This thesis presents a discourse analysis of American perceptions of Russia in their historical and contemporary context. Through the linguistic construction of security offered by the Copenhagen School of Securitization, we can trace the socio-political development of Russia as the threatening other in the American discourse. This thesis has demonstrated the consistency of linguistic devices in the American Russia discourse from the 18th century to the Crimean Crisis, and has identified specific linguistic packages which securitizing actors unpack according to their preferences and goals in a given situation. This thesis also demonstrates that the resecuritization of a previously desecuritized object may occur through the use of preexisting discursive devices that play on existing elements of the national consciousness. Keywords Resecuritization, Securitization, United States, Russia, Socio-Political Discourse, Crimean Crisis, Copenhagen School, Obama Administration, Vladimir Putin Range of thesis: 121 pages, 34,048 words, 240,229 keystrokes.

The translation of metaphors has been analyzed and discussed for several decades, but there are not many multilingual studies that examine how metaphors are translated. The present study takes a cognitive approach to metaphor and investigates how translators at the European Commission handle metaphorical expressions and the underlying conceptual metaphors in political discourse. The source text is the English language version of the policy document A European Agenda on Migration, and the Swedish and Spanish language versions of it are included as target texts. The study identifies the conceptual metaphors that conceptualize migration and other topics that are closely related to the European migrant and refugee crisis of 2015 and the translation procedures that are used. A total of six translation procedures were found in the target texts, and the most used procedure in the Spanish target text was to retain both the conceptual metaphor and the metaphorical expression, whereas the most used procedure in the Swedish target text was to replace the metaphorical expression with a completely different one and thereby using a different conceptual metaphor. The parallel analysis of all three language versions also revealed that non-metaphorical expressions in the source text were occasionally replaced with metaphorical expressions in the target texts, which proves that adding a conceptual metaphor is one of many translation procedures. The most frequently used source domains in the source text, i.e. water, enemy and applied force, were transferred to both target texts. Some source domains were eventually lost, but a couple of new ones, such as disease and weight, were added instead.

This paper analyses the environmental policy documents of Vänsterpartiet (Left Party) and Socialdemokraterna (Social Democratic Party) based on the theories of ecological modernization (EMT) and critical environmental sociology (CES), constructed as ideal types. The aim is to explain ideational differences and similarities based on the ideal types of each theory and how well the parties can be linked to the ideal types of EMT and CES, their similarities and differences. The results show that there is a clear ideational distinction between the Left Party and the Social Democratic Party and that their views on solutions to climate change and subsequent environmental issues, based on ecological modernization theory and critical environmental sociology, differ despite other ideational similarities. The Left Party adheres more to the ideal type of CES and the Social Democratic Party adheres more to the ideal type of EMT.

[pt] O presente trabalho analisa a linguagem política republicana através de textos produzidos por Hermes da Fonseca, Rui Barbosa e seus correligionários no contexto da Campanha Civilista. Ao contrário da historiografia mais tradicional, buscaremos mostrar como os dois candidatos tinham ideias mais convergentes do que divergentes a respeito da república brasileira, apesar de suas formações profissionais distintas. Tal proximidade entre as ideias se deve ao fato de ambos participarem de uma mesma comunidade linguística (no sentido empregado por Pocock), onde tanto a política republicana como a nação vinham apresentadas de maneira bastante semelhantes. Foram as distintas inserções e as alianças que cada um estabeleceu com os grupos políticos regionais, então em embate, que continuaram sendo as principais responsáveis pela demarcação das suas diferenças durante a disputa presidencial. / [en] In this dissertation I analyze the republican political language through the texts produced by Hermes da Fonseca, Rui Barbosa, and their followers during the so-called Campanha Civilista. Unlike the traditional historiography, I will try to demonstrate that the ideas of both candidates about the Brazilian Republic were more convergent than divergent, despite their different professional backgrounds. Such similarity is due to the fact that both shared a same linguistic community (in the sense Pocock understands it) wherethe concept of republican politics and that one of nation appear in a very similar way. Their distinctalliances ans insertions among the regional political groups remained being responsible for the main differences they presented during this presidential campaign.

