NICKNAMES AS A VERBAL REPRESENTATION OF THE IMAGE OF A POLITICIAN

Abstract

The article examines the role of nicknames in the formation of the image of a politician. Much attention is focused on identifying the peculiarities of the functioning of nicknames in political communication. The research material was the nicknames of the American politician Joe Biden, taken from American online media, political forums and blogs. The motivational features that form the basis of Joe Biden's nicknames are analysed. Among the analysed linguistic units, highly productive informal names of the politician have the motivation based on the characteristic features of the individual, such as mental and communicative abilities, character traits, temperament and behaviour. Nicknames that indicate social status, political views and beliefs occupy an important place as well. A relatively small group consists of informal anthroponyms motivated by habits and preferences. It has been revealed that linguistic creativity in the field of political nicknames is manifested through the use of irony, language play and precedent phenomena. The specificity of the discursive realization of nicknames as verbal components of the politician's image has been established. It has been proved that nicknames serve not only to identify and characterize a person, but by conveying information about the attitude of the communicant to the object of naming, subconsciously influence the creation of the desired image, serve as a powerful ideological weapon.