The project “Bulgarian language in state institutions and in public space: crises of communication and communication during crises” sets itself the fundamental task of observing and analyzing the speech manifestations carried out in written and oral form by the state institutions and in the public space, when covering crisis situations and disasters in recent years related to:
- current health issues in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: the health crisis and the division of society;
- the state of the political situation in Bulgaria in the last two years and with the impossibility of the country to form a permanent government: the political crisis and the inability to conduct a dialogue related to the establishment of linguistic and political culture in communication;
- the coverage of traffic accidents in Bulgaria and the speech strategies for the prevention of this type of crime, which claims more victims annually than wars;
It is planned that the participants in the project will be divided into three scientific groups, which will observe and study the speech manifestations related to the above-described phenomena, in the following institutions – media and state institutions:
- Speaking events to cover the Covid pandemic at the local and national level: Ministry of Health, agencies and legislative institutions related to the pandemic; municipalities and small settlements. Analysis of the legal and by-laws issued by the institutions; Observation, public comment and analysis of oral forms of information presentation: participation of politicians and medical specialists, journalists in the public space. Carrying out surveys on the comprehensibility of explanations by the public;
- Speech manifestations reflecting contemporary political reality. The disintegration of dialogue as a syntactic question-answer unity between politicians and Bulgarian citizens and between the politicians themselves; Speech strategies for aggression and clichéd speech; Speech strategies for communication as manipulation of public opinion. Observation of statements by Bulgarian politicians and Bulgarian journalists in the last two years; The pre-election speech – between manipulation and communication. Offering speech strategies to overcome the tension in state institutions, in municipalities, in the public space, the ultimate goal of which is to build a tolerant society that distances itself from hate speech and alienation in state institutions; Preparation of a manual for language culture in public speech.
- Speech strategies in the coverage of serious traffic accidents that claim human lives. Analysis of speech comments reflecting this type of crime. Boundaries of what is permissible and what is not permissible in the choice of linguistic means and of questions that convey this type of „events“. The news sections and the place of traffic accidents in the broadcasts. Speech strategies with regard to the concepts of appropriate and inappropriate in informing the public.
The fundamentality of the project stems from the topicality of the issue / the country is in a continuous series of crises – health, political, gas and others/, combined with the real need for interaction between society and state institutions and the media. A wide range of seminars are planned in state institutions and in local self-government bodies – municipalities and town halls: speech strategies for overcoming interpersonal conflicts in the team; speech strategies for appropriate communication in crisis situations and disasters, so that both citizens and competent authorities are facilitated; For the purpose:
- Contact groups will be created at the local level, which will have a permanent and post-project character;
- A set of materials will be developed that will assist specialists from state institutions in disaster situations at the state or municipal level;
- A permanently active internet site on language issues will be created, which will be open permanently and where representatives of state institutions, as well as civil society, will be able to post current language questions or questions to which they are looking for answers in connection with their professional realization or with crisis situations that have arisen: in the team, in society, etc.;
In the course of the project, new fundamental methods for speech strategies will be implemented, which will have real application both in science and in socio-political life.
The primary function of basic science is cognitive. In the course of such research ideas are developed about the laws of nature and society, which are universal in nature. The main features of fundamental science through the present project will make sense of the spatial and temporal relationship between realities such as society-media-state institutions-crisis situations and the power of speech, developed for the needs of the present research through a special methodological concept.