Abstract The American president’s serving period always begin with an iconic inaugural address. It is a function wherein the president can unify the audience, ratify the ceremony, and present his political and administrative direction for his term. Promises are a vital rhetorical tool and strategy at the president’s disposal; however, they can also be a demerit if used incorrectly. Within the discipline of pragmatics, promises are included in the category of the commissive speech act: an utterance which binds the speaker to a future course of action. The focus of the present study is what proportion commissive speech acts are used in relation to other speech acts by the four American presidents inaugurated in the 21st century in their inaugural addresses, as well as how these commissive speech acts are realized in terms of various pragmatic features (e.g., vagueness, deictic use, selfpositive representation, and implicature). The methodological approach adopted in thisstudy is both qualitative as well as quantitative in character. To reflect this, the study was operationalized through speech act analysis and political discourse analysis. The findingsshowcase that the presidents affiliated with the Republican party make use of commissive speech acts to a higher degree than their Democratic counterparts. Donald J. Trump appears as a clear outlier with an exuberant amount of commissive speech acts in comparison with the other three presidents. Furthermore, the findings point out that the most common strategy in how commissive speech acts were realised was to shape them as an assertion and using the inclusive deixis “we”. However, Joseph R. Biden diverged from this pattern. Instead, he used explicit promises featuring the individual deixis “I”. In addition, he often employed rhetorical vagueness which made his promises hard to measure if upheld or not.

The paper shows that the use of linguistic mechanisms of political discourse plays a large role in the construction of electoral campaigns in all cases examined. The mechanisms of manipulation of different countries depend on the characteristics of the country's political communication. The study and the correct use of mechanisms allows a politician to wage an effective struggle for power, which is the main goal of any political activity. / В работе показано, что использование лингвистических механизмов политического дискурса играет большую роль при построении электоральных кампаний во всех рассмотренных кейсах. Механизмы манипуляции разных стран зависят от особенностей политической коммуникации страны. Изучение и корректное использование механизмов позволяет политическому деятелю вести результативную борьбу за власть, что является главной целью любой политической деятельности.

Работа посвящена исследованию тактик дискредитации и способам их реализации во французском журнале политической сатиры «Charlie Hebdo». Объектом данного исследования выступают текстовые фрагменты аналитических статей и комментариев, опубликованных во французском журнале «Charlie Hebdo». Цель данного исследования заключается в изучении коммуникативных тактических схем и способов их реализации, используемых для дискредитации политических деятелей в журнале «Charlie Hebdo». Материалом исследования послужили 156 текстовых фрагментов, извлечённых из 112 статей, опубликованных в электронных версиях и на официальном сайте журнала в период с конца 2021 г. по апрель 2023 г. В общей сложности во французском журнале «Charlie Hebdo» нами было выявлено 187 случаев употребления тактик дискредитации политических деятелей (50 универсальных, 88 прямых и 49 косвенных). Наибольшую продуктивность показали прямая тактика создания образа «тёмного настоящего» и её разновидности (17 случаев употребления), а также прямая тактика разоблачения (14 случаев употребления), универсальная тактика доказательного умаления авторитета (16 случаев употребления) и косвенная тактика «ловушка на противоречиях» (13 случаев употребления). Анализ эмпирического материала убедительно показывает, что в политическом медиадискурсе тактические схемы часто переплетаются и образуют гибридные формы реализации. Как показало исследование, универсальные дискредитирующие тактические схемы в большей степени разворачиваются за счёт применения метафор, гиперболы, междометий, иронии, эмоционально окрашенной и разговорной лексики, риторических вопросов, восклицаний, эллипсов и ассонанса. Имплементации прямых тактик дискредитации способствует употребление большого количества экспрессивной и инвективной лексики, метафор, антифразиса, иронии, риторических вопросов и восклицаний, параллельных и однородных конструкций. Косвенные дискредитирующие тактики реализуются при помощи обращения, в первую очередь, к синтаксическим возможностям языка (риторические вопросы и восклицания, повторы, параллелизм, сермоцинация, отрицательные конструкции, ряды однородных членов), а также за счёт использования большого количества метафор, аллюзий, иронии и перифраза. / The research is devoted to the study of tactics of discrediting and ways of their implementation in the French magazine of political satire "Charlie Hebdo". The object of the research is text fragments of analytical articles and comments published in the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo". The objective of the research is to study the communicative tactics and ways of their implementation used to discredit politicians in the magazine "Charlie Hebdo". The research material consists of 156 text fragments extracted from 112 articles published in electronic versions and on the official website of the magazine from the end of 2021 to April 2023. In total, in the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo", we identified 187 cases of implementation of tactics of discrediting politicians (50 universal, 88 direct and 49 indirect). The most productive are the direct tactics of creating the image of the "dark present" and its varieties (17 cases of use), as well as the direct tactic of exposure (14 cases of use), the universal tactic of evidential diminution of authority (16 cases of use) and the indirect tactic "trap on contradictions" (13 cases of use). The analysis of the empirical basis convincingly shows that in the media political discourse, tactical schemes often intertwine and create hybrid forms of implementation. According to the study, universal discrediting tactical schemes are mostly with the help of metaphors, hyperbole, interjections, irony, rhetorical questions, emotionally colored and colloquial vocabulary, ellipses and assonances. Direct tactics are implemented through the use of a large number of expressive and even invective vocabulary, metaphors, antiphrases, irony, rhetorical questions and exclamations, parallel and homogeneous constructions. Indirect tactics are implemented by referring to rhetorical questions, repetitions, parallel and negative constructions, metaphors, allusions, irony and paraphrases.

