Drinkopoly: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Linguistic Representation of Alcohol in British and Russian Newspapers

Autori

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13136/2281-4582/2022.i19.1039

Parole chiave:

Critical Discourse Analysis, Alcohol, Russia, UK, Cross-cultural linguistic studies

Abstract

Drawing from the main theoretical tenets of the socio-cognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, this study investigates the linguistic strategies adopted to represent alcohol in a self-compiled dataset of articles from three British and Soviet (Russian) broadsheets published between 1990 and 2000. While most research on alcohol-related discourse in the UK and the USSR/Russia addresses the question from a socio-economic perspective, insufficient attention has been paid to the complex linguistic relationship between discourse meaning and the ideological instantiation of private and/or socially shared attitudes that guides the public debate on alcohol. The articles have been qualitatively analysed and linked back to three main cognitive models, i.e., legitimisation, delegitimisation, and neutral. The analysis reveals that while Soviet (Russian) newspaper discourse stresses the importance of state-driven alcohol production and sale to replenish the national budget revenue, English newspapers voice greater concern over health issues related to alcohol abuse.

Biografie autore

  • Dario Del Fante, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale "A.Zampolli" - Centro Nazionale Ricerche - Pisa
    Research Fellow
  • Marco Biasio, University of Padova
    Indipendent Researcher

Riferimenti bibliografici

Bednarek, Monika. Evaluation in Media Discourse: Analysis of a Newspaper Corpus. London: A&C Black, 2006.

Bhattacharya, Aveek. Splitting the Bill: Alcohol’s Impact on the Economy. An Institute of Alcohol Studies Report. London: Institute of Alcohol Studies, 2017.

Bhattacharya, Jay, Christina Gathmann and Grant Miller. “The Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign and Russia’s Mortality Crisis.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5.2 (2013): 232-260.

Butler, Shane, et al. Alcohol, Power and Public Health: A Comparative Study of Alcohol Policy. London: Routledge, 2017.

Charteris-Black, Jonathan. “Britain as a Container: Immigration Metaphors in the 2005 Election Campaign.” Discourse & Society 17.6 (2006): 563-582.

---. Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.

Danilova, Inna, et al. “The Changing Relation between Alcohol and Life Expectancy in Russia in 1965-2017.” Drug and Alcohol Review 39 (2020): 790-796.

Dobrić, Nikola and Franzisca Weder. “Media Conceptualizing Illnesses – The Case of the Flu.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 30.1 (2016): 126-142.

van Dijk, Teun A. “Discourse Semantics and Ideology.” Discourse & Society 6.2 (1995): 243-289.

---. “On the Analysis of Parliamentary Debates on Immigration.” The Semiotics of Racism: Approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis. Edited by Reisigl, Martin and Ruth Wodak, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2000. 85-103.

---. “Political Discourse and Political Cognition.” Politics as Talk and Text: Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse. Edited by Paul A. Chilton and Christina Schaffner. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2002. 203-238.

Dmitrieva, Nina. The Russian Mortality Crisis of 1991-2005: Causes, Outcomes and Consequences. MA thesis. Budapest: Central European University, 2019.

Eagleton, Terry. Ideology: An Introduction. London: Verso, 1991.

Edwards, Griffith. Alcohol the Ambiguous Molecule. London: Penguin Science Health, 2000.

Efremov, Steven M. The Role of Inflation in Soviet History: Prices, Living Standards, and Political Change. MA thesis. Johnson City: East Tennessee State University, 2012.

Evans, Eric. Thatcher and Thatcherism. London: Routledge, 2018.

Fairclough, Norman. Language and Power. London: Longman, 1989.

Filatochev, Igor and Roy Bradshaw. “The Soviet Hyperinflation: Its Origins and Impact throughout the Former Republics.” Soviet Studies 44.5 (1992): 739-759.

Fowler, Roger. Language in the News. London: Routledge, 1991.

Fowler, Roger, et al. Language and Control. London: Routledge, 1979.

Harrison, Ewan. The Post-Cold War International System. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Hart, Christopher. Critical Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Science: New Perspectives on Immigration Discourse. Berlin: Springer, 2010.

Hodge, Robert and Gunther Kress. Language as Ideology. London: Routledge, 1993.

Hyland, Ken. Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004.

Hubble, Nick. Mass-Observation and Everyday Life: Culture, History, Theory. Camden: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Jargin, Sergej V. “Alcohol and Alcoholism in Russia since 1985 with Special Reference to the Suicide Rate.” International Journal of Psychiatry 1.2 (2016): 1-7.

