Lexical-semantic analysis of Russia's image in the modern French press

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to form the image of modern Russia, created in the French press on the basis of linguistic and cultural content analysis of factual material made by the method of continuous sampling of articles from such modern popular French publications as: «Le Monde», «Paris Match», «L'Express», «Le Figaro», «Le Point», «L'Équipe», «Les Échos», «Le Nouvel Observateur». The selection of linguistic material was carried out from various headings of the above mentioned publications. The study examined the following areas covered in the French press: politics (Politique), economy (Économique), culture (Culture), sport (Sport), Santé (COVID – 19); events (Événement) which, in turn, were divided into smaller thematic groups. The French publications listed above are among the most popular both in the country and abroad. For example, «Le Monde «is one of the most famous and quoted French publications in the world, and «Le Figaro « is the oldest national French newspaper, originally a weekly satirical literary magazine, transformed in the middle of the XIX century into an uncensored sensation newspaper. The main result of the study is a layer of linguistic units classified according to the thematic component that describe the image of Russia in the French press. It should be noted that the evaluation marking varies depending on the scope of coverage. Thus, for example, in politics, economics and news covering the pandemic (COVID – 19), the image of Russia is usually presented from a negative point of view, which is reflected in the choice of linguistic and stylistic means. In the field of sports, the connotation of the units used can be both positive (news coverage from the world of lawn tennis) and negative (doping of Russian athletes). The results of the study are presented in the form of a digital indicator, which clearly demonstrates both the choice of the problems covered and the distribution of the actual material within these topics.