Generalizing statements as a way to manipulate the consciousness of the mass addressee

Abstract

The article reviews statements with generic semantics or generalizing statements, identifies their structural and semantic features and their potential in mass media discourse. Disconnection from a specific referent and non-temporality should be deemed to be specific of structural and semantic constructions of phrases with generalizing meaning. These features determine how generalizing statements function and how they affect the recipient of information. Generalizing statements are studied in view of the category of authoritativeness — one of the major communicative categories. The article emphasizes that the authoritativeness of generalizing statements is backed up by background linguistic knowledge of linguistic society representatives. The native speaker gets used to perceiving phrases with generalizing meaning (proverbs, aphorisms, maxims) as a linguistic shell containing universal judgments applicable to a number of single-type situations and therefore true. The very linguistic form, which implicitly affects the message recipient’s consciousness and shapes the fideistic perception of information inherent in generalizing statements, becomes authoritative. It can be the basis for manipulation, because a construction patterned after a generalizing statement can sometimes have inaccurate and even deliberately false content inconsistent with reality. Therefore, by using generalizing statements the author can create a distorted world view.