their smoking in public, which would symbolize gender equality (1). He thought that the next step was to hire well known women, yet not too good looking or model-y, who were convincing and appealing while smoking to influence the masses

(2). Edward Bernays recommended fashion and interior designers to incorporate the green colour of Lucky Strike’s packs to their new season designs (3). The Plan of Actions: Edward Bernays got young talented women to light Lucky Strike cigarettes at the height of Easter Parade on 31st March 1929 (1). Shortly afterwards there appeared articles in the press where cigarettes were called torches of freedom (2). Bernays sent letters to interior and fashion designers, department stores, and promi-

55

nent women of society pushing green as the new hot color for the season (3). He held a

“Green Gala” at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel for some of society’s most prominent trend-setters (4). Balls, gallery exhibitions, and window displays all featured green after Bernays got through with them (5).

-Conclusion: Edward Bernays proclaimed that smoking was a form of liberation for women, their chance to express their new found strength and freedom The brand Lucky Strike became the symbol of gender equality in the U.S. during the thirties. The green colour of the Lucky Strike pack regained its popularity. The forest green packaging of Lucky Strike, which was deemed too expensive to replace, was kept. As a result of the fruitful cooperation of Lucky Strike and Edward Bernays there was a jump in the sales of cigarettes [10, 11, 12].

To consolidate the knowledge on the subject “The History of Public Relations” students are given the task to independently find information online about one of the PR campaigns carried out by a historically famous PR-specialist, and to analyze it in the same way as has just been done in class. To perform this task, students are given a list of names of the most wellknown professionals in the history of public relations who represent the English-speaking world, to choose from:

Edward Bernays, Dan Edelman, Walter Lippman, Ivee Lee, Harold Burson, Arthur Page, Doris Fleischman, Ofield Dukes, Muriel Fox [14].

Conclusion.

The research led to the conclusion that b l e n d e d l e a r n i n g technologies, such as the

“f l i p p e d c l a s s r o o m ” and the c a s e s t u d y :

-bring diversity to the learning process presenting information with the use of modern digital technologies and applying traditional classroom teaching methods at the stages of consolidating and activating knowledge;

-increase students’ motivation, their more active involvement in the learning process;

-stimulate students’ autonomy and creativity;

-develop a communicative approach through training in collaboration, project work and the use of Internet resources;

-promote the development of s e l f - l e a r n i n g skills by targeting students for a lifelong education;

-allow students to learn a larger amount of material per unit of time compared to traditional methods;

-promote more effective interaction between students and the teacher, allowing the teacher to devote more time to those who lag behind, with gifted students getting more freedom to learn regardless of the overall pace of the group;

-facilitate the presentation of educational material, due to the use of students’ own gadgets.

Thus, by stimulating the cognitive, mental and independent activities of students, hybrid forms of education such as the “f l i p p e d c l a s s r o o m ” and the c a s e s t u d y can improve the effectiveness of teaching the English l a n g u a g e o f p r o f e s s i o n .

References

[1]Formirovanie cifrovoj kompetencii prepodavatelya anglijskogo yazy`ka. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5NaCq2RxD4 (vremya obrashheniya – 30.01.21).

[2]Andreeva N.V., Rozhdestvenskaya L.V., Yarmaxov B.B. Shag shkoly` v smeshannoe obuchenie. URL: http://imc-yal72.ru/images/1_3.pdf (vremya obrashheniya – 30.01.21).

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[3]Kurilo M.V., Kruglyakova N.N. Vliyanie texnologii Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) na uchebny`j process. URL: http://www.ulspu.ru/upload/img/medialibraary/e/02kurilo kruglyakova baranovichi stsya.pdf (vremya obrashheniya – 30.01.21).

[4]Chto takoe «perevyornuty`j klass» i kak e`tu metodiku ispol`zuyut v Rossii. URL: https://mel.fm/shkola/928534-flipped_classroom (vremya obrashheniya – 30.01.21).

