Three War Years – Three New Year’s Greetings by Ukrainian President: From Ideas to Verbal Effects

Abstract

The paper proves that the wartime New Year's greetings (2022-2024) by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy comprise two main sections: cumulative, creating an image of the state and its citizens; culminating, demonstrating the strength of Ukraine and its citizens to different parties of the military confrontation. In separate texts, the cumulative image is formed in different order depicting the strength of the nation, the state, various groups of people and each citizen from different perspectives. In 2022, the formation of the nation’s cumulative image begins with outlining the Ukrainians’ otherness-unity with passing over to representing Ukraine as a person and a state while characterizing different places, separate groups of citizens and appealing to individuals. Conversely, the cumulative section of the 2023 greetings begins with individualization, which gives way to the image of Ukraine and an appeal to particular groups of citizens. The 2024 New Year's address is marked by a consistent portrayal of the nation from the perspectives of a family, a powerful person, an army, citizens, teenagers, engineers, and the Ukrainian language. The culminating sections of the three greetings vary in addressing different war parties. In 2022, this section presents our country to the world and its citizens in terms of restoring their peaceful life. In 2023, the cumulative result serves as the basis for demonstrating Ukraine’s international victories and verbal resistance to the enemy. In 2024, the cumulative image of the state renders its power to various confronting parties: the whole world, fellow citizens who found themselves on the temporarily occupied territories and abroad, as well as guides the country into the coming year. The paper reveals the leading role of pronouns, verbs, and morphosyntactic constructions in creating the discussed images and effects.