Review of Cognitive Linguistics· 2026Q1
Value system in the Russian concept of vojna ‘war’
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Russian speakers associate 'vojna' (war) with negative values like suffering, destruction, and death, contrasting with the more neutral 'special military operation'.
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Key points
- The Russian concept 'vojna' (war) is cognitively defined by negative values like suffering, destruction, and death.
- Analysis of 2,000 corpus occurrences of 'vojna' supports its association with negative value systems.
- The term 'special military operation' contrasts sharply with 'vojna', suggesting a deliberate shift in value perception.
- Language can be used to manipulate perceptions and activate culturally entrenched stereotypes, as seen in the shift from 'vojna' to 'special military operation'.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract This study examines the concept of VOJNA ‘war’ in the Russian language within the framework of Jerzy Bartmiński’s ethnolinguistic theory of stereotypes, values, and cognitive definition. Values are treated as a primary cognitive and sociocultural component, linked to Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus to better understand the dynamics of value systems. Adopting a corpus-based methodology, the analysis is conducted on 2,000 occurrences of VOJNA extracted from the National Corpus of the Russian Language (2000–2020), which were systematically coded using ATLAS.ti software. In addition, the paper offers a comparative analysis of VOJNA and the euphemistic expression SPECIAL’NAJA VOENNAJA OPERACIJA ‘special military operation’, as employed in President Vladimir Putin’s public address of February 24, 2022. By focusing on this terminological shift, the study illustrates how language can be used to manipulate value perception and activate culturally entrenched stereotypes.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Linguistics and Language
Linguistics and LanguageSocial Sciences