The Inaugural Speeches of d. A. Medvedev and N. Sarkozy as a Monological Genre of Political Discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the actual study of oral genres of political discourse, which are conditionally divided into two groups: monological (TV debates, interviews, Pryamaya liniya (as one of the varieties of the genre of interviews) and dialogical (inaugural speech, program speech, «crisis» speech about an unexpectedly problematic situation, congratulatory speech in honor of a memorable date or anniversary, welcome speech, etc. Among the monological genres the inaugural speech of the head of state attracts special attention of researchers. This is a ritual genre of oral political discourse, which is characterized by appeal to the collective addressee - all citizens of the state, strict temporal and spatial localization (speech is pronounced exactly during the solemn ceremony). The inauguration ceremonies of the news leaders of all modern democratic states are based on the same model and differ mainly in the national symbols of presidential power and the degree of solemnity of the ritual. A comparative analysis of the inaugural speeches of the former presidents of Russia and France - Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy - has been fulfilled in the present article. Precisely, we have studied the characteristic functions of this type of political eloquence, namely: integrative (the consolidation of the nation in a historically significant moment), inspirational (the inspiration of the people for the upcoming great deeds and the glorification of traditional values), declarative (the proclamation by the new president of the principles of his rule) and performative (demonstration of readiness to act as the leader of a great country). Each function is realized through a traditional set of «topics» (common rhetorical slots) and through various communicative tactics.