Frame modeling of national values and anti-values in E. Macron’s New Year’s addresses

https://doi.org/10.26907/2658-3321.2022.5.3.389–403

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the head of state’s New Year addresses’ features. New Year address is analysed as a genre of political discourse. The authors pursue the goal of identifying the value constants of the French-speaking areas, which are actualized in the texts of the President's New Year's addresses. The research material is the texts of the French President Emmanuel Macron’s New Year addresses in the period of 2018-2022 years. The study is based on the method of frame modeling. There are two key frames: values ​​and disvalues ​​of representatives of a single state. The structure of the “values” frame is represented by the following slots: family, health, mutual respect, work, world peace, humanism, environmental safety, education, personality, rights and freedoms of every citizen, unity of European peoples, brotherhood and unity of spirit, love for France, self-esteem. The “disvalues” frame includes such slots as illness, loneliness, violence, disagreement, negative traits of the French mentality (in particular, selfishness, snobbery, cynicism, greed, obscurantism, deceit and pessimism). The study establishes the prevalence of values ​​over disvalues ​​in the President's New Year addresses, as well as the possibility of their division into three subframes: universal, European and French values/disvalues. It is concluded that the head of state’s New Year addresses reflect the national value dominants and the mentality peculiarities of this state’s residents.