AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

EMOTIVE-EXPRESSIVE LEXIS AS A LINGUISTIC MEANS OF CREATING POLITICIANS’ PORTRAITS ON THE NEWS PORTAL DELFI.LT

KEYWORDS: emotive-expressive lexis, stylistics.

However, our “free press” (the quotation marks were first put around the term by L. Jakimavičius) publishes only “the end of the world” every day. The principle of press freedom is violated simply by the fact that readers have almost nothing to choose from. The media is becoming increasingly tabloidized. It imposes topics on society, speaks only about the hardships of life, and offers almost no constructive, creative information. Even when objective information is presented, a tabloid-style manipulative overlay programs an inadequate emotional response in the unsuspecting reader.

(V. Juknaitė, “Išsidūsi. Balsu: esė, pokalbiai.” Vilnius, Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House, 2002, p. 168.)

INTRODUCTION

A look at online news portals clearly shows that press workers (journalists, editors, headline writers, etc.) use language—or, more precisely, stylistically marked means of linguistic expression—as a powerful creative force that shapes public opinion. Because they shape public opinion, mass communication media—the media—are sometimes called the fourth estate, although the media’s primary function is to disseminate information and news (Gudonienė 1999: 23; see also Mažylė 2012: 163; Petrauskis 2012: 6). Online media have become a source of manipulation, affecting the attitudes and behavior of the subjects participating in the communicative act, even though journalists must remain rational, refrain from stirring readers’ emotions, and avoid conveying their own evaluations as press workers (Juodytė 2011). One means of shaping public opinion is the manipulation of emotive-expressive lexis.

The article examines the emotive-expressive lexis of articles published on the news portal delfi.lt from October 2012 to June 2014 and from September 2015 to June 2016.

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lexis used to describe Lithuanian political figures (464 examples of usage were collected in total)¹. The main communicative goal of journalists writing about Lithuanian politics for the online news portal delfi.lt is to inform the public and critically assess political events (Arcimavičienė 2010: 6). The examples of emotional-expressive lexis under examination address political events and the conduct of political figures; here, “the words used in texts become important, as their meanings best reflect the worldview and value orientations formed in the minds of discourse participants” (Būdvytytė-Gudienė 2013: 6). The aim of the article is to determine how, and through what emotional-expressive lexis, portraits of politicians are created (i.e., what character traits and behaviour are attributed to them).

CREATING THE IMAGE OF LITHUANIAN POLITICIANS AS SOCIAL ANTIHEROES

To influence their audiences, online media representatives deliberately use emotional-expressive lexis, which the Dictionary of Linguistic Terms (hereafter – KTŽ) defines as “words that have a stable connotation of expressiveness and emotionality in language. Diminutive and endearing words, as well as coarse and colloquial words, among others, are emotional and expressive”; through it, they express evaluations of public figures, directly or indirectly. It is precisely axiologically marked linguistic devices that present public figures as striking social antiheroes.

“The selfish behaviour of individual politicians and officials and manifestations of corruption have been irresponsibly generalized, leading to the entrenchment of a negative stereotypical attitude towards all politicians, members of the Seimas and the civil service: <...>” (Žibartas 2012: 19); consequently, the news portal delfi.lt shows a marked tendency to portray nearly all Lithuanian politicians as social antiheroes (cf. Žibartas 2012: 17).

One way of creating such a portrait of politicians is to describe them using neologisms. Neologisms are of two types (Pikčilingis 1975: 156), both of which are also found on the online media portal delfi.lt:

1) conventional neologisms (new words that continually arise in language to denote new concepts);

¹ The language of the usage examples presented in this paper has not been edited, except for simple typographical errors.

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2) nonce neologisms (new words used in place of the usual names of phenomena or things, providing additional information or serving another emotional-expressive function) (Aleksaitė 2014: 6).

