“You are the Murderer!” The Semantic Function of Precedent Phenomena in the Interpretation of a Political Communicative Event in Modern Network Anecdotes

Abstract

The article considers the semantic function of precedent phenomena in the interpretation of a political communicative event in the texts of modern network anecdotes. The material of the study was anecdotes, which actualize the verbal formula “Whoever calls names is called that himself” used by V.V. Putin in response to a statement by Joe Biden during an interview on ABC on March 17, 2021. In the process of analyzing the material, contextual and discursive analysis techniques were used, as well as elements of Intent-analysis and general scientific methods of generalization and comparison. Since ordinary humorous communication reflects the real ideas of Russian citizens about political events in the country, an analysis of the texts of jokes will reveal stable ideas about the government and the international political situation that have developed in the public consciousness. The study reveals that in the texts of anecdotes that appeared as a reaction to the political dialogue of J. Biden and V. Putin, the most frequent are precedent phenomena dating back to children’s folklore. The analyzed cycle of anecdotes is dominated by the topic of children’s yard quarrel, with which relations between the presidents of Russia and America are associatively correlated. Fiction, history and jurisprudence became other areas-sources of precedent phenomena in anecdotes about J. Biden and V. Putin. Due to the use of precedent phenomena dating back to various sources and causing numerous associations, there is a semantic variability in the interpretation of the same political event in ordinary humorous communication.