STRATEGY as a Phenomenon of Language and Discourse
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2026-15-6-70-92
Abstract
The article presents a linguo-political diachronic and discourse-oriented study of the phenomenon of strategy. Drawing on material from several languages, the study demonstrates how the semantic core of the word — originally associated with “military leadership” and “military ingenuity or cunning” has gradually faded, while the term has been enriched with new semantic components under the influence of various discourses. Using lexicographic and lexical-semantic analysis, the paper identifies shifts in the meanings of words with the root strategthat occurred during the borrowing of Ancient Greek lexical units into Latin, Old Church Slavonic, Russian, and English. Corpus-based and contextual analysis provides evidence of a significant expansion in the domains of use of strategwords, accompanied by a narrowing of meaning toward an abstract semantics of goal-setting. Cognitive-discursive analysis reveals the specific ways in which the concept of strategy is conceptualized in military, political, and diplomatic discourses, manifested in the addition of semantic components related to long-term planning, calculation of efficiency, and similar features. The article emphasizes that historical semantic shifts signal broader processes: as the lexical unit undergoes determinologization and enters wider usage, its meaning becomes significantly narrowed through abstraction. The study concludes by identifying the emergence of the meta-concept grand strategy, understood as the necessity of mobilizing all available resources in order to participate in the global governance of world political processes.
Keywords
Supporting agencies: The study is supported by Russian Science Foundation, project number№ 25-28-01062 “Strategies for promoting national Interests Russia through the Transforming Institutions of Multilateral Diplomacy: a Linguistic and Political Aspect”, https://rscf.ru/project/25-28-01062/
About the Authors
E. V. Dzyuba
Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena V. Dzyuba - Doctor of Philology, Professor, Higher School of International Relations, corresponding author.
St. Petersburg
A. G. Kuzyakin
Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Alexander G. Kuzyakin - PhD in of Political Sciences, Associate Professor, Higher School of International Relations.
St. Petersburg
References
1. Alekseeva, L. M., Babenko, L. G., Bogdanova, N. V. (2024). Linguistic Semantics in the Spatial Dimension: Dictionary. Discourse. Corpus. Yekaterinburg-Moscow: Kabinetnyy Uchenyy. 464 p. ISBN 978-5-6046258-7-3. (In Russ.).
2. Apresyan, V. Yu., Apresyan, Yu. D., Dragoy, O. V. (2019). On the Method of Complex Semantic, Statistical, and Psycholinguistic Analysis of Polysemy. Russkaya Rech, 1: 8—17. DOI: 10.31857/S013161170003937-9. (In Russ.).
3. Borodina, N. A. (2017). To the History of the Verb to Imagine. Philological Sciences. Questions of Theory and Practice, 12—1 (78): 61—64. (In Russ.).
4. Boyarkina, A. V. (2023). Grand strategies of China's foreign policy: From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. Russian-Chinese Studies, 7(1): 69–78. DOI: 10.17150/2587-7445.2023.7(1).69-78. (In Russ.).
5. Chernyak, V. D., Parysheva, E. V. (2020). Market and Bazaar: Dynamics of a Lexicon Fragment. Bulletin of Tomsk State Pedagogical University, 3 (209): 104—113. DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X2020-3-104-113. (In Russ.).
6. Dzyuba, E. V. (2024). Transparency in Language and Discourse: A Model of Interdisciplinary Analysis. Bulletin of the Volgograd State University. Series 2: Linguistics, 23 (3): 65—79. DOI: 10.15688/jvolsu2.2024.3.6. (In Russ.).
7. Fedorova, L. L., Frolova, O. E. (2022). New trends in the semantic development of the noun soul (dusha) and related units. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 9: Filologiya, 5: 9–26. (In Russ.).
8. Gutorov, V. A., Maltseva, D. A. (eds.). (2022). Modern Political Strategies. Collective monograph. St. Petersburg: RKhGA Publishing House. 282 p. ISBN 978-5-907613-15-7. (In Russ.).
9. Ilnitsky, A. M. (2023). Hegemon's strategy — Strategy of war. Military Thought, 6: 18–36. (In Russ.).
10. Paducheva, E. V. (2004). Dynamic Models in the Semantics of Vocabulary. Moscow: Languages of Slavic Culture. 688 p. ISBN 5-94457-161-6. (In Russ.).
11. Panov, M. V. (ed.). (1968). Russian Language and Soviet Society. Vocabulary of the Modern Russian Literary Language. Sociolinguistic Research. Moscow: Nauka. 185 p. (In Russ.).
12. Plotnikova, A. M. (2023). Neural network as a keyword of the current moment. Philological class, 28 (2): 45—54. (In Russ.).
13. Popov, A. V. (2015). Policy and strategy. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 12. Politicheskie nauki, 4: 91–98. (In Russ.).
14. Shmelev, D. N. (1973). Problems of Semantic Analysis of Vocabulary (Based on the Russian Language). Moscow: Nauka. 280 p. (In Russ.).
15. Vasilyeva, G. M. (2023). Ecology: Dynamics of Semantic Changes in Words in the Mirror of Russian Explanatory Dictionaries of the 20th and Early 21st Centuries. Issues of Lexicography, 29: 71—86. DOI: 10.17223/22274200/29/4. (In Russ.).
Review
For citations:
Dzyuba E.V., Kuzyakin A.G. STRATEGY as a Phenomenon of Language and Discourse. Nauchnyi dialog. 2026;15(6):70-92. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2026-15-6-70-92
Views:
6
JATS XML
Email this article 