Particularities of Political Vocabulary in Tatar and Mari Mass Media: Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis

Politics, like any other social sphere, is served by a distinct system of lexical resources, namely—political vocabulary. The article examines semantical and structural organisation of political vocabulary in two languages —Tatar and Mari—both from a historical perspective and at the present stage of their development. Lexico-semantic groups expressing the concepts of “power” and “politician” are thoroughly explored. The following dominant ways of political vocabulary formation are identified: morphological, morpho-syntactic, lexico-grammatical and phono-morphological. Political lexemes deriving from Altai, Turkic and Tatar strata are investigated. Borrowings in the political vocabulary are carefully examined, data drawn from the leading Tatar- and Mari-medium newspapers. The article also covers a study of functioning of the political vocabulary related to the concepts of “power” and “politician”, such as: state / country, government, political party / movement, heads of state departments, elections.