[5]Alekseeva E.A., Buryakova S.Yu. Smeshannoe obuchenie inostrannomu yazy`ku s perexodom v onlajn-format: strategii gibridizacii i obrazovatel`ny`e texnologii. URL: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=44373981 (vremya obrashheniya – 21.02.21).

[6]Public Relations History. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOwUkkE2A4c (vremya obrashheniya – 30.01.21).

[7]Fiji mermaid. Wikipedia. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaid (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[8]Grumpy Cat. Wikipedia. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Cat (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[9]Strelkina N.U. Pedagog v informacionnom obshhestve. URL: https://pedproekt.rf/ strel kina-natal`ya-urunbaevna/ (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[10]4 PR campaigns of Edward Bernays. URL: https: //www.edology. com/ blog/ mar- keting/pr-campaigns-edward-bernays (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[11]Public Relations Campaigns of Edward Bernays. Wikipedia. URL: https://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations_campaigns_of_Edward_Bernays (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[12]The Original Influencer. URL: https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/originalinfluencer (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[13]Il`ina O.K. Rabota nad situacionny`m analizom v prepodavanii anglijskogo yazy`ka reklamy` i svyazej s obshhestvennost`yu. URL: https://www.elibrary.ru/download/elibrary_ 38095537_80783212.pdf (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

[14]History of Public Relations. Wikipedia. URL: https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/ History _of_public_relations (vremya obrashheniya – 31.01.21).

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INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

DOI 10.36622/MLMDR.2021.72.47.006

UDC 929.52:81-119

FAMILY STORIES IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

A.Yu. Pomnikova, M.Yu. Velichko

Far Eastern Federal University

PhD in Linguistics, Associate Professor, Department of Russian as a foreign language Anna Yurievna Pomnikova

e-mail: pomnikova_a@mail.ru

Far Eastern Federal University

Master’s Degree student, Department of Russian as a foreign language Maria Yurievna Velichko

e-mail: Zinoveva.Maria@yandex.ru

Problem statement. The main goal of the present article was to identify the peculiarities and main features of family stories in political discourse. This theme is not a priority one in political discourse, however, the changes that have occurred in our political system at the end of XX century, as well as the development of social networks and Internet communication have resulted in the implication of this theme in the speech of Russian politicians. In this study, family stories are understood as messages containing any information about family members, events in personal life, family traditions, native places that politicians themselves produce.

Research results. Based on the material of 130 family stories belonging to contemporary Russian politicians, we identified 9 main thematic blocks, classified family histories on 3 bases and characterized the most common techniques at the syntactic and lexical levels, such as inversion, omission of a grammatical subject expressed by a personal pronoun, ellipsis, parceling, a variety of rhetorical questions and exclamation sentences; active use of sociopolitical vocabulary, colloquial and regional words and expressions, words and expressions of the official style of speech. The research has also revealed that the family stories of politicians are characterized by various references to historical and geographical data, precedent names and phenomena, and intertextuality.

Conclusion. As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that in their family stories politicians use different opportunities of the language system to form a positive image of themselves, create an image of a worthy representative of the people, and promote family values and a sense of patriotism. Any mention of family history by politicians is aimed at achieving the main goal of political discourse: career success. Therefore, being implicated into the political discourse, family stories are demonstrated exclusively from their positive side and can be regarded as “models” of family and family relations in modern Russian society.

Key words: Political discourse, family history, family stories, family values, patriotism, family, family topics, classification of family stories, features of family stories.

For citation: Pomnikova A.Yu. Family stories in political discourse / A.Yu. Pomnikova, M.Yu. Velichko // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2021. - № 2 (33). – P. 58-70.

Introduction.

