ANTAGONISTIC GAME COMMUNICATIVE RESOURCES IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2019-9-84-91
Introduction. The article considers communicative instrumentarium of political interaction treated in game theory as antagonistic game. Material and methods. Analysis of political non-cooperative game linguistic constituent is implemented on the basis of game theory model and it reveals: 1) the peculiarities of game pursued by players in the political interaction under study; 2) communicative strategies specific for the politician discourse; 3) linguistic formalization of the speech strategies and tactics under analysis. The research focuses on Trump political discourse material manifesting noncooperative game strategies. Results and discussion. Game theory is a ubiquitous tool of players strategic behaviour forecasting and can be implemented in political linguistics since political discourse aims and content imply communication strategic planning. Trump discourse analysis reveals active incorporation of strategies common for antagonistic game (noncooperative zero-sum game). In effort to achieve the biggest pay-off the politician considers it expedient to employ communicative strategies of conflict and unpredictability in any political collision of interests. The strategy of confrontation in Trump discourse is manifested through various kinds of active and reactive speech aggression realized by means of incompetence assertion tactic, tactics of accusation, reproach, offence, ridicule and irony. The strategy of unpredictability and ambiguity employs contradictory utterances complicating political forecasting. These communicative strategies are rational in short-term interactions, e.g., presidential elections. Antagonistic games communicative strategies are not effective in long-term practice of foreign relations regulation and state governance. Conclusion. Donald Trump considers antagonistic game to be the most effective scenario of any political interaction. The USA president’s dominant communicative strategies are the ones of confrontation, unpredictability and ambiguity. Rational-heuristic type of speech aggression dominates the discourse of the politician.
Keywords: game theory, antagonistic game, political discourse, communicative strategy, zero-sum game, verbal aggression
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Issue: 9, 2019
Series of issue: Issue 9
Rubric: TOPICAL ISSUES OF COGNITIVE-DISCURSIVE LINGUISTICS
Pages: 84 — 91
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