In Nigerian political campaigns, radio jingles are a pervasive and influential medium for the formation of public opinion. This study focuses on the 2022 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State, a significant off-cycle contest that served as a barometer for the subsequent 2023 national elections and reflected the evolving characteristics of Nigerian electoral politics. The study aims to investigate meaning construction, identity representation, and political messaging in the campaign jingles of the two leading parties. It specifically explores how linguistic choices are strategically deployed to construct candidate identities and reinforce competing political ideologies. The corpus consists of twelve purposively selected radio jingles broadcast by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Adopting a mixed-method design, the analysis is grounded in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) to examine transitivity, mood, and modality. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used to interpret the correlation of language, political power, and socio-political context. The findings reveal distinct dis- cursive strategies. APC jingles predominantly used material processes to construct their candidate as an agent of continuity and stable governance. In contrast, SDP employed relational and material processes to frame their candidate as a moral figure offering restoration and economic relief. A central finding is the symbolic contest waged through metaphor: SDP’s traditionalist “white horse” was discursively challenged by APC’s modernist “luxurious car,” signifying a deeper ideological clash. Furthermore, mood analysis showed APC favoring declarative statements to inform, with SDP using more imperative and exclamatory clauses to mobilize and evoke emotion. This study demonstrates that political jingles are complex ritualistic texts that function as subtle instruments of socio-political control. By revealing how linguistic devices manufacture consent and reframe narratives, the research shows the discursive mechanisms of power and persuasion in the contemporary African electoral sphere.

In times of crisis, public perception of institutional effectiveness is often crystallized and contested in the media. Political cartoons, as potent polycode texts, offer a unique lens through which to analyze these social processes. The article examines the formation of a metaphorical image of a professional in emergency situations and natural disasters, as reflected in political cartoons featuring the Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025. The study utilises a comprehensive dataset of 140 English-language political cartoons sourced from various news outlets and social media platforms. Adopting a multimodal critical discourse analysis framework, the authors systematically examine the correlation between verbal components (captions, labels) and non-verbal elements (iconic imagery, symbolism) to decode the cartoons’ pragmatic meanings. The results reveal a stark binary opposition in the portrayal of the two professional groups. Politicians are predominantly depicted negatively through recurring metaphors of arsonist, entertainer, film antagonist, and fanning the flame, suggesting incompetence, malicious intent, and a profound disconnect from the tragedy. On the other hand, firefighters are consistently glorified as heroic figures through metaphors of divinity (angels) and action hero, embodying self-sacrifice and competence. However, they are also portrayed as marginalized victims of institutional failure, facing equipment shortages and a lack of support. The cinematographic metaphor was notably prevalent in the dataset, a finding attributed to the event’s Hollywood location and its dramatic media coverage. It is concluded that political cartoons serve as a crucial vehicle for social critique, translating complex institutional failures into accessible and powerful narratives that significantly influence public opinion. The findings provide a framework for further comparative studies of political cartoons surrounding emergencies and the semiotics of crisis communication in other socio-political spheres.

The paper presents a systematic review of research methods devoted to the use of artificial intelligence in foreign language learning in universities. The relevance of the paper is related to the growing role of artificial intelligence technology, such as large language models in higher education and foreign language learning. The aim of the study is to obtain a methodological picture of the research field in this area. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses methodology, the authors selected and analysed scientific publications that apply qual- itative and quantitative methods to the study of artificial intelligence for foreign language learning in higher education. From a corpus of almost 3000 sources, 32 studies in English that describe the methodology and are in the public domain were selected. The results of the review showed that the majority of the works were devoted to English as a foreign language, published between 2023 and 2024, and used quantitative and mixed empirical methods, primarily questionnaires. While noting the undoubted advantages of such methods (such as standardisation, anonymity, and the possibility of automated processing of results), the authors draw attention to the insufficiency of using only quantitative and mixed research methods to understand the peculiarities of applying artificial intelligence in universities for learning foreign languages. The paper proposes to draw attention to both theoretical and empirical qualitative methods from different scientific fields in order to gain a better understanding of the field of study, which will allow taking into account the context, ethical, and non-numerical behavioural characteristics of people interacting with artificial intelligence in education. The paper contributes to the understanding of the current state of the field of research on artificial intelligence for foreign language learning in higher education by offering recommendations for the methodology of future research.