Martinic, Marjana and Fiona Measham, edited by. Swimming with Crocodiles: The Culture of Extreme Drinking. London: Routledge, 2016.

McKee, Martin. “Alcohol in Russia.” Alcohol & Alcoholism 34.6 (1999): 824-829.

Measham, Fiona and Kevin Brain. “‘Binge’ Drinking, British Alcohol Policy and the New Culture of Intoxication.” Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal 1.3 (2005): 262-283.

Nemtsov, Alexandr. A Contemporary History of Alcohol in Russia. Trans. Howard M. Goldfinger and Andrew Stickley. Stockholm: Södertörns högskola, 2011.

Nicholls, Johanna. The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009.

---. “Time for Reform: Alcohol Policy and Cultural Change in England since 2000.” British Politics 7.3 (2012): 250-271.

Nosilia, Viviana and Gianfranco Giraudo. “Bere nella Rus.” Ἀλεξάνδρεια-Alessandria: Rivista di glottologia (ΦΙΛΟΙΝ: Studi in onore di Mario Enrietti e Renato Gendre) 6-7 (2014): 395-411.

Office for National Statistics (ONS). Adult Drinking Habits in Great Britain: 2017, 2018. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/drugusealcoholandsmoking/datasets/adultdrinkinghabits.

Pinelli, Erica. “Multimodal Metaphors and Metonymies in Soviet Anti-Alcohol Posters: The Role of the Image of the Bottle and (De)Personification.” Revista de Estudos da Linguagem 30.1 (2022): 85-112.

Piretto, Gian Piero. Quando c’era l’URSS: 70 anni di storia culturale sovietica. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2018.

PMSU (Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit) “Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England.” London: Cabinet Office, 2004.

---. “Interim Analytical Report for the National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.” London: Cabinet Office, 2003.

Reisigl, Martin and Ruth Wodak. Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London: Routledge, 2001.

Ryan, Michael. “Alcoholism and Rising Mortality in the Russian Federation.” BMJ: British Medical Journal 310.6980 (1995): 646-648.

de Saussure, Louis. “Discourse Analysis, Cognition and Evidentials.” Discourse Studies 13.6 (2011): 781-788.

Smelova, Anna. The Temperance Movement: Alcohol and Politics in fin-de-siècle Russia. MA thesis. Budapest: Central European University, 2018.

Smith, Oliver. Contemporary Adulthood and the Night-Time Economy. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014.

Taylor, Charlotte and Jasmin Kidgell. “Flu-like Pandemics and Metaphor Pre-Covid: A Corpus Investigation.” Discourse, Context & Media 41.100503 (2021): 1-11.

Tarschys, Daniel. “The Success of a Failure: Gorbachev’s Alcohol Policy, 1985-88.” Europe-Asia Studies 45.1 (1993): 7-25.

Treisman, Daniel. “Death and Prices: The Political Economy of Russia’s Alcohol Crisis.” Economics of Transition 18.2 (2010): 281-331.

van Wersch, Anna and Wendy Walker. “Binge-Drinking in Britain as a Social and Cultural Phenomenon: The Development of a Grounded Theoretical Model.” Journal of Health Psychology 14.1 (2009): 124-134.

World Bank. “Alcohol Consumption.” World Development Indicators. The World Bank Group, 2021a. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.ALC.PCAP.LI

---. “GDP Growth (Annual %).” World Development Indicators. The World Bank Group, 2021b. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG.World Health Organization. Global Status Report on Alcohol 2004. Geneva: World Health Organization, Dept. of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, 2004.

Dowloads

Pubblicato

2022-06-25

Fascicolo

N. 19 (2022): Coastlines, Oceans and Rivers of North America: Encounters and Ecocrises

Sezione

Articoli (sezione generale) - lingua e linguistica inglese

Licenza

Copyright (c) 2022 Dario Del Fante, Marco Biasio

Creative Commons License

Questo volume è pubblicato con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale 4.0 Internazionale.

Iperstoria è una rivista accademica ad accesso libero.

a. Gli autori detengono il copyright e danno alla rivista il diritto per la prima pubblicazione con il contributo sotto licenza Creative Commons che permette di condividere l’articolo con il riconoscimento della prima pubblicazione su questa rivista.

b. Gli autori possono inoltre stabilire ulteriori direttive contrattuali per la distribuzione non esclusiva della versione del contributo pubblicata sulla rivista (es. ripubblicarlo in archivi istituzionali o in un volume), con uno specifico riconoscimento della prima pubblicazione su questa rivista. Chiediamo pertanto agli autori di contattarci nel caso di eventuali ripubblicazioni.