Family stories are so organically involved into our communicative everyday life that we do not even realize how widely they are represented in the most diverse spheres of our communication. Almost every day we produce our own and perceive other's family stories. And if their functioning in everyday discourse seems to be the most natural way of existence, the penetration into other types of discourse remains an understudied problem. The purpose of the present article was to identify the main features and unique characteristics of family stories in political discourse. The object of the study is family stories in a discourse space, the subject is family stories of contemporary Russian politicians’ speech.

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© Pomnikova A.Yu., Velichko M.Yu., 2021

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Since it is the analysis of discourse that “helps us to understand how our speech” works “in certain life situations, what mental processes occur at these moments, and how all this is related to psychological and sociocultural factors” [1, p. 161], we’ve analyzed the functioning of family stories in terms of discourse study. After all, “from the point of view of discourse theory ... any phenomenon is inserted in a context that gives it the fullness of meaning” [2, p. 86].

The problem of family stories, to a greater extent, attracts the attention of foreign scientists, although a number of works devoted to the consideration of some aspects of this phenomenon are presented in Russian. On the other hand, the discourse theory, both its theoretical foundations and the study of specific types, is being developed very actively. However, the functioning of family stories in political discourse has not yet become the main subject of special scientific research. At the same time, the relevance of such a study is determined by the changes of Russian political discourse itself: if half a century ago references to the family, its history, and family members were excluded from this type of discourse, the changes that had occurred in the political system, as well as the development of social networks and Internet communication led to the introduction of the family theme into the speech of Russian politicians. Nowadays there is a huge interest in the family stories of politicians and public figures, which is used by them in interviews and public speeches, and insufficient knowledge of the problem determines the need for a scientific understanding of this phenomenon

According to N.P. Sirkia, political communication “affects all important spheres of human life, influences the destinies, interests and goals of people” [3, p. 164]. The subjects of political communication are both politicians and political parties/associations, “social groups and society as a whole” [3, p. 166]. But the spokesmen of the views of any community are always individuals, and each individual has a family.

Research methodology.

In the present study, family stories are understood as messages containing any information about family members, events in personal life, family traditions, and native places, the direct senders of which are politicians themselves. The material for the study included 130 family stories of modern Russian political figures: the president of the Russian Federation, State Duma members, the Federation Council members, regional governors, and mayors of cities. The sources used were various Internet resources, including the official websites of politicians, Internet publications of the Russian press and social media accounts. These resources demonstrate different forms of information presentation and their combinations: text, graphic, audio and video. Family stories in text format are presented in print in the press, books, and on official websites. Family stories are also graphically expressed by photographs, for example, in posts on Instagram or Facebook. Text and graphic forms are combined in social networks, where publications contain photos and comments on them. The audio form of family stories is recorded in radio interviews. Videos contain oral and kinetic presentation of family stories, for example, in TV programs, on YouTube, at press conferences, in video interviews and documentary movies. In such sources, in addition to verbal speech, gestures and facial expressions of politicians deserve attention.

In all sources, mentioned above, we chose only those family stories, the addressers of which were the politicians themselves. We have not considered retelling of such stories by someone else.

The main methods included a method of studying the forms and types of representation of recorded family stories of Russian politicians, content analysis of the material, classification and generalization while identifying general principles of the functioning of family stories in political discourse.

Research results.

The family theme is not a priority one in political discourse; some of our politicians still consider it to be closed for discussion. However, during various forums and press conferences,

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on social media, Russian politicians discuss some aspects of their family history to pursue certain goals. After all, knowing the history of a person's family we are able – to a certain extent – to understand what qualities the politician possesses, to predict his/her future actions. For the politicians themselves, this is probably the most effective way to present themselves not as abstract “politicians”, but as real, “close to people” personalities who promote the most significant values in society – family values.

In the family stories of politicians we’ve analyzed, we discovered 9 main topical units: relatives, origin (parental family), education, war, everyday life, geography, family traditions, hobbies, turning points. But no matter what topic they cover, conveying information about their families, politicians characterize them exclusively from the flattering side.

Talking about positive characteristics of their family members, politicians create a positive image of themselves.

