Proverbs and Aphorisms in Political Speech (To the Characteristics of the Idiolect of Turkish President R.T. Erdogan)

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of quoting proverbs and aphorisms by Turkish President R.T. Erdogan in his speeches. The questions of their transformation, methods of introduction and connection to current circumstances, expressive-emotional and stylistic coloring, as well as the evaluative aspect and its author’s development in the context are raised. The speaker introduces a proverb into his speech with the help of introductory phrases and words that act as markers, which can break it in the case of a two-part structure, frame it, and be used in double and triple repetition. Stylistically, most of the quoted proverbs are neutral in color; to achieve maximum expressiveness of the statement, the speaker uses emotional proverbs belonging to the conversational style of speech, often with a zoonymic component. The President rarely transforms the idiom; its recognition is important to him; moreover, he does not use the most common of them, this gives his speeches originality and emphasizes the originality of the author’s style. The most used method of transformation is the omission of elements that do not change the semantics of the expression, or the replacement of a word with a synonym, in rare cases, a compositional transformation consisting of rearrangement of parts. Sometimes the speaker, relying on the imagery of an idiom, paraphrases and interprets it in the current context, or, changing only its grammatical-syntactic structure, inserts it into his speech. R.T. Erdogan uses idioms with both positive and negative evaluative components. Often he expresses his thought by using the stylistic device of antithesis, starting from the negative assessment contained in the idiom, he comes to a positive conclusion, less often — vice versa. To enhance the expressiveness and persuasiveness of his speech, the speaker sometimes indicates a personal attitude towards what is being quoted, connecting it with the circumstances of his private life. In some cases, there is an obvious pragmatic connection between the idiom and the topic, geography, or specific occasion for delivering the speech.

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