POLITICAL DISCOURSEIN TRANSITION IN EUROPE 1989-1991 -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of Contents -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- Note on contributors -- INTRODUCTION POLITICAL DISCOURSE AND THE EUROPEAN TRANSFORMATION -- 1. A Chronology of Change -- References -- 2. Making Sense of the Cold War's Collapse -- Notes -- References -- 3. The Pragmatics of Transition -- References -- PART ONE THE COLLAPSE OF SOVIET DISCOURSE -- 4. The Collapse of Empire and Search for Cultural Identity -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The cultural choice paradigm -- 3. Cultural choice and the character of political discourse -- 4. Cultural choice and geopolitical perspectives -- Notes -- References. -- 5. PROCESSES OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE USSR -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Semiotic aspects of propaganda -- 3. Transformation of the channels of political communication -- Notes -- References -- 6. The Restructuring of Soviet Political Discourse -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Gorbachev's new discourse -- 3. The redefinition of Left and Right -- 4. The redefinition of the 'normal' -- 5. The meaning of 'perestroika' -- 6. Discourses of democracy -- 7. The putsch of August 1991 -- 8. Conclusion -- Notes -- PART TWO POLITICAL VOCABULARY IN TRANSITION -- 7. From Comrades to Consumers: Interpersonal Aspects of the Lexicon -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Language and socieconomic change -- 2.1 gospodin -- 2.2 tovarishch and grazhdanin -- 3. The characteristics of sociolinguistic change -- 3.1 Role of the media -- 3.2 Political discourses -- 4. Conclusion: Social Change and Terms of Address -- Notes -- References -- 8. Breakthrough and Blind Alley: The Lexicon of Perestroika -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Keywords of the Gorbachev period -- 2.1 Perestroika -- 2.2 Proryv (breakthrough) -- 2.3 Konsensus -- 3. Political metaphor and post-communist transformations.

3.1 Perestroika as metaphor -- 3.2 tupik (blind alley) -- 3.3 Èksperiment -- 3.4 Bor'ba (struggle, fight) -- 4. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 9. Opposition Discourse in Russia: Political Pamphlets 1989-1991 -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Lexis in political texts -- 2.1 Expressivity -- 2.2 Flexibility -- 2.3 Manifestivity -- 2.4 Political clichés -- 3. Political pamphlets 1989-91 -- 3.1 Expressivity -- 3.2 Flexibility -- 3.3 Manifestivity -- 4. Conclusion: the characteristics of pamphlet discourse -- Notes -- References -- 10. Justice, Equality and Freedom: The Structure of Value Concepts -- 1. Introduction: cognitive consequences of socio-political revolutions -- 2. Values we live by: justice and freedom -- 2.1 The argumentation potential of justice and freedom -- 2.2 The semantic worlds of justice and freedom -- 3. Myths in Soviet and post-Soviet social consciousness -- 3.1 The myth of the enemy -- 3.2 The myth of order -- 3.3 Faith in the just distributor -- 4. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 11. Continuity and Change: German Discourse after Unification -- 1. Introduction: Language in the GDR -- 2. Discursive strategies in public political speech of the GDR -- 3. Discourse in a transitional period -- 4. Specific and universal discourse strategies: the Regierungserklärung -- 4.1 Macro- and super-structures: PROBLEM-SOLUTION SCHEMATA -- 4.2 The construction metaphor in the SOLUTION block -- 4.3 Legitimisation by means of propositional reduction -- 4.4 Concrete vs. abstract agents -- 4.5 Fight and path metaphors -- 4.6 Characteristics of the text-type 'government declaration' -- 5. Conclusion -- REFERENCES -- 12. Translating the Transition: What is the Russian for 'Perestroika'? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Semantics of Perestroika -- 2.1 Word meaning -- 2.2. The word perestroika as a contested sign -- 3. The Rhetoric of glasnost.

4. The Rise and Fall of Perestroika -- 5. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- PART THREE DISCOURSE, IDENTITY AND CONFLICT -- 13. The Construction of Nation and State: Discourse and Social Space -- 1. Introduction -- 2. We and others: a discourse theory of social space -- 3. The construction of the state in discourse -- 3.1 Defining the state in Britain and France -- 3.2 We and the nation: France -- 3.3 We and nation: the Baltic states in 1989 -- 4. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 14. Cognitive Dimensions of Identity: Ethnic Stereotypes in Poland -- 1. Introduction -- 2. What is a stereotype? -- 2.1 Sociocultural and psychodynamic approaches -- 2.2 The cognitive approach -- 2.3 Function and change of stereotypes -- 2.4 The formation of stereotypes -- 2.5 Stereotypes and prototypes -- 2.6 Descriptive and evaluative aspects of stereotypes -- 3. Stereotypes in Poland -- 3.1 The semantic differential -- 3.2 Distance (evaluative) aspects of ethnic stereotypes -- 3.3 Descriptive aspects of ethnic stereotypes -- 4. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 15. Defining Democracy: Transitional Discourse in Georgia 1990-1991 -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The political situation between October 1990 and October 1991 -- 3. The instability of political discourse -- 3.1 The concept of democracy in the discourse of the Georgian president -- 3.2 The discourse of opposition -- 4. The linguistic construction of events in Georgia, September 1991 -- 5. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 16. Language and Identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina -- 1. The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina -- 2. Linguistic pluralism -- 3. Language and political Identity -- 4. Language and violence -- Notes -- References -- INDEX.