In the media, politicians tend to be labelled with neologisms carrying a negative emotional evaluation; compounds with the element valdžia- are quite popular (see also Girčienė 2013: 80), for example: the nonce formation valdžiagyvis “derog. a term for a representative of the authorities” and the conventional formation valdžiažmogis, -ė “pejor. iron. a person in a position of power; a bureaucrat”, for example:

“‘This is how much I get. This is how much I’m short.’ Lithuanian citizens write complaints online, lamenting their poor lives, shuddering at employers’ arbitrariness and blaming valdžiagyvius for not caring about them or creating the conditions for them to earn better wages.” (delfi.lt 2015 10 06, Andrius Tapinas)

Today I walked past the ruins of the “Lietuva” cinema, boarded up with plywood, in the capital. Some witty grotesque, smearing the whole Old Town with idiotic slogans, has now written there too: “Lithuania—heart to heart, thief to thief.” People walk by, read it, and smile. “How nicely they’ve given those authorities a dressing-down,” they say to themselves. “Those valdžiažmogiai will know now.” (delfi.lt 2016 03 02, Andrius Užkalnis)

When writing about public figures and seeking to present politicians as striking social antiheroes, journalists more often use nonce neologisms in journalistic texts², whose referential (information-transmitting) function is overshadowed by their emotional-expressive function, since the decisive factor in coining nonce formations is the need for newer, more expressive means of expression rather than the desire to name new realities (Girčienė 2013: 79).

Borrowings are also used for stylistic reasons, for example:

But to claim that people travel to Poland to shop because of her is a sign of a political retarder. Yes, here’s another rhetorical gem, used on Saturday by Andrius Kubilius, who came up with a good one when he explained that he meant a bus mechanism. Get it, retarder means a braking system, nothing bad about that, but everyone will still think of retards in government, meaning people with intellectual disabilities, and that will be very witty. (delfi.lt 2016 03 14, Andrius Tapinas)

² The Neologism Database (hereafter – ND) contains further compounds with a strongly negative connotation whose first element is valdžia-, for example: valdžiadurnis, -ė “jocular a fool in power”, valdžiagrobis “iron. someone who has usurped power”, valdžiasnukis “a derogatory term for a representative of the authorities”, and valdžiauryvis “iron. a person in power”.

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In a text written in the journalistic style, the newly borrowed-root word retarderis (English retarder), whose primary meaning in ND is “retarder (a vehicle braking system that makes it possible to avoid using conventional brakes),” acquires an ironic expressive overtone upon entering political discourse and is used figuratively to mean “a laggard: a brake on political processes.”

Journalists also choose metaphorical nouns, for example, when they want to portray politicians as social antiheroes:

S. Skvernelis, by contrast. The Seimas moths have not eaten him away. Even when he is reduced to rags, the Minister of the Interior comes out on top. A drug-addict thief escaped and even disarmed two police officers? In any country, the Minister of the Interior would be done for. But here, the surge in S. Skvernelis’s rating leaves even the country’s chief forester speechless. (delfi.lt 2015 12 20, Rimvydas Valatka)

The noun moth, which is defined in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (hereafter LKŽ_e) as “zool. a small moth whose caterpillars chew clothes and eat grain, flour, plants, etc.,” is given a figurative meaning to emphasize the harm and damage caused by Lithuanian politicians. Cf. LKŽ_e: moth “fig. harm, damage.”

Since “[i]n language are reflected all our evaluations—those socially accepted, traditional, ‘objective’ ones that form the basis of moral norms, as well as entirely personal, individual, subjective ones <...>” (Gudavičius 2000: 119), there can be no doubt about the connection between journalistic-style texts and the worldview and attitude to life created by language, since “[p]ublic discourse records not only a conception of the world characteristic of a language’s worldview and of a particular culture, but also more fundamental changes in the perception of the world, which are inevitable in texts describing everyday current affairs <...>” (Kvašytė, Papaurelytė-Klovienė 2013: 108). The emotional-expressive vocabulary used in articles on the news portal delfi.lt reveals precisely what stereotypical image of a politician prevails in society. On the news portal delfi.lt, political actors are presented as social antiheroes because of the negative character traits and behavior attributed to them.

1. First, journalists tend to ridicule politicians for their lack of resolve, apathy toward voters’ interests, and unwillingness to make decisions that are important and beneficial to society.

