The manipulative potential of zoonyms as explicators of the animalistic code of culture (based on the material of the German language 2020-2024)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify figurative zoonyms in the German media in Germany, Austria and German–speaking Switzerland in 2020-2024, which serve as a means of implementing a manipulative nominative strategy. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time it examines the issues of connoted figurative designation of current realities in German-speaking countries through zoonyms in order to manipulate mass consciousness. The results showed that the main ways of figurative designation of realities when setting a manipulative goal are the correlation of a known zoonym with a new referent and the creation of new figurative zoonyms through word formation. Nominations implicitly comparing humans with animals have a manipulative character. In the German-speaking cultural sphere between 2020 and 2024, zoomorphisms and zoonym-symbols play a crucial role in shaping the meaning of words for manipulative purposes. These figurative human designations and symbolic animal names have a special significance in conveying messages and influencing people. The animalistic language code is characterized by linguistic and cultural peculiarities of its manipulation, which is associated with the norms of behavior in force during the epidemiological and environmental crisis.