HOLOPHRASIS IN THE AMERICAN ELECTION DISCOURSE

The article focuses on such language phenomenon as holophrasis. Election discourse may be considered as one of the most productive types of discourse for implementing different kinds of manipulation. Although there are plenty of scientific works related to the language manipulation in the election discourse, holophrasis has never been viewed under this aspect. In spite of the fact, a holophrastic construction comprises several words, they are to be regarded as one. As a result, it accumulates different meanings in its body which results in various interpretations of a holophrastic construction. The article reveals the classification of the main functions of holophrasis in the American election discourse. The context has also been taken into consideration. Due to this, the main objectives of the usage of such constructions have been detected. As it turned out, all holophrastic constructions tend to be multifunctional. There are three main functions of holophrasis which have to do with time saving, enlivening communication to be more emotional and engaging, and eliminating straight speaking to make the utterance sound ambiguous. Some holophrastic constructions were attributed to the means of humour in speech. However, they are quite rare in this type of discourse. The number of holophrastic constructions was calculated in speech of different candidates. The conducted research shows that although holophrasis cannot be found in every election speech or be a characteristic of every speaker in the American election discourse, holophrastic constructions can fulfill the latent intentions of speechmakers.