To highlight this trait of politicians, journalists use metaphorical nouns, vivid verbs, slang, and traditional idioms.

When writing about indecisive, apathetic government representatives in more insulting and brazen terms, journalists use metaphorical nouns with a strongly negative emotional charge, for example:

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Things will be worse in Germany and some other European countries. The Nazis, with their hands raised in the air, can hardly expect a more favorable environment than the one that exists today: the government’s impotents, through their inaction and helplessness, are not merely giving in; they are simply abandoning the field, allowing their opponents to shoot balls into an empty goal. The game is essentially over. (delfi.lt 2016 01 08, Andrius Užkalnis)

This metaphorical noun impotent should also be discussed from the perspective of ethical stylistics. According to Kazimieras Župerka (2005: 25), “linguistic expression very often ‘rankles’ the addressee as unethical when it is stylistically marked, foregrounded, or expressive.” In a journalistic text, the metaphorical noun impotent is used figuratively to mean “a man who is helpless in a certain situation.” Cf. LKŽₑ, “one who is impotent sexually,” and Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian (hereafter DŽ₆), “a man who is impotent sexually.” Here sexual impotence is equated with political helplessness, but the linguistic device chosen is ethically rather inappropriate and quite offensive. In order to shape the audience’s assessment of political processes (Juodytė 2011: 70–71), journalists choose vivid verbs and slang to describe politicians’ actions, for example:

The government fidgets over the VAE, while its neighbors opt for nuclear energy [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 03 27, Ramūnas Bogdanas)

A. Butkevičius has not changed. When he was finance minister, he washed his hands of it and went to Druskininkai when he was supposed to defend in the Seimas the annual budget prepared by his ministry, leaving this difficult task to his deputies. (delfi.lt 2013 09 21, Ramūnas Bogdanas)

In the first example, the vivid verb fidget is used figuratively to mean “be unable to make up one’s mind, hesitate,” while the slang expression wash one’s hands of it in the second sentence means “leave in order to avoid responsibility”; both highlight a negative trait of politicians—indecisiveness. Politicians’ apathy toward voters’ interests and unwillingness to make decisions that matter to the public and serve its interests are also revealed through traditional idioms, for example:

Today the police reformers are hiding their heads, because the shadow of recent events, when the police failed to respond appropriately to reports, falls precisely on them—those who drastically cut police funding and did not lift a finger to prevent the police system from bleeding to death. (delfi.lt 2013 04 07, Virginija Baltraitienė)

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The idiom Phraseology Dictionary (hereafter FŽ), includes the expression not lift a finger in the sense of “do nothing.” Although the expressiveness of traditional idioms fades somewhat beside that of occasional idioms (cf. Butkutė 2008: 46), journalists nevertheless more often choose traditional rather than occasional idioms when seeking to influence and shape public opinion.

2. On the news portal delfi.lt, traditional idioms and vivid verbs are used to construct an image of politicians who behave carelessly and irresponsibly (cf. Būdvytytė-Gudienė 2013: 9), for example:

From what has been said, the conclusion follows: a governance crisis arises when laws are treated with indifference.

(delfi.lt 2012 11 08, Aloyzas Sakalas)

Politicians will squander the billions saved for pensions [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 10 17, Romas Sadauskas-Kvietkevičius)

The negative emotional assessment of politicians is conveyed by the traditional idiom recorded in FŽ, look through one’s fingers at, meaning “pay no attention, take no care,” and the vivid verb squander, included in LKŽₑ and defined as “colloquial: waste, use up,” which is used to characterize politicians’ irresponsible actions.

3. Not only the careless and irresponsible, but also the immoral conduct of political actors is emphasized, when the desire for political power and personal gain overshadows the wish to represent voters’ interests honestly. Metaphorical nouns and occasional idioms are used to highlight the immoral conduct of political actors.

The metaphorical nouns (nouns and adjectives) used on the online media portal delfi.lt can be divided into two groups:

1) conventional words used figuratively, which can be further divided into two smaller subgroups (the definitions of some figurative words are included in DŽ₆ or LKŽₑ, while the figurative meanings of others are not recorded in dictionaries, even though they are widespread in usage and readily understood by readers);

2) occasional words used figuratively (their definitions appear in neither DŽ₆ nor LKŽₑ) (Aleksaitė 2014: 2).

