Аннотация:Since 2001, the ally-enemy dynamic, when it comes to other countries, has become an integral part of US presidential rhetoric. This paper seeks to analyze how US presidential rhetoric has conceptualized allies and enemies over the past decades. For this analysis, the paper has applied a framework approach, elaborated by Charles Fillmore in the 1970s. The framing analysis differs from other conceptual analyses since it assists to structure the knowledge of the concepts by means of frames and how to fill frames with slots, or specific information about the concepts, which ultimately reflects individual attitude of US presidents towards these notions. The paper uses the method of conceptual analysis suggested by Agienko [2005] that consists of a four-stage process: exploring a concept’s etymology, defining its motivating factors, studying the history of its meaning, and finally, analyzing the definitions of its synonyms for a better understanding of a concept’s properties.
Relying upon a list of synonyms and their definitions alongside with the materials of the official presidential speeches, this paper will design frames for concepts FRIEND and ENEMY1 and fill their slots with relevant information from US presidential rhetoric. To this end, the paper will analyze the meanings of these concepts in presidential inaugural addresses, addresses to Congress, the UN General Assembly, NATO headquarters, the US Senate, the Democratic National Convention, the Economic Crisis speeches, commencement speeches and press conferences, interviews, debates and other public speeches between 2001 to 2018 made by George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.