Fabricated frames as a way of erasing historical memory (based on the discourse of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine)

Abstract

This paper views the peculiarities of the use of language units as a means of waging the information aggression of Russia against Ukraine. It has been established that the use of some and, conversely, the displacement of other nouns from the social discourse can destroy established frame structures, impose false concepts that radically change the language picture of the recipient's world. The study is based on the concept of a "fabricated frame" as a way of misinterpreting events. Thus, for many years, Russian propaganda, using a well-established set of language units, has been trying to establish a false verbalization of traditional Ukrainian concepts. This causes the erasure of Ukrainian national and historical memory. The destructive influence is carried out through all possible channels of communication (mass media, social networks, books, movies, etc.). The following main ways of destroying the frame structure are identified: 1) replacement of key lexemes in the message (the term "борець за незалежніÑÑ‚ÑŒ (fighter for independence)†is replaced by “бандит (bandit)†or “фашиÑÑ‚ (fascist)â€); 2) removing lexemes from public space (for example, a ban on the use of the term “українÑький народ (Ukrainian people)â€); 3) introduction into a negative context (in particular, images of Ukrainian national heroes (including writers and scientists) with the help of words with negative, often derogatory semantics), etc. Therefore, countries that are in the potential zone of the Kremlin’s interest should timely recognize the cases of language aggression in public discourse to develop an effective system of countermeasures.