The texts examined are dominated by conventional metaphorical nouns, for example:

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The second goal is to press into the centers of power and privilege and to maintain one’s own comfortable, profitable, and cozy niche in the Seimas. In other words, to secure a place at the trough of power for the long term, against whose benefits and privileges they had fought so fiercely, ruthlessly, and uncompromisingly. (delfi.lt 2013 01 29, Karolis Jovaišas)

By choosing the conventional metaphorical noun trough in the sense of “source of profit,” the text’s author disparages representatives of the authorities, implying that public figures are driven to seek power by personal interests, or more precisely, by a desire to profit.

Representatives of the authorities are also mocked through the use of occasional phraseological expressions, for example:

The somewhat more senior one has a few doubts (perhaps), but does as ordered or politely requested. Perhaps he does it simply out of the goodness of his heart, or perhaps having received sweets in his paw—who can tell now. (delfi.lt 2012 11 12, Vytautas Landsbergis)

Using the occasional phraseological expression—an expressive word combination that has become fixed in a single publicistic text and rarely extends beyond its limits (see also Butkutė 2008: 16–24)—to receive sweets in one’s paw, i.e., “to take a bribe,” the article’s author indirectly suggests that politicians’ conduct and the decisions they make may be influenced by gifts offered as bribes, since there are political actors who seek to profit illegally by exploiting their official positions.

Clearly, no specific individuals are mentioned in these examples of usage; consequently, readers are presented with a generalized image of immoral, dishonest politicians.

4. On the news portal delfi.lt, politicians are viewed as social antiheroes because they are unable to govern the state; the governing methods chosen by these public figures are unsuitable. This characteristic of politicians is illustrated by expressive verb forms (attributive participles), foreign-language insertions, and conventional neologisms.

Attributive participles “have largely retained the adjectival nature of their category and, having no governed or attached words, are often very difficult to distinguish from adjectives” (Ambrazas 1971: 8); therefore, their use on the news portal delfi.lt is no different from that of metaphorical adjectives, for example:

The previous Government’s pushed-through reform of higher education, if it succeeded at all, did so only partly: giving students the freedom to decide prompted battles over image rather than improvements in the quality of studies; universities did not rush to merge and optimize as expected, and access to free higher education actually declined. (delfi.lt 2013 01 26, Marijus Širvinskas)

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In this text, written in the publicistic style, a verb form (attributive participle) is used figuratively: stumtas, -a, ‘about someone whom one wants to admit, elect, appoint, or push through’. Cf. DŽ₆: stumti, ‘fig. to try to get someone into a particular position’, and LKŽₑ: prastumti, ‘fig. to conceal one’s true aims and get something accepted, to push something through’.

Foreign-language insertions are also used to create portraits of politicians as social antiheroes on the news portal delfi.lt, for example:

Coalition: krugovaja poruka [article headline]

In Russian, there is the expression “krugovaja poruka”, which could be translated into Lithuanian as “binding together”. This term is used among criminals. When a new member joins a criminal gang, they are assigned a criminal task so that they break the law, get their hands dirty, and become as vulnerable as the other gang members. The new member then becomes loyal and trustworthy, because their fate is closely bound up with the fate of the others. One can see these methods carrying over into politics today. The latest votes show that the coalition is being cemented without hesitation by following the aforementioned criminal principle. (delfi.lt 2012 11 28, Kęstutis Masiulis)

The author of this text very deliberately chooses the Russian insertion krugovaja poruka for the article headline: in the text, the author not only explains the meaning of this term used by Russian criminals, but also indicates why a criminal term is apt for describing Lithuanian politicians. The comparison of politicians with representatives of the criminal underworld persuasively creates a highly negative portrait of Lithuanian politicians as social antiheroes.

