Cultural Linguistics as a Unique Basis for Language Data Interpretation

Introduction

Cultural linguistics cross-disciplinary character is based on several humanitarian disciplines. That is why cultural linguistics itself considers to be a new interdisciplinary trend in scientific researches which forms the basis for another aspect of language data interpretation. The research sphere is comparatively young, but despite of this it has already won the privilege place in modern linguistics. Cultural linguistics researches were started at the end of the XX century. The appearance and further development of theoretical foundation was conditioned by the enormous volume of cultural and language interdependence data. Gradually the description and analysis of the data helped to form the scientific understanding that language units are characterized not only by semantic meaning but also by additional information about culture, cultural values, moral standards etc. It was described that cultural information was situated in language units, that means while studying the language we can have an access to the culture of a certain people in a certain country. As this idea spread, it was understood that there was a necessity of theoretical knowledge and the description of an object and subject of the new linguistic science. So, the language and culture correlation became the object of scientific cultural linguistics analysis. As for the subject of the new discipline – it was the interpretation of cultural knowledge from linguistics aspect of analysis. The main idea of the descried linguistics paradigm is to understand the people’s cultural and moral values, which can be found in their language.

The article is devoted to the study of British, American and Spanish mass media language used to define President of Russian Federation V. Putin political carrier, his deeds and ways of performing his political role in the country. Through language analysis, we shall come to the understanding of cultural values of these people.
After modern ways of publicity appearing media sources social and political impact and influence in the world has intensified. The importance of media sources influencing the life of society, its point of view, public opinion creation towards certain realities, facts, events and persons is obvious. The crucial role of these processes belongs to such well-regarded publishing companies as Forbes, Stratfor, Reuters, BBC, The Guardian and others. The main reason for this fact is the fact that English language is international (total population speaking this language is two billions of people, while 400 millions of them are native speakers) (Crystal, 2008). That being said specifically mass-circulation and high rating publishing companies and their online versions of aforementioned newspapers have considerable impact on the society.

Certain Spanish media sources such as El Mundo, El Periodico, El Confidencial and their electronic versions available in open sources of the Internet are also of interest for the current research. The reason for that is the number of Spanish speaking population being 580 million of people, 483 million of whom are native speakers (El español, una lengua que hablan 580 millones de personas, 483 millones de ellos nativos, 2019). Due to some historical reasons and, as a consequence, the popularity of Spanish language it is spoken not only in Spain, but in the countries of Africa, Oceania and South Africa. So, the reflection of Spanish native speakers worldview and the linguistic units used for certain realities, facts and persons description needs particular research.

All aforementioned factors allow us to make a statement that the research of the linguacultural aspect of linguistic units used by British, American and Spanish media sources to create the image of V. Putin is highly essential due to the big number of these two languages both native and second language speakers.

While researching the articles of such publishing companies different linguistic units (metaphors, epithets, phrasal verbs, phraseological units, idioms and others) and their cultural features are of special interest. Social and political events are describe with the help of them and descriptions and evaluations of any kind are given to persons and their actions. In this article we study linguistic units used for creation of politician image and the connection between these units choice and the cultural particularities of their authors. The main goals of the current research are:

1. the detection and analysis of linguistic units used for creation of V. Putin’s image in British, American and Spanish language articles not older than three years;

2. linguistic means and ways to form Russian president image detection;

3. comparison of two cultures obtained resultsс, defining common and different features in cultural approaches to create politician image.

Methods

This article is based on systematic approach to the cultural linguistics analysis. Due to the cross-disciplinary approach, we take into account the anthropocentric factor, linguistic and extra-linguistic data. To reach all the aforementioned goals of the research the following scientific methods have been used: continuous sampling method on the first stage. Then, after detecting all the contexts of linguistic units used in English and Spanish news articles to create V. Putin’s image contextual analysis, lingo-stylistical analysis and content analysis methods were applied. At the final stage of the research all the obtained results have been analyzed with the help of contrastive-comparative method and have undergone linguistic and cultural linguistic interpretation.

Results and discussion

It is well known, that scientists from a great number of countries are into studying cultural linguistics. There are such modern authors as T.V. Evsyukova, E. Yu. Boutenko (2015), Z.K. Sabitova (2015) and V.M. Shaklein, who presented his researches in a monograph (Shaklein, 2017). There are also European researchers studying this scientific discipline, among whom P.A. Ishida, Szerszunowicz, J., Szerszunowicz, J., Yagi, K. (Szerszunowicz et al., 2015).

