La Russie, elle, ce grand pays... L’anaphore locative et actancielle et la construction du sens social de la Russie dans la presse écrite

This paper deals with the actancial and locative anaphors referring to the country name laRussie in the French written press. The aim of this article is to examine how anaphors that are coreferential with la Russie actualise the linguistic meaning of the proper name in question and, subsequently, to observe the ways in which they construct the social meaning of Russia. It appears that the most common, high-entropic anaphors are not just stylistic tools, but that they also have a rhetorical effect. They create a social meaning of Russia as a homogenous, living and acting entity. Furthermore, they contribute to the ways in which Russia is stereotyped and included in the domain of the well-known.