Justice and Equality – The Words and Value Categories of Russian Political Discourse

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Absract: The paper considers the Russian words spravedlivost’ (justice), nespravedlivost’ (injustice) and ravenstvo (equality), as well as their corresponding concepts. It is shown that the words spravedlivost’ and nespravedlivost’ are formally antonyms, because morphologically they differ only in morpheme ne- (“no”). However, their differences go much deeper. The word spravedlivost’ has an abstract meaning; it denotes a value category, while the extensional set of the word nespravedlivost’ is another one: it is used for denoting a wide range of situations where justice as a value concept is violated. For this reason, the word spravedlivost’ is de facto a singulare tantum. At the same time, the Russian word nespravedlivost’ (injustice) has both forms: singular, as well as plural. Differences in semantics between the words under consideration become apparent in metaphorical models, used by the speakers in the interpretation of justice, injustice and equality in Russian political discourse, for which the texts from print media serve as a model.

Keywords: justice, equality, metaphorical model, value category, cognitive approach, descriptor theory of metaphors

: Category: Vol 75, NO 5 (2016)

Pages: 18-32

Author: Anatoly N. Baranov

Information about the author: Doctor of Philological Sciences, Head of Department at the V.V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences), Volkhonka 18/2, Moscow, 119019, Russia baranov_anatoly@hotmail.com

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