Emotive-Evaluative Lexicon in Kazakhstani and Foreign Media: Anthropocentric and Pragmatic Perspectives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11799Abstract
This study investigates the anthropocentric and pragmatic aspects of emotive-evaluative vocabulary in Kazakhstani and foreign media discourse. Based on a corpus of over 2,500 lexical units drawn from Kazakh, Russian, and English sources, the research examines how emotionally charged words and evaluative expressions operate as instruments of persuasion, cultural framing, and identity construction. The findings indicate several noteworthy tendencies. In Kazakhstani media, there is a strong emphasis on national and cultural values such as unity, honor, and morality, which highlights the role of collectivist traditions and patriotic rhetoric. By contrast, foreign media rely more heavily on universal categories such as democracy, justice, and corruption, reflecting broader global ideological concerns. The polarity analysis shows that positive vocabulary is more frequent in Kazakhstani discourse (55%), whereas negative evaluation dominates in foreign outlets (60%), demonstrating divergent journalistic orientations: affirmation versus critique. Genre-based analysis reveals that analytical and opinion pieces contain the highest density of evaluative lexicon, though even news reports employ subtle emotional framing. A particularly important result is the "self–other" opposition: both Kazakhstani and foreign media reinforce collective identity by portraying the "self" positively and the "other" negatively. Semantic distribution further shows the predominance of political and ideological vocabulary (40%), followed by moral, emotional, and socio-cultural fields. Headlines are found to be especially saturated with emotive lexicon, amplifying emotional resonance. Overall, the study enriches anthropocentric and cognitive-pragmatic linguistics and has practical implications for journalism, media literacy, and cross-cultural communication.
Keywords:
Emotive-Evaluative Lexicon, Anthropocentric Linguistics, Media Discourse, Kazakhstan, Pragmatics, Cross-Cultural CommunicationReferences
[1] Bally, C., 1965. Linguistique Générale Et Linguistique Française [General Linguistics and French Linguistics]. Francke: Berne, Switzerland. (in French)
[2] Jakobson, R., 1960. Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics. In: Sebeok, T. (ed.). Style in Language. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, USA. pp. 350–377.
[3] Vinogradov, V.V., 1972. O Yazyke Khudozhestvennoy Prozy [On the Language of Artistic Prose]. Nauka: Moscow, Russia. (in Russian)
[4] Lukyanova, N.A., 2014. Emotsional'naya Leksika Russkogo Yazyka [Emotional Vocabulary of the Russian Language]. Flinta: Moscow, Russia. (in Russian)
[5] Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980. Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, USA.
[6] Plutchik, R., 1980. Emotion: A Psychoevolutionary Synthesis. Harper & Row: New York, NY, USA.
[7] Absattar, A., Mambetova, M., Zhubay, O., 2022. The Potential of Emotive Language to Influence the Understanding of Textual Information in Media Coverage. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 9, 222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01232-2
[8] Shakhovsky, V.I., 2008. Lingvisticheskaya Teoriya Emotsiy [Linguistic Theory of Emotions]. Gnosis: Moscow, Russia. (in Russian)
[9] Fairclough, N., 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Longman: London, UK.
[10] Wodak, R., 2015. The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. Sage: London, UK.
[11] Syzdyk, R., 2004. Sǝz Quidireti [The Power of the Word]. Sanat: Almaty, Kazakhstan. (in Kazakh)
[12] Momynova, B., 2016. Qazaq Publitsistikasynyń Pragmatıkalyq Negızderi [Pragmatic Foundations of Kazakh Publicistics]. Qazaq Universiteti: Almaty, Kazakhstan. (in Kazakh)
[13] Uali, N., 2011. Qazaq Sóz Mádeníetınıń Teorııalyq Negızderı [Theoretical Foundations of Kazakh Speech Culture]. Qazaq Universiteti: Almaty, Kazakhstan. (in Kazakh)
[14] Wierzbicka, A., 1999. Emotions Across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.
[15] Amirzhanova, N., Soltanbekova, A., Urkinbayev, S., et al., 2025. Typology of Orthographic Interference: Linguistic Foundations for Improving the National Writing System. Forum for Linguistic Studies. 7(3), 467–484. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i3.8613
[16] Pivecka, N., Ratzinger, R.A., Florack, A., 2022. Emotions and Virality: Social Transmission of Political Messages on Twitter. Frontiers in Psychology. 13, 931921. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.931921
[17] Bednarek, M., 2019. “Don't Say Crap. Don't Use Swear Words”: Negotiating the Use of Swear/Taboo Words in the Narrative Mass Media. Discourse, Context & Media. 29, 100293. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2019.02.002
[18] Schwartz, S.H., 2012. An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture. 2(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116
[19] Ospanova, D., Sagidolda, G., 2023. Language and Emotion: Emotive Units in Turkic Languages and Their Cultural and Linguistic Features. Journal of Oriental Studies, 105(2), 42–50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26577/JOS.2023.v105.i2.05
[20] Chen, Y., Park, S., 2024. Cross-Cultural Variation in Emotional Expression in Digital News. Discourse & Society. 35(1), 22–40.
[21] Fisher, E., Mehozay, Y., 2019. How Algorithms See Their Audience: Media Epistemes and the Changing Conception of the Individual. Media, Culture & Society. 41(8), 1176–1191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719831598
[22] Tayupova, O.I., 2018. Antropotsentrichnost' Tekstov Mass-Mediynogo Diskursa [Anthropocentricity of Mass Media Discourse Texts]. Rossiiskii Gumanitarnyi Zhurnal. 7(3), 223–229. (in Russian)
[23] Ahmed, S., 2015. The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 2nd ed. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, UK.
[24] Papacharissi, Z., 2015. Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
[25] Chouliaraki, L., 2021. Self-Mediation: New Media, Citizenship and Civil Selves. Routledge: London, UK.
Downloads
Issue
Article Type
License
Copyright © 2025 Adil Absattar, Talgat Ramazanov, Ainagul Sadyk, Akerke Kulbayeva, Uldar Issabekova

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.


Adil Absattar 
