Protest slogans in French: Lexico-syntactic and semantic aspects

Abstract

The aim of the study is to identify the main lexical and syntactic units used in protest slogans in French. The paper sheds light on the notions of “protest”, “protest communication”, “a protest slogan”, determines the lexical composition of the French protest discourse, on the basis of which thematic groups, the most frequent lexical and syntactic units are identified and the features of their use are considered. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in revealing the lexico-semantic content of protest slogans based on the material of the French language, determining the features of using the most frequent lexical and syntactic units in the French protest discourse. As a result of the work, it was found that the French protest tradition has a rich linguistic expression (759 lexical and syntactic units). This made it possible to identify the following thematic groups: yellow vests protests; anti-COVID measures; pension and the pension reform; resignation; values; a call for protests; unity; France; violence; violation of rights; anger; money; work; life; death; global problems. The following units were the most frequent: Macron (98), non (49), pour (45), retraite (41), peuple (29), liberté(s) (27), France (23).