Papa nauchil menja vsemu i s junosti byl dlja menja primerom nastojashhego muzhchiny. Imenno otec privel menja v sport, na proizvodstvo, nauchil spravljat'sja s trudnostjami i nevzgodami. On – moja opora, moja gordost' – Dad taught me everything and from my youth he was an example of a real man for me. It was my father who brought me to sports, to manufacture, taught me to cope with difficulties and hardships. He is my support, my pride [1*].

Mentioning of the professions, occupation or education of the parents is also intended to convince the addressees of the politician's knowledgeability, in his/her acquaintance with the problems of ordinary people. It can help politicians to increase their audience:

A ja – syn agronoma i kommersanta. Teper' za menja mogut golosovat' vse krest'jane Rossii – And I am the son of an agriculturist and a merchant. Now all the peasants of Russia can vote for me [2*];

U nih byla mnogodetnaja sem'ja – pjatero detej, krepkoe hozjajstvo, i menja naravne s drugimi privlekali k krest'janskomu trudu. Tak chto, kogda mne govorjat, chto ja, kak byvshij proizvodstvennik, nichego ne ponimaju v sel'skom hozjajstve, mogu avtoritetno zajavit': oshibaetes'. S detstva ja upravljalsja s kosoj i grabljami, skirdoval seno, sazhal, kopal, pas korov, ezdil verhom na loshadi, proboval doit' korovu – They had a large family – five children, a big household, and I used to work on an equal basis with others. So when I’m told that as a former industrial worker I understand nothing in agriculture, I can state authoritatively that you are mistaken. Since childhood, I managed with a scythe and a rake, stacked hay, planted, dug up, grazed cows, rode a horse, tried to milk a cow

[3*].

Telling their stories, politicians create an image of a strong, friendly and happy family, thereby forming an idea of themselves as reliable, worthy subjects, whose interests and background correspond to traditional Russian values.

The analysis of the material allowed us to classify family stories according to 3 main characteristics: the amount of information, the method of communication and “initiative”, i.e. depending on who initiates telling of the family story.

According to the amount of information, i.e. the completeness of information and the length of the family story itself, we identified short, medium and expanded family stories.

As short we classified family stories, which contain only a mention of the family, expressed in one to five sentences. In our materials, the percentage of such stories was 35.5%. Short stories are found in many sources: social media, various types of interviews, press conferences, online forums, TV programs, television question-and-answer session. As medium we consider stories that contain a more detailed information about any aspect of family history – in

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our materials these are messages with a length of 5-15 sentences: an interview, a press conference, a television question-and-answer session, an Instagram post, a conversation with journalists, a TV project. The percentage of such stories is 38.5%. Expanded, or large, family stories over 15 sentences long suggest sharing a detailed information about the family or family members. This type of stories, accounting for 26% in the materials we analyzed, is found in interviews of all kinds, at press conferences, during television question-and-answer session, on official websites, in documentary movies and books.

First of all, the extent of the family story depends on the source in which politicians communicate it. For example, a publication on Instagram usually involves a short statement with a photograph. But the length can also depend on the topic of the message. For example, the politicians’ posts on the topic “war” are medium. Such messages contain more detailed information about relatives who participated in military operation, the places from which they were ordered to active duty and were doing military service, about battles they took part in, acts of heroism, and their awards. These publications also go with pics of those in question. If the interview is devoted to the life of a politician, it includes a large amount of information: politicians tell in detail about their family members, origin, traditions. The extent of family stories in “work” interviews (within the framework of the activity report, in pre-election interviews) is medium or short.