In February 1914, Sweden faced a time of constitutional crisis, dubbed the Courtyard Crisis, when King Gustaf V publicly distanced himself from Prime Minister Karl Staaff and the Liberal Government over differences of opinion regarding the Swedish defence. Behind this, however, was also a dispute between two different political systems. On the one hand, there was the current form of government based on monarchical rule, and on the other hand, the advancing form of government, a government based on parliamentarism. This thesis is concerned with explaining the tension that arises between, on the one hand, different forms of government, and, on the other hand, aspects of decision making in the process of securitisation. To do this, the thesis uses Buzan, Wæver, and de Wilde’s securitisation sectors, though limited to the military, political, and societal sectors, as entry points for the analysis and uses political discourse analysis to analyse the language used by the Left and the Right during parliamentary debates held between 6 and 18 February 1914. The thesis concludes that, though the results were not conclusive, the Courtyard Crisis can be used as an example to explain the tension between different forms of government by showing the difference in ideas between the two powers of state in Sweden and how these affect the decision making in the process of securitisation.

By combing DTS with a three-dimensional model adapted from DHA, we aim to study the discursive construction of national identities in (political) diplomatic discourse between China and the West, from a translation perspective. Specifically, we examine the translation of national affiliations and forms of address between 1792 and 1867, when China was experiencing a national identity crisis. We describe and explain what and how the Chinese and Western national identities were constructed by translation, using mainly qualitative analysis, supported at times by quantitative analysis. We also investigate the extent to which translators have aligned themselves with the governments they served, and the norm they followed before and during the identity crisis. Traditionally, discourse-historical approach (DHA) has typically been applied to study the discursive construction of national identity in political discourse. However, DHA has not yet taken into account the phenomenon of translation, though translation is an important tool for constructing and promoting national identities. Meanwhile, translation studies (TS) on national identity have traditionally not adopted DHA, though DHA has been typically applied to study the construction of national identity in political discourse. Moreover, TS on national identity often focuses on linguistic and political tensions within a bilingual or multilingual nation or institution. However, national discourse in intercultural clashes between two distinct countries also remains to be explored. Our corpus is collected from historical discourse in diplomatic missions and discourse of diplomatic officials, which consists of 29 letters and proclamations with a total word count of 25,794. The results of this study show that the affiliations of translators shaped their translation strategies in constructing national identity. Translators who claimed allegiance to the Qing court tended to follow the norm of tributary discourse to construct a discourse where the Chinese national identity appeared superior and Sinocentric, while the Western national identity appeared inferior and subordinate. However, norms are not fixed but open to change. During the Chinese national identity crisis, the gradual change in translation regularities and the abolition of certain discursive practices via an official statement from the authorities reflected a weakening of the norm of tributary discourse. This evolution of the norm could reflect, at least in part, China’s changing attitude toward the West and the transformation of Chinese national identity. Our study contributes to PDA, political discourse translation, and translation history. Firstly, it extends the traditionally monolingual application of DHA to the bilingual context of DTS, proving that the discipline of (D)TS and DHA benefit from interdisciplinary cooperation, thus pointing to a promising direction in PDA and political discourse translation. Secondly, our study enriches TS on identity and ideology by studying different forms of power struggles in political discourse, thus enlarging the variety of political discourse and advancing a more extensive PDA. Thirdly, our study provides refreshing insights into textual markers, namely, national affiliations, nominal and pronominal forms of address, for studying identity issues in translated political discourse. Last but not least, our study contributes to the studies in the translation history of 19th-century China. / En combinant les études descriptives de la traduction (DTS) avec un modèle