Akhmetzyanova P.A., Takhtarova S.S. Study of Mitigation: Matrix of Mitigation Means, Two-Steps Analysis and Ethnocultural Profile Composing

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.3.6

Polina A. Akhmetzyanova

Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Lecturer, Department of Practice and Theory of Translation, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3827-9269

Svetlana S. Takhtarova

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Department of Practice and Theory of Translation, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9268-6892

Abstract. The article proposes an original approach to the analysis of mitigation means in political discourse. The main goals of the study are: to present the matrix of mitigation means in the English and German languages; to propose a two-level framework for analysing mitigation, covering the formal and pragmatic dimensions of the communicative situation; and to establish a link between the speech, its mitigating elements, and the communication patterns specific to an ethnic culture under scrunity. The need for a pragmatic analysis of every communicative situation is reasoned by the facts that the same language marker can act as both a mitigation and a non-mitigation device depending on the context. The relevance of the research lies in the fact that the ethnocultural factors of communication (more specifically, the mitigation) are understudied. The examination was completed on the basis of the House of Commons' and the Bundestag's transcripts of sessions devoted to the COVID-19 pandemics. The choice of material ensures comparability across two languages and cultures. The methods applied were analysis and synthesis; full-text sampling; intention analysis; content analysis; corpus analysis using AntConc software to search for mitigation means for proposition and deictic mitigation; quantitative estimation. The research could be further developed to be used for other ethnicities, cultures and languages; a matrix of mitigation in other languages can be constructed.

Key words: mitigation, ethnocultural style of communication, parliamentary discourse, linguoculturology, political linguistics.

Citation. Akhmetzyanova P.A., Takhtarova S.S. Study of Mitigation: Matrix of Mitigation Means, Two-Steps Analysis and Ethnocultural Profile Composing. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2026, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 68-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.3.6

Attachments:

3_Akhmetzyanova, Takhtarova.pdf URL: https://l.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/component/attachments/download/3796

14 Downloads