The news portal delfi.lt contains many nonce formations made with suffixal derivational formants from politicians’ ³—social antiheroes’—surnames, for example:

Having believed that A. Butkevičius’s opinion would not change before Monday, I try to imagine how he will manage to persuade representatives of the three ruling-coalition parties in the Seimas to forget everything they have said about V. Landsbergis in recent days and to vote to award him the Freedom Prize. For the result of the first vote was not

³ The following neologisms are included in ND: gražulėjimas, ‘ironic. becoming like Petras Gražulis (a member of the Lithuanian Seimas known for his particularly forceful manner, conduct, and declared views)’; gražulesnis, -ė, ‘jocular. like Gražulis (referring to Petras Gražulis, a member of the Lithuanian Seimas)’; gražuliada, ‘an ideology opposed to genderism, promoted by Petras Gražulis, a member of the Lithuanian Seimas’; gražuliškai, ‘jocular. in a manner characteristic of Gražulis (referring to Petras Gražulis, a member of the Seimas, who became famous for his extreme views on LGBT)’; and gražulizmas, ‘derog. the extreme views of Petras Gražulis, a member of the Lithuanian Seimas, as a phenomenon’. As the data presented in ND show, the surname of Seimas member P. Gražulis is especially productive in forming neologisms with derogatory, ironic, or jocular overtones that convey a negative emotional evaluation.

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some curious coincidence of the kind that also happens in the Seimas, when, shortly before a session ends, the last MPs still in the chamber, who have not yet managed to leave, approve at first reading a bill they have not even properly read, Gražulis-like or Sysiškis-like. (delfi.lt 2015 11 29, Romas Sadauskas-Kvietkevičius)

In this example, the established neologisms gražuliškas, –a and sysiškas, –a are used in the senses “poorly considered, hasty.” It is clear that the publicistic-style text alludes to members of the Seimas distinguished by hasty, ill-considered decisions and statements, while the adjectives derived from their surnames are given not individual but generalized semantic features.

5. The news portal delfi.lt abounds in stereotypical opinions with an emotional evaluative aspect (Gudavičius 2000: 61–62) about political figures’ eloquence and even intellectual abilities. Thus, vivid verbs and their forms (predicative participles and gerundial forms), metaphorical nouns, and traditional idioms are used to shape the image of politicians unable to govern the state and explain political processes to voters.

The news portal delfi.lt makes extensive use of emotional-expressive lexical devices (vivid verbs and their forms—predicative participles and gerundial forms—and metaphorical nouns derived from them), which reveal politicians’ inarticulate speech, for example:

Remnants reeking of a Soviet surrogate, babbling about the artistic value of the Green Bridge statues, senile Communist Party veterans, representing Lithuania in European institutions, bleating about the economic damage caused by sanctions against Russia and the need to find a dialogue with criminals, apparently deny any possibility of linking pseudo-art or economic benefit with propaganda (targeted disinformation). (delfi.lt 2016 01 28, Aurimas Navys)

After that, all that could be heard was the unclear mumbling of Vilnius politicians, supposedly that something was being done in the corridors of Brussels, that, you know, perhaps (with uncertainty in their voices) the Kremlin was involved because of active participation in advancing the Eastern Partnership project. (delfi.lt 2013 09 17, Valentinas Mitė)

L. Graužinienė’s squeaking à la “bad Skvernelis, very bad” is not even worth quoting. When the Speaker of the Seimas says with a straight face that while the police were chasing an armed fugitive, the Minister of the Interior was asleep, because he had supposedly told her so himself, all that remains is to console oneself with the thought that, while God was handing out humor and a sense of reality to people, one of the country’s future “female leaders” was sorting through potatoes that had sprouted and rotted in a collective-farm warehouse. (delfi.lt 2015 11 22, Rimvydas Valatka)

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Thus, the so-called rabble and its leader—the eagle of pathological delusions and cheap demagoguery, though cackling in mangled Lithuanian—nevertheless intuitively understands that Lithuania does not want to, nor is it interested in, coming into conflict with the far more powerful Poland and acquiring a good enemy in place of a bad friend, or a good war in place of a bad peace. (delfi.lt 2013 10 15, Karolis Jovaišas)

