Semantic dimensions of populism in English (dictionary and corpus data analysis)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to reveal the semantic content of the concept “populism” in modern English. The need to address this topic is driven by the fact that a significant part of the research is dedicated to the analysis of specific forms of populism or populist parties in the aspect of political science, discourse theory, political rhetoric, and ideology. From the standpoint of linguistics, the content of this concept was practically not considered. The study focuses on various structural components of the definitions and illustrative contexts of the word “populism” in British and American explanatory dictionaries and the texts of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Electronic versions of explanatory English dictionaries were used for the analysis: Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary (LEXICO), Cambridge English Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Definitions, dictionary labels, and illustrative contexts of the words “populism” and “populist” were analyzed. The corpus analysis was carried out on the basis of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The semantic content of the concept of populism was revealed by analyzing the collocates and clusters of this lexeme in accordance with the peculiarities of its syntactic representation. The selection of the collocates was carried out on the basis of the MI (mutual information) metric. The results were compared with sort by frequency; matching collocates were selected for analysis. Clusters were allocated within four words to the left or to the right of the node word, the communication distance was medium. The methods of semantic and corpus-oriented analysis, as well as the method of discourse analysis, were used to identify the evaluative tone (semantic prosody) of language units that characterize the ideologeme “populism”. The analysis of dictionary definitions in all considered lexicographical sources showed that the policy of populism is based on antagonism between the elite and the people, the protection of the interests of the people is emphasized as well. In the given examples of the corpus, as well as in the illustrative contexts of the dictionaries, various “types” of populism are mentioned: “traditional” vs. “new”, “good” vs. “bad”, “progressive”, “economic”, “market”, “cultural”. The analysis of the examples showed that both in the function of the semantic object and in the function of the semantic subject, the lexeme “populism” is used mainly with predicates with negative connotations. Attributive collocations also indicate the negative-evaluative connotation. Based on the conducted research, it can be concluded that populism is an extremely heterogeneous phenomenon that manifests itself both in the political and socio-cultural spheres. Populism is based on the system of binary oppositions built on the confrontation of the people and the elite, with attitudes towards nationalism, protectionism, conservatism, authoritarianism, nativism (opposition to immigration), and racism.