Propositional Mitigation in German and British Political Discourse: Strategy of Assertive Mitigation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of mitigation on the material of British and German political discourse. The study is aimed at identifying the differences in mitigation in British and German linguocultures. The aim of the work is to analyze the mitigative means used by the representatives of Great Britain and Germany in political discourse within the framework of propositional mitigation in comparison, in particular, the strategy of assertive mitigation, and to identify the ethno-cultural origins of their differences or similarities. In order to realize the set goal, a relevant sub-corpus was created, on the basis of the transcripts of the Bundestag and UK Parliament sessions for 2020-2024, over 300 transcripts in total. The relevance of the research is conditioned by the fact that the analysis of this phenomenon in political discourse in the comparative aspect of German and British linguocultures has not been carried out before. The paper uses the methods of intent-analysis, content-analysis, corpus analysis, and the method of continuous sampling of material. Based on the results obtained, the conclusion is made about the ethnocultural conditionality of the assertive strategy of mitigation and the tactics representing it in both types of political discourse under study.