According to the method of communication (communication space), we divided family stories into belonging to real and virtual communication. Real communication is a natural communication that is realized verbally and has a relaxed, spontaneous character with the ability to see the non-verbal components of communication. In our materials, the percentage of such stories was 52%. This method of communication allows to see the facial expressions and gestures of politicians, to analyze whether their body language brings into correlation with verbal speech. For example, emotional gestures of compliance and contact-establishing gestures, the average rate of speech took place during analyzed television question-and-answer sessions with the president (of the 2016, 2017, and 2019 years). We did not find any discrepancies between verbal and non-verbal speech in the materials analyzed in the present study. The real communication is realized at press conferences, during television question-and-answer sessions, in interviews, conversations with journalists, TV and other programs. Virtual communication involves communication mediated by a computer and implemented primarily through social networks. The features of such family stories in political discourse reflect the general patterns of this type of communication, including the use of graphic symbols, photographs and hashtags, the predominance of simple sentences, and so on, which is generally characterized as “written fixation of oral speech” [4, p. 92] or “written-oral network speech” [5, p. 159].

According to the “initiative”, i.e. based on who is the initiator of family storytelling, we divided family stories into “self-directed” (52%) and “externally directed” (48%). The former suggests the politician's personal initiative to talk about his/her family, the topic and characters of the story are chosen by him/her independently, the story makes an impression of being prepared, thought out. Such stories are common on social media and official websites. As “externally directed” we classified the stories that politicians produce when answering journalists’ and project participants’ questions. Such stories are common for interviews, conversations with journalists, TV programs, press conferences and television question-and-answer session. Such stories are spontaneous and unprepared.

The linguistic analysis of family stories in political discourse showed that the most common means at the syntactic level are inversion, omission of the grammatical subject expressed by a personal pronoun, ellipsis and parceling, as well as an active use of rhetorical questions and exclamation sentences. These linguistic means help politicians to achieve expressiveness, make their speech vivid and memorable, enhance an overall emotional background of the messages and thereby draw attention to politicians themselves and their stories. The politicians ac-

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tualize the meanings crucial for the addressers, draw the listeners' attention to interesting and significant moments, present information from an intended angle.

Inversion, which “leads to a whole range of changes in the semantic-syntactic, communicative, emotionally expressive, textual and other aspects” [6, p. 250], does not only make the speech more emotional and expressive, but also serves as an indicator of topic-comment division:

A sem'ja u menja bol'shaja – And my family is big [4*].

Inversion in the analyzed materials was found in 14% of family stories.

Ellipsis in the politicians’ family stories is used primarily to “create naturalness, intimization” [7, p. 284]:

I potom, kogda vyshel na pensiju, on vse ravno prodolzhal rabotat', do 70 s lishnim let. Nikak ne mog prekratit' – And then, when he retired, he still continued to work, until he was more than 70 years old. He just wasn’t able to stop [5*];

Vecherom chaj s domashnim varen'em iz sobrannyh suprugoj jagod – In the evening, some tea with homemade jam from berries picked by my wife [6*].

In our materials, politicians used ellipsis in 36% of stories.

Pretty often (in 30% of analyzed family stories) the subject expressed by a personal pronoun was omitted:

Konstantin Nikolaevich starshina 1 stat'i. Sluzhil v sostave Chernomorskogo flota. Byl ranen pri osvobozhdenii Novorossijska, nagrazhden medaljami «Za otvagu», «Za oboronu Kavkaza», «Za pobedu nad Germaniej v Velikoj Otechestvennoj vojne» – Konstantin Nikolaevich, 1-st class yeoman. He served in the Black Sea Navy Fleet. He was wounded during the liberation of Novorossiysk, was awarded with medals “For Courage”, “For the Defense of the Caucasus”, “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War”

[7*].

The dynamism created by such omission corresponds to the image of an active, organized, focused politician:

Shkolu okonchil v Magadane, Vuz okonchil v Moskve, sluzhbu v armii prohodil v Habarovskom krae, rabotal v Moskovskoj oblasti, sluzhil na voronezhskoj zemle – (I have) graduated from school in Magadan, graduated from the university in Moscow, served in the army in the Khabarovsk Territory, worked in the Moscow region, served on the Voronezh land [8*].