The main emphasis in the works of aforementioned authors turns out to be on the correlation between language and culture in its functioning, which appears to be interesting and vibrant for the current research.

09.03.17 Paul Roderick Gregory published an article in the magazine “Forbes”, where the sentence “Putin is seen as constantly wrong-footing hapless Western leaders, who must react to him, rather than vice-versa” could be found (Gregory, 2017). Two epithets at once are used in the analyzed expression wrong-footing hapless. The first one, wrong-footing, is adjective and participle I and has negative connotation. It describes a person constantly messing with somebody, tripping somebody and poking sticks into spokes. The second one, halpless, is also an adjective and refers to people, being messed with, describing their being ruthful and upset. So that it possesses negative connotative meaningю

The expression strong leader from the same article arouses our interest from the linguistic point of view in the sentence “Trump characterized Putin as a “strong leader” and refused to condemn him for his military aggression and abuse of dissidents” (Gregory, 2017). The aforementioned figure of speech (epithet) is interesting because of being comparison expressed by conjunction as. Epithet strong has positive connotation itself. Strong leader is a person who is capable not only to take responsibility for his words and actions, but for the actions and work of his followers.

The following context “Vladimir Putin cruised to victory in Sunday’s presidential elections in a result that was never in question” (Roth, 2018b) from the article of Andrew Roth published 18.03.18 in the newspaper “The Guardian”, outstands within our scientific work. The verb to cruise is used in active voice and possesses positive connotative meaning because describes easy way of gaining a victory.

The metaphor play the peacemaker, used in the context “But Putin sought to play the peacemaker at a meeting with his seven defeated presidential challengers in the Kremlin” (Roth, 2018c) from the article, published by Andrew Roth in the English newspaper “The Guardian” 19.03.18 is noteworthy. From our point of view it has positive connotation, originality and linguistic figurativeness, as a consequence. The metaphor describes a person eager either to make peace between several parties, or console looser parties. We assume that it was used in the second meaning in aforementioned context.

We come across with an ironic metaphor Putin 4.0 with negative connotative meaning, linguistic figurativeness, and originality, used in the headline “Putin 4.0: as Russian president prepares for fourth term, what next?” (Roth, 2018b) of the article by the same author, published in the same newspaper, but 18.03.18. The fourth presidential term of V. Putin here is metaphorically compared with software update, that is numbered the same way, starting with the first version 1.0 and iterating by one each time. Number four tells us that it is already the fourth term of Russian leader, which is a rare thing in democratic states.

Similar metaphor is used in the sentence “The protests, backed by middle-class urban Russians, shaped Putin 3.0” (Roth, 2018b) in the same article, referring to the third presidential term of V. Putin. Analyzed metaphor possesses negative connotative meaning, linguistic figurativeness and originality. As in a previous researched context, the third presidential term of V. Putin is ironically compared with the third in succession software update.

Further on, the three-part metaphor context “Putin is a savvy pupil of history” (Goodrich, 2017), published in Forbes by Lauren Goodrich in “Forbes” 05.07.17 is analyzed. A figure of speech savvy pupil of history is of interest in the context. It has positive connotation, highlighting V. Putin’s outstanding qualities of person well educated in historical and political peculiarities and details. The metaphor of our interest possesses linguistic figurativeness and originality due to not having being used before in similar context.

It’s written in the “Forbes” article published by Kenneth Rapoza 14.06.17 “He is all chessboard political intrigue” (Rapoza, 2017a). V. Putin is compared with a chess master playing an exquisite game on the world political chessboard. It is obvious that the word intrigue adds to not original expression negative connotation, but the linguistic figurativeness hasn’t been lost.

Going on analyzing Kenneth Rapoza’s publications, the following sentence : “In moments with the international press, Putin is famous for bringing up past breaches of confidence between Washington and Moscow” (Rapoza, 2017b) is read in the article published 30.03.17. The aforementioned figure of speech can be called an original one, possessing linguistic figurativeness. It triggers certain emotions, connected with breaches and breaks in a wall, the state of which is been artificially worsening. The connotative meaning of the metaphor is negative.