tridimensionnel adapté de l’approche historique-discursive (DHA), nous visons à étudier la construction discursive des identités nationales dans le discours diplomatique (politique) entre la Chine et l’Occident, du point de vue de la traduction. Plus précisément, nous examinons la traduction des affiliations nationales et des formes d’adresse dans le discours diplomatique (politique) entre 1792 et 1867, alors que la Chine traversait une crise d’identité nationale. Nous décrivons et expliquons comment les identités nationales chinoises et occidentales ont été construites par la traduction, en utilisant principalement une analyse qualitative, parfois soutenue par une analyse quantitative. Nous étudions également dans quelle mesure les traducteurs se sont alignés sur les gouvernements qu’ils servaient et la norme qu’ils suivaient avant et pendant la crise d’identité. Traditionnellement, l’DHA a été appliquée pour étudier la construction discursive de l’identité nationale dans le discours politique. Cependant, l’DHA n’a pas encore pris en compte le phénomène de la traduction, bien que la traduction soit un outil important pour la construction et la promotion des identités nationales. Par ailleurs, les études de traduction (TS) sur l’identité nationale n’ont généralement pas adopté l’DHA, bien que l’DHA ait été typiquement appliquée pour étudier la construction de l’identité nationale dans le discours politique. En outre, les TS sur l’identité nationale se concentrent souvent sur les tensions linguistiques et politiques au sein d’une nation ou d’une institution bilingue ou multilingue. Cependant, le discours national dans les conflits interculturels entre deux pays distincts reste également à explorer. Notre corpus est recueilli à partir du discours historique dans les missions diplomatiques et le discours des fonctionnaires diplomatique, qui se compose de 29 lettres et proclamations, avec un nombre total de mots de 25794. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que les affiliations des traducteurs ont influencé leurs stratégies de traduction dans la construction de l’identité nationale. Les traducteurs qui se réclamaient allégeance à la cour Qing avaient tendance à suivre la norme du discours tributaire pour construire un discours où l’identité nationale chinoise apparaissait supérieure et sinocentrique, tandis que l’identité nationale occidentale apparaissait inférieure et subordonnée. Toutefois, la norme n’était pas figée mais susceptible d’évoluer. Pandent la crise de l’identité nationale chinoise, le changement progressif des régularités de traduction et l’abolition de certaines pratiques discursives par une déclaration officielle des autorités reflétaient un affaiblissement de la norme du discours tributaire. Cette évolution de la norme pourrait refléter, au moins en partie, le changement de l’attitude de la Chine envers l’Occident et la transformation de l’identité nationale chinoise. Notre étude contribue à l’analyse discours politique (PDA), à la traduction du discours politique et à l’histoire de la traduction. Premièrement, elle étend l’application traditionnellement monolingue de l’DHA au contexte bilingue des DTS, prouvant que la discipline des (D)TS et de l’DHA bénéficient de la coopération interdisciplinaire, indiquant ainsi une direction prometteuse pour l’PDA et la traduction du discours politique. Deuxièmement, notre étude enrichit les TS sur l’identité et l’idéologie en étudiant différentes formes de luttes de pouvoir dans le discours politique, élargissant ainsi la variété du discours politique et faisant progresser le PDA plus étendue. Troisièmement, notre étude apporte un éclairage nouveau sur les marqueurs textuels, à savoir les affiliations nationales, les formes nominales et pronominales de l’adresse, pour étudier les problèmes d’identité dans le discours politique traduit. Enfin, notre étude contribue aux études sur l’histoire de la traduction en Chine au 19ème siècle.

This thesis conducts a case study on how the idea of a Scottish nation and Scottish independence have been constructed and changed within the political discourse produced by the Scottish National Party during the period around the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and around the Brexit referendum in 2016. This will be done by conducting a textual analysis with a set of operational questions on written material produced by the Scottish National Party during the period of time previoulsy mentioned, based on the theoretical framework of social constructivism and nationalism with a focus on "imagined communities". The thesis concludes that the idea of Scotland as a nation and Scottish independence is seen as a substantially fairer and more solidary nation than its neighbour to the south, as well that some aspects of the perception of Scottish independence and Scotland's future have changed over the process from the independence referendum to the Brexit referendum.