Rhythm and its national specificity in political public speech

Abstract

This article focuses on the specifics of political public discourse, which continues to be one of the most pressing issues of linguistics. In modern conditions, speeches of political figures are broadcast to a wide audience, they influence significantly the listeners and their subsequent actions. This article examines the concept of speech, as well as political public speech, and its characteristics. The concept of the rhythm of the text and its specificity in the political public text are considered. The automated analysis of rhythmic devices in these texts was carried out using the ProseRhythmDetector - PRD tool, which allows us to determine the presence of rhythmic devices in political public texts and their quantitative results. Political public speech is a powerful tool by which a politician can achieve the desired result. The method of repetition is the most effective way of influencing, which is implemented in all its possible manifestations (stylistic means of language), thus the impact on the recipient through the unconscious perception of information is realized. The author presents the results of the analysis of rhythmic devices in political public speeches of Russian and U.S. political leaders from 2005 to 2020. The results of the research indicate fundamental differences at the lexical, grammatical and phonetic levels in the rhythm of public political texts in Russian and in English.Rhythmic devices at the phonetic level are completely missing in English texts and are widely represented in Russian ones, in the latter they are used much more often than rhythmic devices at the lexical and grammatical level.