The title of Paul Roderick Gregory’s article, published in the same magazine 26.12.16 , goes “Putin already playing nuclear poker with Trump” (Gregory, 2016). The analogy with poker cards game where a player has to use all possible psychological tricks to win, even loosing, possesses linguistic figurativeness as well as originality. Judging the wider context of the article it can be stated that the metaphor has negative connotation.

The linguistic interest is presented by the figure of speech Putin and the seven dwarves in the title “The Russian election: Putin and the seven dwarves” (Horsfield, 2018) of the article published by professor Dorothy Horsfield 16.03.18. This figure makes reference to popular tale “Snow White and the seven dwarfs” written in 19th century by brothers Grimm. The tale tells about seven small dwarves, serving in all ways main character of the fairytale, V. Putin is associated with on the principle of priority. Given this the conclusion that analyzed context doesn’t have originality, having linguistic figurativeness can be made. Seven V. Putin’s political rally opponents being compared with dwarves, we can state that the metaphor possesses negative connotative meaning.

The headline “How Putin checkmated The US in Syria” (Borshchevskaya, 2017) of the article published by Anna Borshchevskaya in “Forbes” magazine contains metaphor with positive connotation, which is based on chess qualities contagion to political actions. Thus, political “moves” are compared with chess moves and politicians are compared with chess masters. Political victories are compared with the main goal of chess – a checkmate. The analyzed figure doesn’t possess originality, not loosing linguistic figurativeness.

Following the metaphor component parts gradation, the four component parts metaphor is analyzed. There is a sentence in the “Forbes” article published by Paul Roderick Gregory 09.03.17 “Vladimir Putin has gained his reputation as a strategic thinker and mover by being one step ahead of his opponents” (Gregory, 2017). The context possesses a figure of speech with positive connotation, which is of research interest. There are a lot of play activity, where somebody can be one or several steps ahead of an opponent (chess, for example). In the analyzed context the analogy is drawn with one of such activities. The trop is widely spread, which has lost linguistic figurativeness, and so originality.

Lauren Guderich article published in the same magazine 05.07.17 is of our research interest “To the world - and to much of Russia, as well - Putin was an enigma, having made his name in St. Petersburg rather than in the capital” (Goodrich, 2017). The Russian president is compared with an enigma, mystery. The analyzed comparison, consisting of noun, verb and noun possesses negative connotation because everything unexplainable and mysterious has been always associated by a person with negative, suspicious attitude to.

The researched noun from “Economist” magazine article headline “A tsar is born” (A tsar is born, 2017) published 26.10.17 is tsar. In spite of monarchy not being current governmental form of Russia, V. Putin is compared to tsar. Aforementioned comparison possesses negative connotative meaning because the author supposes that a person possessing this title can have absolute authority even seeking lucre.

The sentence “Both liberal reformers and conservative traditionalists in Moscow are talking about Mr Putin as a 21st-century tsar” (A tsar is born, 2017) is found in the early analyzed article “A tsar is born” published in magazine “Economist” 26.10.17. It contains comparison consisting of conjunction, numeral and two nouns. Negative connotated comparison is linked to tsar again.

V. Putin gave speech in favor of Russian athletes, supporting them and showing willingness to help them in 2017, after international doping scandal. That was a reason for American financial-economical magazine “Forbes” published 06.12.17 an article with headline “How Putin is standing up for athletes amid Russia's doping Winter Olympics ban” (Tornoe, 2017). The phrasal verb to stand up for is of interest, that according to “Longman phrasal verbs dictionary” can have a meaning of supporting or defending a person, idea or principle when they are being attacked or criticized (Longman phrasal verbs dictionary: over 5000 phrasal verbs, 2000, 499). The phrasal verb from this very context, consisting of a verb and two prepositions, possesses positive connotation because the act of defense itself is an example of positive behavior, approved by society.

The same phrasal verb was used in the article published in British newspaper “The Guardian” 19.03.18, where the speech of V. Matvienko about main V. Putin’s goals was cited “It is now obvious to everyone that Putin pursues an independent foreign policy and stands up for the national interests that the citizens of our country share,” Valentina Matviyenko, head of the federation council, told the Russia 24 television station on Monday” (Roth, 2018c). The connotation and the reasons of its being positive in this context are equal to a previous one.