Medicine holds significant importance in shaping human well-being and societal progress. The conceptual framework MEDICINE is constantly evolving; it is enriched by new linguistic markers. This study presents a comparative analysis of how the conceptual framework MEDICINE is verbalized in English and German educational discourses. Using a methodology of discourse, conceptual, and lexico-semantic analysis, the authors examine all relevant linguistic markers in two beginner-level language textbooks: Speakout (English) and Die neue Linie 1 (German). The research is motivated by the practical need for language learners to acquire basic medical communication skills for their daily life. The results highlight the main function of medically oriented linguistic markers explaining the basics of medical knowledge – it is to organize the information about a person and their anthropocentric characteristics. The principal outcome of this research is a key contrast between English and German educational discourses (a case study of Speakout and Die neue Linie 1): while English verbalizes the ‘concept-gestalt’ THE LITTLE THINGS TO BE HEALTHY AND HAPPY as a defining feature of the medical conceptual framework, German prioritizes the representation of the ‘concept-scenario’ ARZTBESUCH. The study conceptually justifies the contrasting concept HEALTHY LIFESTYLE and the anticoncept ILLNESSES AND SYMPTOMS in the educational discourses under analysis, highlighting the increasing emphasis on the relationship between health and illness. The study identifies the features of the conceptual framework verbalization through the functional potential of medical linguistic markers. Using comparative analysis of the language material of Speakout and Die neue Linie 1, it reveals modern medical trends in English and German educational discourses. These findings may serve as foundation for curriculum development for beginner-level language courses targeting medical professionals.

As a key genre of motivational discourse, the commencement speech relies on a stable set of conceptual metaphors to achieve its pragmatic impact. This study aims to identify and systematize the key metaphorical models that structure this genre, using a cognitive-discursive approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods. The material includes speeches delivered by prominent Anglo-American speakers (politicians, actors, comedians, writers, singers, entrepreneurs, scientists) as well as two Russian-speaking writers (A. Solzhenitsyn and I. Brodsky), to graduates of universities in the USA and the UK in the 20th and 21st centuries. Apart from fully lexicalized ontological and orientational metaphors, twelve major groups of structural metaphors were identified, based on the following source domains (in descending frequency): journey, construction, game, war, teaching, books, machines, plants, animals, food, health/medicine, light and darkness. Special attention is paid to the correlation between speakers’ professional identity and the metaphors they use. The article examines both conventional and original metaphorical expressions that verbalize conceptual mappings. The analysis reveals that these metaphorical models shape the discursive practices of this genre within the broader framework of motivational discourse. The results demonstrate that metaphors not only render complex abstract ideas – such as success and failure, moral values, lessons from the past, personal and global goals – more accessible and vivid, but also serve to strengthen the speaker’s emotional connection with the audience, enhance the persuasive effect of discourse, and structure speech. The article demonstrates which facets of meaning are conveyed through each metaphorical model, what functions they perform, and what impact they have. This study contributes to the understanding of how language, culture, and cognition interact in the context of the cognitive-discursive approach and may be of interest to researchers in the fields of cognitive linguistics, rhetoric, intercultural communication, and discourse analysis.

This study’s relevance is driven by the critical endangerment of the Nivkh language and the Russian Federation’s state policies aimed at preserving minority languages. Nivkh folklore embodies a unique worldview not integrated into globalized cultural discourse, making its translation a key instrument for language revitalization and intercultural communication. The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate, through comparative analysis, the most effective translation techniques for the pragmatically adequate rendering of ethnocultural and mythological realia in the Nivkh fairy tale “Why There Are Few People on Earth.” The empirical material consists of the original tale as adapted by V.M. Sangi and its published Russian and English translations. The methodology combines linguo-stylistic analysis, pragmatic interpretation, and a comparative approach, supplemented by a quantitative analysis of the frequency of linguistic devices. The results identify key elements conveying the original’s pragmatic potential: onomastic realia as cultural markers defining the mythological and geographical space; allusions preserving deep cultural layers of the folklore text; and onomatopoeia and interjections that create the work’s expressive background. The analysis reveals that transliteration and transcription are the most effective strategies, as they preserve authenticity and ethnocultural specificity. However, to achieve full pragmatic adaptation, these techniques require detailed translator’s commentary. A critical analysis of the translations revealed both successful solutions and significant pragmatic losses: for example, the inaccurate translation of the term stoybishche (стойбище) as “camp” distorts the concept of the Nivkh’s sedentary lifestyle, while the lexical unification of lub (луб) and beresta (береста) impoverishes the text’s material culture. The study’s novelty and practical significance lie in its being the first comprehensive pragmatic analysis of this text. Its findings offer evidence-based recommendations for professional translators working with minority-language folklore, with applications in translation studies, ethnolinguistics, and cultural heritage preservation projects.