In short, God sent the president a dove—a slack-jawed Švenčionys police officer and a nimble drug addict. S. Skvernelis resigned. While L. Graužinienė bubbled with satisfaction, she also grunted something about the minister’s election campaign, just to make her point more emphatically. (delfi.lt 2015 11 22, Rimvydas Valatka)

The definitions of the quoted base verbs found in dictionaries show that the authors chose words with expressive meanings that negatively portray politicians’ improper speech. As Vytautas Ambrazas (1971: 8) has observed, the use of predicative participles functioning as predicates in a sentence and denoting its main action (or state) is similar to the use of vivid verbs. Words with conventional (systemic) vividness predominate in publicistic-style articles. Cf. DŽ₆: mekenti “fig., to stammer, falter”; LKŽₑ: “meknoti, to stammer, to speak haltingly”; LKŽₑ: memĕnti “to speak unclearly, failing to pronounce words properly; to stammer”; DŽ₆: čirkšti “fig., to speak angrily and resentfully, to grumble”; DŽ₆: kleketuoti “fig., colloq., to talk nonsense, chatter, laugh, guffaw”; DŽ₆: burbuliuoti “to speak unclearly, mumble”; and LKŽₑ: prakriuksėti “fig., to say something as if grunting.” Journalists ridicule not only politicians’ incoherent, inarticulate speech but also their intellectual abilities, for example:

Both paganism and Zen Buddhism are very interesting, but do you want your member of the Seimas to think as people did in the 13th century, to be a complete Zen Buddhist, when three-quarters of the Seimas are already like that, and to have rabbits fighting in his head even over whether he believes or not, and what he believes in? Will such a person be capable of tackling the challenges of geopolitics, the global economy, and demography if he does not even properly understand who he is? (delfi.lt 2016 01 24, Rimvydas Valatka)

The traditional idiom zuikiai pjaunasi galvoje su kralikais, meaning “completely crazy,” is included in FŽ. Incidentally, when writing about developments in Lithuania’s domestic politics, journalists do not shy away from conveying voters’ dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the government, which further reinforces the image of politicians as social antiheroes created by the news portal delfi.lt. Voters’ disillusionment with the government is described through extended idioms, for example:

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To conclude, a little poetry after all: we sit happily at the bottom of Europe, we work not with our heads but with our arses. (delfi.lt 2012 11 12, Jurgis Jurgelis)

By expanding the traditional idiom to sit at the bottom with the element happy, a paradoxical effect is created, revealing the article’s author’s negative, ironic attitude towards the prevailing political situation, in which no attempt is made to change a poor, difficult situation.

The news portal delfi.lt is dominated by a stereotypical negative attitude towards almost all Lithuanian politicians, since most are attributed negative character traits (greedy, selfish, apathetic, weak-willed), characteristics (unable to govern the state, inarticulate speech, limited intellectual abilities) and behaviour (immoral, indifferent, irresponsible). It can be argued that the defining characteristic attributed to Lithuanian politicians as a group is their inability to represent the nation. Moreover, the negative attitude towards almost all Lithuanian politicians that has taken hold in online media could be explained by psychological and social reasons: in Lithuanian, as in many other languages, negative emotional evaluation is expressed more often than positive evaluation, since everything good is accepted as the norm, and people do not express special emotions about ordinary things; therefore, everything bad is regarded as a deviation from the norm and evaluated through linguistic means of expression with a strong negative emotional-expressive charge (Jakaitienė 1988: 51; Gudavičius 2000: 130–131).

CHARACTERISTIC EMOTIONAL-EXPRESSIVE LEXIS IN CREATING PORTRAITS OF POLITICIANS

In the news portal delfi.lt, when writing about politicians as social antiheroes, verbs and their forms with stable (systemic) figurative meaning predominate (set against each other; splatter; bleat; make a little noise), along with traditional idioms (prodigal son; have a pig’s eyes; not lift a finger; make a run for it; turn a blind eye; kiss someone’s arse; the bushes are fighting), which journalists use considerably more often than nonce or expanded idioms. Nevertheless, in order to convey an emotional assessment of a particular politician and address readers in a more original, witty way, members of the press opt for nonce idioms (Lithuania’s Viagra; Pravieniškės Hope Coalition; get sweets in the paw) or expanded idioms (step on the rake of populism; sit happily at the bottom of Europe; grow long horns), since these attract readers’ attention more than traditional ones do.