The context of phrasal verb to win over with positive connotation in the sentence “But his decisive leadership as head of the security services, prime minister and then president soon won the Russian people over” (Goodrich, 2017) from the Forbes article published 05.07.17. According to “Longman phrasal verbs dictionary” it has meaning of persuading somebody to support you, especially under the condition of their not doing it before (Longman phrasal verbs dictionary: over 5000 phrasal verbs, 2000, 591).

According to “Longman phrasal verbs dictionary” the phrasal verb to strike back, used in the headline “Putin strikes back: 'no interference' with Trump election” (Rapoza, 2017b) of the “Forbes” article, published 30.03.17 is used in the meaning of criticism in reply (Longman phrasal verbs dictionary: over 5000 phrasal verbs, 2000, 514). The topic of suppositive Russia’s meddling in the USA elections is discussed in the article in a negative way, which added negative connotative meanings to the whole context.

Phrasal verb to crack down on, consisting of a verb and two prepositions, is met in the sentence “He dismantled regional dissent, cracked down on the oligarchs, nationalized strategic assets, weeded out political challenges and rallied nationalism” from the article published in “Stratfor” 15.03.18 (Goodrich, 2018). According to the definition given in “Longman phrasal verbs dictionary”, the verb to crack down on is used here in the meaning of “to become stricter to something or somebody” (Longman phrasal verbs dictionary: over 5000 phrasal verbs, 2000, 108). On the principle that sudden or systematic attitude toughening towards somebody cannot be unnoticed and without any reaction in response, it can be stated that it would lead to relations deterioration which is the base for this context having negative connotation.

Previous phrasal verb is related to to push out used in the sentence “He pushed out oligarchs, and pushed out the opposition” (Roth, 2018a) from “The Guardian” article, published 18.03.18. The short V. Putin activity review as a president of the Russian Federation is given in the article. The definition “to force somebody to loose their position” is given in “Longman phrasal verbs dictionary” (Longman phrasal verbs dictionary: over 5000 phrasal verbs, 2000, 391). That being said the attitude in democratic circles towards a person forced opposition to loose their position would be only negative.

At this stage of our research it is proposed to move to analyzing contexts from Spanish sources and comparing detected linguistic units with already analyzed ones to identify cultural similarities and differences.

V. Putin in the headline “Putin saca músculo y artificios en la inauguración del Mundial de Rusia” (Cabeza, 2018) of Gonzalo Cabeza’s article published in Spanish newspaper “El confidencial” is presented as a person loving to show off and brag on a lot of international public and sport events. To create such an effect the metaphor sacar músculo y artificios, which is translated as flex/show off muscles and virtuosity is used. It creates negative connotative meaning for the whole sentence, showing the president of Russia as a boastful person, not being against to flex muscles in front of audience.

The sentence “En este contexto, con todos los ojos puestos en Trump, Putin ha podido permitirse danzar por la cumbre como un bailarín experto, al ritmo de su propia música secreta” (Iriarte, 2018) is met in the article with headline “Putin, el gran beneficiado del G-20”, published by Daniel Iriarte in the Spanish newspaper “El confidencial” 02.12.18. The ironic comparison of V. Putin with experienced ballet dancer causes reader’s smile and a little disgust. The metaphor su propia música secreta V. Putin is dancing to, shows his ability to conceal his real intentions and plans from the rest of the people and to follow these plans. Both figures of speech add negative connotation to the whole sentence.

There is a phrase “Vladimir, un sexy chico de calendario” under the photo of Russian president in the article of Jorge C. Parcero under the title of “Vladimir Putin arrasa como pin-up de calendario en Japón”, published in the Spanish newspaper “El Confidencial” 18.12.18 (Parcero, 2018). This ironical comparison is motivated by the necessity of adding negative connotative meaning to the whole article. The following sentence from the same article is “Pero no se trata de un actor o un cantante de J-Pop: es el mismísimo Vladimir Putin, presidente de Rusia y 'macho man' a tiempo complete” with the word macho, which is like the first context used to ridicule V. Putin’s physical shape and behavior in media space. The negative connotation remains unchanged.

