Argumentativeness as a Basic Category of Polemical Discourse

Relevance. In today's media space, there is a trend towards pluralisation of opinions and viewpoints on socially significant issues, which leads to an increase in the role of polemical communication as a mechanism for transmitting and confronting different positions. The study of argumentative strategies in the discourse on energy is of particular importance, as this area touches upon a complex set of technical, economic, and geopolitical aspects that require convincing presentation in the mass media. Methodology. The research material consisted of a corpus of German-language articles published in periodicals in Germany and Austria in 2025–2026 and devoted to energy issues. Within the framework of an anthropocentric approach, descriptive methods, contextual stylistic analysis, discourse analysis, as well as comparative and definitional methods were used to clarify the semantics of statements, taking into account extralinguistic factors of communication. Analysis. The theoretical part of the work systematises existing approaches to the study of polemics and argumentation, highlighting interactive, communicative, cognitive-linguistic, logical-linguistic, and communicative-pragmatic approaches. The specifics of polemical communication in the media are considered, including the possibility of modifying the informative load of linguistic units under the influence of the discursive context. Results. During the analysis of empirical material, the dominant argumentative strategies were identified and characterised: legitimisation of a position through appeal to authoritative sources and facts, lobbying for corporate interests, strategies of positive and negative presentation of various energy technologies. It was established that argumentation in the discourse under study is a complex linguistic-pragmatic mechanism aimed at transmitting value orientations, persuading the recipient, and constructing a certain picture of the world in the media space.

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