Parceling, “associated with the intention to actualize the separated component, to put a logical emphasis on it” [8, p. 145], also generates the expression, thereby affecting the mind and sense of beauty of the addressees:

Pervyj raz poshli s kukuruzoj dlja otdyhajushhih. Potom uzhe pirozhki. Potom hachapuri

– For the first time we went with corn for vacationers. Then came the pies. Then khachapuri [9*].

No tak vse raspolagalos', chto on tam byl odin pochemu-to. I istekal krov'ju – But for some reason he was there alone. And was bleeding [5*].

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“By changing the communicative significance”, the addressers seek to “control the reader's perception, by activating it,” and therefore, “increase the efficiency” and “the influencing potential of the statement” [9, p. 35]. Imitation of colloquial speech, achieved by dividing the narrative into separate segments, gives the family story naturalness, rhythm and dynamism. However, in our materials, of all the considered linguistic means politicians used this one only in 4% of stories.

Rhetorical questions, that demonstrate the political discourse’s “general tendency towards dialogization” [10, p. 169], emotionally involve, grip the attention of the audience and, in general, “activate the role of the author in modern political discourse” [10, p. 169]. Objectification

(question-and-answer passage [10, p. 169]) can serve the purpose of creating an image of an active personality that is able to solve any problem:

Ja razve ne pohozh na sel'skogo parnja? Ja popal ne v Kremlevskij polk, a na pogranichnuju zastavu. Rodivshihsja s serebrjanoj lozhechkoj vo rtu ne posylajut v Habarovsk. Menja poslali – i na sledujushhij den' ja byl uzhe tam – Don't I look like a country boy? I was disposed not to the Kremlin regiment, but to the border post. Born with a silver spoon in the mouth are not sent to Khabarovsk. I was sent - and the next day I was already there [10*].

In the materials analyzed, rhetorical questions were used in 12% of family stories. Exclamation sentences, which were used by politicians in 22% of stories when telling

about their family on social media, increase the “impact on the emotional sphere of the addressee” [11, p. 7]. And in the case of family stories, they also emphasize devotion to traditional values, represent the addressers as caring parents and worthy family men:

Ja schastliva, chto u menja est' takaja sem'ja! – I am happy that I have such a family!

[11*].

An appeal to the emotional component of an utterance, achieved by the listed linguistic means, may be one of the ways to win over the electorate. As researchers of this type of discourse note, it is phatic (expressive) communication that constitutes the most important layer of political discourse [3, p. 166]. Our research confirms this point of view for family stories functioning in political discourse.

The lexical level is characterized by the active use of socio-political, colloquial and regional words and expressions, words and expressions of formal style, and sometimes by the use of substandard vocabulary.

Socio-political vocabulary, reflecting those concepts and phenomena of social and political life that are currently socially significant and relevant [12, p. 196], permeates the speech of politicians and quite naturally also permeates their family stories:

Odno vremja Vol'f i Aron Jedel'shtejny sostojali v pravoj partii "Herut", vozglavljaemoj Menahemom Beginym. Posle raspada partii oni v drugie partii ne vstupali, no vsegda golosovali na pravocentristskie partii – For some time, Wolf and Aron Edelstein were members of the right party Herut led by Menachem Begin. After the collapse of the party, they did not join other parties, but they always voted for the center-right parties [12*];

U menja otec ne byl kommunistom. Byl bespartijnym bol'shevikom. On govoril: "Nichego spravedlivee, chem sovetskaja vlast', poka ne predviditsja"… On v vojnu poterjal nogu, perenes mnogo operacij. No tem ne menee kazhduju nedelju s gazetoj pod myshkoj, s kostylem v ruke hodil v sosednjuju derevnju – byl agitatorom-propagandistom. On jeto ljubil. Byl narodnym sud'ej, k nemu hodili zhalovat'sja – My father was not a communist. He was a non-party Bolshevik. He said: “There is nothing as fair as the Soviet system” ...

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