The sentence “Lo cierto es que el exagente de la KGB nos tiene acostumbrados a posar en circunstancias de lo más inusuales y a provocar memes con sus fotos” from the same article contains assumption that V. Putin’s photographs are worthy mems (jokes in the Internet) creating. This is somewhat the continuation of irony usage towards the calendar with Russian president sells among Japanese young people success.

The last context of comparison for creating V. Putin’s image by Spanish authors is the sentence “Hombre ruso fuerte como toro, listo como tractor”, where the strength of V. Putin is firstly compared with a bull strength and his mental agility is compared with the work of a tractor, which is an oxymoron. A tractor, as one of primitive transport means and tools cannot be mental agile by default. So, the first positive connotated comparison is neutralized by the following negative oxymoron, which adds irony to the whole sentence.

The “'Pozdravlyayu', Kamarrada Putin: el presidente ruso cumple 61 años” article of Javier Díaz is published in Spanish newspaper “El Confidencial” 07.10.17. In the beginning of it Russian president is compared with a myth in the sentence “Vladimir, el hombre/el mito: descubre 15 datos que probablemente desconocías del presidente ruso” (Díaz, 2017). There is an ironic comparison used due to the necessity of characterizing the popularity and reputation of V. Putin in the world. Connotative meaning is negative. In one of the next sentences with neutral connotation from the article “A Vladimir Putin le toca hoy soplar velas” it is offered to V. Putin to snuff out a candle, which is a metaphor of celebrating a birthday. Javier Díaz describes Russian president as a macho alfa of a flock in the same article “Putin va a pasar a la historia por muchas razones: por su oscuro pasado, por su polémico presente, por considerar a los gais poco menos que hijos de Satanás, por esa pinta de macho alfa de la manada y por posar muchas veces en actitud de protohéroe (unas veces con el torso desnudo y otras con animales salvajes y exóticos...)”. He also says that V. Putin was the main character of such occasions when he was with a nude tors or saving a rare exotic animals. An ironic comparison with negative connotation is used in the first part of the sentence, while he is compared to a main character with the help of original word without any analogies found in open sources. However the assumption can be made that the connotative meaning of such a comparison is positive because it is made with a main hero.

The sentence “En su 61 cumpleaños, repasamos algunas de las gestas del presidente con más pinta de estrella del rock” is come across with in the same article, where the actions and acts of Russian president are metaphorically described with the word “gestas”, which is translated as heroic deed. It makes an allusion to twelve deeds of myth hero Grackle. The image of V. Putin is compared with the image of a rock-star, making all the situation a pompous one. The first figure of speech possesses neutral connotation and the second – negative. In the last part of the article the following sentence “Ama a los perros y a veces los lleva a sus reunions políticas. Algunos dicen que es para asustar a los líderes mundiales” can be read. The burlesque hypothesis about V. Putin’s taking dogs to political meetings to frighten world leaders is made. Such a figure is used to make the image of Russian president more frightening, adding a negative connotative meaning to the context.

V. Putin’s accession to presidency is metaphorically compared to ascension the throne in the headline “El día en que Vladimir Putin subió al trono” of Xavier Colás article published in the Spanish newspaper “El mundo” 31.12.19 (Colás, 2019a). It makes the reader think of Vladimir Putin as a monarch. It is considered that the usage of such a figure of speech adds negative connotation to the whole context. Further on a similar context of figure of speech usage is met in the article “Nadie sabía en ese momento que los siguientes 20 años discurrirían bajo su 'reinado', bien sea desde el Kremlin o desde la oficina de primer ministro”. The author repeats his analogy with reign, putting quotes around the word reinado. The reason for this linguistic unit usage is the same like in the previous context. Connotative meaning is negative. The next context from the article is “Partidarios y detractores tienen dificultades para describir una Rusia sin él”, in which Xavier Colás states the difficulties V. Putin’s supporters and detractors face while describing Russia without him. The author usese contrastive words to describe the importance of current Russian president role, adding positive connotation to the whole sentence. The final Xavier Colás’s article context is of particular interest due to its low usage frequency. It is sentence “Putin nunca da pistas”, in which V. Putin is mentioned in the phrase common to police or intelligence parlance “leave no trace”. The author of the article deliberately hints at spy past of Russian president, using such an allusion. In spite of this allusion being so vibrant the connotation is neutral.

