Linguopragmatic characteristics of polemical statements (based on the analysis of German-language newspaper articles on energy issues)

Introduction. The paper is dedicated to the linguopragmatic analysis of polemical statements in Germanlanguage media texts on energy issuesThe article studies communicative and pragmatic features of polemical statements. The emphasis is made on functional features of explicit and implicit polemical statements actualizing different degrees of polemics and evaluation.

Materials and methods. The research material includes Germanlanguage articles from German, Austrian and Swiss periodicals published in 2023-2025 and deals with topical energy issues. Within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm of linguistic knowledge, we used discourse analysis, linguopragmatic and contextual analysis techniques, which allowed us to identify and classify the means and strategies of textual implementation of polemics. Special attention was given to the analysis of linguistic means of actualization of polemical potential of statements and their pragmatic functions.

Analysis. The study demonstrates that polemical statements in media texts are actualized both explicitly through direct verbalisation of the author’s intention (open support or criticism of reforms in the energy sector, positive or negative assessment of achievements) and implicitly through the use of means of indirect evaluation and criticism that fulfill the hidden pragmatic purposes of soft persuasion and manipulation. The conducted analysis has shown that polemical discourse in the studied German-language media texts is public and predominantly economic in nature. It has a regulated character, obeying the specific rules of media discourse, and the authors actively broadcast positive and negative attitudes to the object of polemics.

Results. In the process of research, it was established that journalistic polemical texts are the result of multifaceted speech and verbal-cognitive critical activity aimed at fulfilling both informative and evaluative functions in order to form a certain position of the recipient.

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