Linguistic Model of Cross-Border Migration Discourse (Based on the English Language)

Introduction. The article is examined a model of cross-border migration discourse based on the English language on the example of the US-Mexican border. The relevance of the proposed research is related to the increasing interest of linguists in the complex migration phenomenon, as well as the fact that this type of discourse is first identified by the authors independently. The aim of the study is to build a linguistic model of cross-border migration discourse by using corpus technologies.

Methodology and sources. Interpretation, categorization, systematization, and contextual and definitional analysis were used as the main research methods. The material for the work was the chapter “The border” from the book “Sovereign Violence: Migrants, Borders, and the Brutal Logic of Nationhood” by Lily Ana Chavez [1], with a volume of 65,600 pp. without spaces.

Results and discussion. This study was carried out within the framework of migration linguistics, one of the tasks of which is to study the migration narrative, through which a certain attitude of the host society towards different categories of participants in migration processes and their images are formed. Based on the concepts of G.G. Slyshkin and V.I. Karasik, the authors identify the cross-border migration discourse as a special type of discourse and argue their position. The article is presented a model of this type of discourse, including 1560 lexemes, 15 semantic modules and 13 micromodules.

Conclusion. As a result, the semantic modules “Migration participants” and “Border” belong to the core of the model of cross-border migration discourse. The near periphery includes “Law”, “Citizenship”, “Migration Policy” and “Security”. The far periphery includes “Theatricality”, “Economy”, “Ethnicity“, “Communication”, “Documents” and “Modern technologies”.

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