The same author of the same newspaper but in the new headline “Putin reina en Oriente Próximo entre bandos enfrentados” of the article published 20.10.19 uses the verb reinar, which is used only in cases of monarchy form of state rule, which is not Russia (Colás, 2019b). Such decision can be the result of necessity to present V. Putin as one who consciously benefits from different groups conflict in the Middle East, and moreover hypothetically controlling the situation. It is clear that the connotative meaning of the context is negative.

The word chaval is used in Xavier Colás article headline “Putin, un 'chaval' de 67 años: quién está detrás de los posados del president” published in Spanish newspaper “El mundo” 10.10.19 to describe Russian president (Colás, 2019c). It’s obvious that words of such text style are not used in publicistic style texts, however the author decides to use conversational style linguistic unit to make the image of V. Putin. The connotation of aforementioned metaphorical context is negative. There is a clear comparison of the Russian Federation president to “chap, fellow, boy” in the sentence from the same article “Nada, cabalga, camina, trepa y corre como un chaval”. The word chaval from this context is used as a part of comparison. Unlike the previous phrase the connotative meaning of the whole phrase is positive, because only persons in a young age can be so physically active and a shape like V. Putin has, according to the author. Russian president is compared to a disciplined photography model in one of the following sentences “Testigos presenciales aseguran que Putin es un disciplinado modelo fotográfico” of the same article. It is another comparison with a positive connotation to highlight moderation and discipline of V. Putin taking part in a photo session for news outlets. The author calls V. Putin and S. Shoigu, Defense Secretary, “two mature explorers” in the final context of the current article “Al parecer resulta difícil no perder de vista a estos dos maduritos exploradores”. The motivation of such a figure of speech usage is obvious – to make a reader smile or even quiz. This kind of irony add negative connotation to the whole statement.

The article with a headline “Putin saca pecho en el quinto aniversario de la anexión de Crimea” by Marc Marginedas was published in Spanish newspaper “El Periodico” 18.03.19 (Marginedas, 2019). The author uses metaphor “sacar pecho” to describe the behavior of V. Putin during the event occasioned with the 5th anniversary of Crimea entering the Russian Federation. Such figure of speech adds negative connotation to the whole headline and, consequently, the reader’s attitude towards the described event and its main characters is formed.

Georgina Higueras, the author of the article “Putin, el espía que resucitó a Rusia” published in the same newspaper 20.11.19, remembers V. Putin’s previous occupation and then says that he was able to restore Russia (Higueras, 2019). The first linguistic unit contains negative connotative meaning due to the word “spy” chosen to describe Russian president, but not any other neutral one. The second part contains positive connotation because there is positive connotated information about V. Putin being able to stabilize country after not easy post-soviet period and B. Yeltsin’s retiral.

The aithor calls V. Putin tsar in the sentence “Después de que el hundimiento de la Unión Soviética lo dejara sumido en la ruina, el 'zar' Putin ha vuelto a convertir su país en un actor fundamental de la geopolítica del siglo XXI” from the same article. It is this very context that is of our research interest, because in the majority cases of tsar epithet usage for describing Russian president is negative. However the aforementioned context is positive, depicting a person who has returned his own country key role of 21st century geopolitical player.

Georgina Higueras tells in the sentence “En pacientes y audaces jugadas ha resucitado el alma imperial de Rusia y extendido su influencia por el planeta” that V. Putin was able to overcome long suffering and stout “games” to revive Russian imperial soul. The metaphor with soul revival colorfully describes V. Putin’s job and possesses positive connotation.

The author of the analyzed article makes comparison with a chess game describing V. Putin policy in the sentence “Espía del KGB durante 16 años, según su biografía oficial, el presidente ruso avanza sus peones en cada paso en falso de su homólogo estadounidense y ocupa los agujeros dejados por Donald Trump en Oriente Próximo, África, Asia, Europa e incluso en América Latina”. Russian president moves his “pawns” in fualty left by his colleague D. Trump countries in the Middle East, African, Asian, European and Latin American countries in a positively connotated metaphor of Georgina Higueras. That’s how the author metaphorically compares chess pawns to political interests, that V. Putin tries to pursue in aforementioned regions.

However the writer calls exterior actions of Russian president exterior escapades in the one of the following sentences “Sus aventurerismos exteriores, sin embargo, molestan cada día más a muchos de sus ciudadanos, cansados de la corrupción y la burocracia que alimenta a una oligarquía alejada del sentir de la mayoría”. Due to the usage of such metaphor adds negative connotation to the sentence.

