Front-Page Coverage of the First Day of the Russian Invasion on Ukraine in 2022. The Ethnographic Discourse Analysis Based on the Polish Press Reportage

This article explores the discursive patterns of communicative events during the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Studied through an ethnographic discourse analysis lens (e.g., Hymes 1972b, Saville-Troike [1982] 2003), Polish front-page news articles are shown to be artefact-filled language environment anchored in culture (Duranti [1997] 1999, Hoijer 1953) that can be studied by means of communicational grammar (Chruszczewski 2002) consisting of well-entrenched conceptualisations in the form of keywords and collocations as concomitants of cultural scripts (Goddard and Wierzbicka 2014, Baker 2006, Wierzbicka 1997). It agues that legitimation of patterned representations is based on a three-fold conceptual typology: (1) the axiological (valuational) dimension (Romanyshyn 2020, Pomeroy 2004, Krzeszowski 1997), (2) the metaphorical account of spatial/territorial reference (proximization) (Cap 2013), (3) us vs. them dichotomy (Van Dijk 1992a). It demonstrates how Polish press manufactures and discursively creates ideological attachments which underlie Poland’s cultural legacy.