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The online news portal delfi.lt abounds in metaphorical nouns and established neologisms used to create portraits of politicians. Established metaphorical nouns predominate (parasite; moth; impotent; trough; appendicitis): figurative definitions of some words are included in DŽ₆ or LKŽ, while others are not recorded in dictionaries of figurative meanings, despite being widely used and readily understood by readers. No nonce metaphorical nouns whose definitions appear in neither DŽ₆ nor LKŽ were found in the political texts from the news portal delfi.lt that were examined. A few adjectives with strongly negative expressive meanings occurred (buffet-like; turned inside out).

The online news portal delfi.lt features both established neologisms (Kremlin-dweller; squatter) and nonce neologisms (Euro-pederast), among which formations with the component power- stand out for their expressiveness (power-beast; power-person). There are also plenty of neologisms formed with derivational suffixes from the surnames of politicians portrayed as social antiheroes (Gražulis-like; Sysas-like; Paleckis supporter; Tomaševskis supporter; Kubiloid). Borrowings are also used (retarder), and, like Lithuanian words, they are assigned figurative meanings in political discourse.

Slang expressions (talk nonsense, wash one’s hands of something) and foreign-language insertions (krugovaja poruka) are used less frequently to create portraits of politicians.

CONCLUSIONS

1. As online media have become a source of manipulation, there is a marked tendency to portray almost all Lithuanian politicians as social antiheroes. One means of shaping public opinion is the manipulation of emotional-expressive lexis.

2. An examination of some of the articles published on the news portal delfi.lt revealed how and what emotional-expressive lexis is used to create portraits of politicians:

2.1. Journalists use metaphorical nouns, vivid verbs, traditional idioms, and slang to ridicule politicians for their lack of resolve, apathy toward voters’ interests, and unwillingness to make decisions that are important and beneficial to society.

2.2. The news portal delfi.lt uses traditional idioms and vivid verbs to create an image of politicians who behave harshly and irresponsibly.

BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016)

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2.3. Metaphorical nouns and occasional idioms illustrate the immoral conduct of political actors, in which the desire to represent voters’ interests honestly is overshadowed by the pursuit of political power and personal gain.

2.4. On the news portal delfi.lt, politicians are portrayed as social antiheroes because they are unable to govern the state, and the governing methods chosen by these public figures are unsuitable. This characteristic of politicians is illustrated by forms of vivid verbs (attributive participles), foreign-language insertions, and conventional neologisms.

2.5. Vivid verbs and their forms (predicative participles and gerunds), metaphorical nouns, and traditional idioms are used to create an image of politicians who are unable to govern the state and explain political processes to voters.

3. The most characteristic types of emotional-expressive lexis used by journalists on the news portal delfi.lt to create a negative portrait of politicians are vivid verbs and their forms, traditional idioms, metaphorical nouns, and conventional neologisms.

BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016)

www.bendrinekalba.lt

ISSN 2351-7204

AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Emocinė-ekspresinė leksika kaip kalbinė politikų portretų kūrimo priemonė naujienų portale delfi.lt | 14

ŠALTINIAI

DŽ 2011: Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas. Vyr. red. S. Keinys. Šeštas (trečias elektroninis) leidimas, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: http://dz.lki.lt.

FŽ 2001: Frazeologijos žodynas. Red. J. Paulauskas, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas.

KTŽ 1990: Kalbotyros terminų žodynas. K. Gaivenis, S. Keinys, Kaunas: Šviesa.

LKŽ_e 2005: Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 1–20 (elektroninis variantas). Vyr. red. G. Naktinienė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: www.lkz.lt.

ND – Lietuvių kalbos naujažodžių duomenynas. Internetinė duomenų bazė. Sud. R. Miliūnaitė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: http://naujazodziai.lki.lt/.

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Priimta 2017 01 20

AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016)

www.bendrinekalba.lt

ISSN 2351-7204