Georgina Higueras uses two figures of speech at once in the conclusive sentence of the article “Este verano se produjeron protestas multitudinarias contra quien dirige el país con puño de hierro desde hace 19 años, ya que ideó un artificio para mantenerse en el poder sin violar la Constitución, que solo autoriza dos mandatos presidenciales consecutivos”. So V. Putin is described as one ruling the country with an iron grip in the first context, which obviously makes the description more daunting because of the evident negative connotative meaning. In the second context he is shown as a person who has used artfulness to stay in power without violating Constitution. Russian president is depicted in the sentence as a cunning politician. The connotation is negative.

The article titled “La ópera rock del candidato Vladimir Putin” was published by Xavier Colás in the Spanish newspaper “El mundo” 03.03.18 Russia (Colás, 2018a). The metaphor “rock opera” with a positive connotation is used in the very headline of the article. It was used to outstandingly describe V. Putin, his 2018 election campaign and speech in front of electors at Moscow stadium “Luzhniky”.

There is one of the following sentences from this article “El todopoderoso presidente ruso se presenta a la reelección en una mezcla de festival musical, mitin y celebración religiosa ante 100.000 fieles en un estadio moscovita”, in which Russian president is described with the help of epithet “all powerful”. It possesses negative connotation in this context because the whole article presents negative attitude towards V. Putin.

In one of the next sentences the author describes positively Russian president, outlining his excellent physical shape: “Hace solo un mes se dio un baño en las frías aguas de un lago con motivo de la festividad del Bautismo de Cristo y el pasado verano se volvió a despojar de la camiseta para mostrar su excelente forma física durante una de sus excursiones siberianas”.

One of such V. Putin characteristics and descriptions contexts can be come across with in the sentence “No deja el judo y, pese a una caída del nivel de vida y un aumento de la pobreza en este último mandato, su buena salud demoscópica es a prueba de bomba”, in which the health of the president is positively referred to as strong and as something, that wide public has access to.

The speech that V. Putin gave in front of the numerous crowd is ironically called “mass” in the last sentence of the article “De la misa de Putin cada uno sale con una idea”. The Russian president is ironically compared with a religious figure meeting and talking with such religious people. The connotative meaning is negative.

The same author published an article titled “Vladimir Putin, gendarme de Eurasia” in Spanish newspaper “El mundo” 14.09.18, where V. Putin is frighteningly called gendarme of Eurasia (Colás, 2018b). The usage of such a comparison with negative connotation is motivated by the author’s necessity to create the image of a negative, ominous, savage politician, eager to control the whole Eurasia.

Xavier Colás article was published in the same newspaper 08.10.18. It was headlined “Vladimir Putin, un 'superhombre' en horas bajas”, where Russian president is called superman in hard times (Colás, 2018c). This comparison possesses positive connotation, describing V. Putin’s moral fibre and tranquility despite of his approval ratings having dropped.

In one of the following sentences “El líder ruso celebra su 66 cumpleaños en plena ofensiva para recuperar una popularidad en caída libre, fomentando el culto a su gran físico” of this article the author underlines the cult of “great physical shape” of Russian president, which he keeps in tone and develops. The irony to the sentence is added by the quotation-marks of this phrase. The connotative meaning is negative.

The sentence “Es difícil imaginar qué deseo pide un ex agente secreto al soplar las velas, pero este año hay mucho que arreglar” of the same article contains oxymoron “the former secret agent, blowing out birthday cake candles”, that ironically conjoins the main character, usually presented as a masculine, brutal and cool, following the custom natural for children. The connotation is negative.

In the conclusive sentence “Pero el 'show' de Putin empieza de verdad cuando se desgranan las capacidades del superhombre que preside el país” of the article Xavier Colás ironically names the political activity of V. Putin “show”, that will truly start when the abilities of superman, ruling the country, run low. It is obvious, that using such a negative figure of speech the author tries to form readers’ negative and disrespectful attitude towards Russian president.

“Los juegos de guerra de Putin asustan a Europa” is the headline of Xavier Colás article, published in Spanish newspaper “El mundo” 25.08.17 (Colás, 2017). The phrase “the war games of Putin” and the verb “to scare”, used to describe army manoeuvres, held by Russia from 14 to 20 of September 2017 draws attention of researchers to itself. Both linguistic units are chosen by article author not by chance, but deliberately to add more negative connotation to the headline and martialism and aggressiveness to Russian president. Army manoeuvres, so called further on in article by the author, are “the war of Putin” making his a person controlling a war, which is a word originally stronger connotated, than “manoeuvres” or “exercises”. The verb “to scare” possesses negative connotative meaning, differentiating Russian president and European countries in the conscious of readers.

The article “Desde Rusia con ardor” of Josep Cuní published in Spanish newspaper “El periodico” 04.01.20 contains differently-phrased Ian Fleming book title “From Russia with love” with neutral connotation allusion to its main character – V. Putin, Russian president (Cuní, 2020). The word ardor, “passion, pluck” describes well author’s attitude throughout the whole article to Russian president. He describes V. Putin as energetic, polemic, astute, sporty, nondrinker and as a person keeping control of everything in the sentence “Esta semana se han cumplido 20 años desde la llegada al poder de Vladímir Putin, líder polémico, astuto, deportista, abstemio y controlador”. There are epithets with positive connotative meaning (energetic, sporty, nondrinker) as well as with negative (polemic, astute, keeping control of everything) in one sentence. The author’s attitude towards the personality of V. Putin is controversial and complex, which is depicted in the list of contrary epithets.

It is read in the following sentence “Vladímir Vladimirovich Putin (Leningrado, Unión Soviética, 7 de octubre de 1952) ha tenido la capacidad de saber estar en el lugar adecuado en el momento oportuno” of Josep Cuní that he considers V. Putin a politician capable of being in the right place in the right time, which shows person’s ability to adapt to changing conditions (a necessary ability of a politician). The connotative meaning is positive.

The author of the article uses conversational style verb to snick in the sentence “Se había colado en las filas del disidente Yeltsin y a los dos años ya era su primer ministro”, supporting his own position about Russian president being astute, that Josep Cuní states in the beginning of his publication. The connotation is negative.

The author states that Russian president has managed that his country became powerful again in the final sentence of the article “Líder polémico, astuto, deportista, abstemio y controlador, ha conseguido que su país vuelva a ser considerado una potencia para satisfacción de sus compatriotas y preocupación de sus adversaries”. The figure of speech antithesis is used to intensify this statement, with the help of which satisfied compatriot and preoccupied ill-wisher are antithesized. Making conclusion based on the author’s ideas subsequence, it can be said that a politician who has managed exactly this very effect can be called successful which makes the connotation of the whole phrase positive.

Conclusions

68 context of linguistic units usage have been analyzed during the research, 21 of which have been detected in 5 British and American printed and online sources and 47 have been detected in 3 Spanish printed sources with 64 linguistic units, respectively. There have been 9 contexts with positive connotative meaning, 13 with negative and 0 with neutral among analyzed English contexts and 23, 37 and 4 among Spanish ones.

Thereby it can be stated that Spanish speaking authors far more often tend to use connotative words to create the image of V. Putin in their article than English authors do. According to our opinion, there can be several reasons for that:

1. Larger linguistic possibilities of figures of speech than in English language.

2. Current international relationships conditions during the period of article writing and publication.

3. Author cultural influence on their language and articles style.

In our research we tend to suppose that one of the major factors from the aforementioned list is the third one, because the Spanish connotative words usage for creating V. Putin’s image frequency has turned out to be 3 times higher than English and the number of context 2 times higher, respectively, while the number of analyzed articles was even. It is used to consider Spanish people being more expressive and loquacious than Anglo-Saxons. Such statement finds resonance in our research.

All goals of current research (the detection and analysis of linguistic units used for creation of V. Putin image in the English and Spanish language articles not older than 3 years; linguistic means and ways to describe Russian president image detection; comparison of two cultures obtained resultsс, defining common and different features in cultural approaches to creating politician image) are considered to be reached.

In conclusion it is necessary to mention the importance of continuation researches in this direction, because English and Spanish speaking authors don’t stop using new linguistic units to create the images of politicians. They are to be payed attention to, analyzed and researched to reveal the trends of usage and reach a deeper understanding of the way English and Spanish native speakers perceive events and actions.