Taras Shevchenko in image strategies of modern Ukraine: linguistic argumentation

. The article concentrates on important issues of linguistic constantly being developed. One of such brand new notions in medialinguistic imageology are concepts "image strategy" and "image strategy of a state". The author aims to give a comprehensive analysis of these notions in media linguistics. The main objective of the paper is to explore linguistic factors of formation of Ukraine’s national and international image in contemporary mass media. Content analysis of recent publications about Ukraine conducted by the researcher clearly indicates that precedent names of culture play a critical role in the process of creating the image of the state in media. Such prominent figures as Yaroslav the Wise, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Grigory Skovoroda, Taras Shevchenko etc. are regarded as cultural markers of the country. They are perceived by recipients as certain symbols that form the idea of the Ukrainian culture. The data obtained clearly show that precedent proper name Taras Schevchenko is an essential part of Ukraine’s image campaign, within which the author emphasizes a number of image strategies (i.e. the strategy of universal image, target image strategy, "positioning" strategy, "mythologization" strategy, "emotionalization" strategy, "visualization" strategy, "creative explosion" strategy etc.). The results of the author’s research convince that the appeal to Kobzar as Ukraine’s "business card" can be quite effective in the framework of the Ukrainian image campaign. The findings are of direct practical relevance.

In our view, a professional analysis of the peculiarities of functioning of precedent names in media texts is also important for image investigations. The latter includes scientific research in the field of linguistic imageologyinnovative humanitarian discipline which studies linguistic features of image creation; and medialinguistic imageologya science that, according to A. Shilina's concept, explores "the linguistic and extralinguistic specificity of creating an image in "our" media texts" [15, p. 82].
We fully agree with L. Shevchenko that the precedent names of culture "allow us to make a peculiar linguistic screening of mass cultural consciousness of society" [14, p. 10]. Furthermore, meanings which such proper names produce have a great impact on the formation of internal (national) and external (international) image of a country in media and are one of the determining factors of its creation. In this context, it should be noted that precedent names of the various spheres of social activity (i.e. politics, economics, science, culture, literature, art, sports, history, etc.) are often used in image strategies of a state.
The term "strategy" was borrowed in science from the military sphere. The lexeme comes from the Greek "strategia", which in translation means "the art of preparing and conducting war and major military operations" [4, p. 449]. In a figurative sense, this concept is interpreted as "the art of social and political leadership of the general public, which should determine the main direction of its actions" or "the course of action, the pattern of someone's behavior" [4, p. 449]. Gradually, the term expanded the scope of its functioning and is now used not only in the military field, but also in political science, marketing, management, economics etc. According to A. Novyk's observation, "the strategy was literally adapted and turned into an interdisciplinary category, which is now widely used both in science and applied research" [5, p. 63].
It is quite obvious that imageology as a new branch of humanitarian knowledge uses the conceptual apparatus of other sciences. In our case, we state the borrowing of the terms "strategy", "state strategy" from the political terminology system and the development of new concepts -"image strategy", "image strategy of a state".
For instance, image strategy in professional literature is defined as "tactical ways of combining the image of a political leader and a party brand in election technology with a view to overlaying them in electoral campaigns"; "systematization of the main ideas of the image campaign" etc. [5, p. 64].
According to I. Vasylenko, the image strategy of the state is "a designed for a long historical period (25-30 years) program of systemic influence on world public opinion through all channels of mass communication and public diplomacy with the purpose of forming a stable positive internal and external policy image" [1]. As a rule, the indicated definitions function in political science research devoted to the study of the phenomenon of "the image of the state". It is worth noting though that these categories are new for linguistics; hence, for the time being in professional literature there is no linguistic definition of the concept "image strategy of the state".
To our mind, in media linguistics the term "image strategy of the state" can be interpreted as a deliberate work of all media (press, radio, television, Internet) aimed at achieving the most favorable and desirable internal (national) and external (international) image. In the process of this work journalists use effective linguistic means of image-making, such as writing and distribution of image texts and image plots, accumulation of affective expressions, emotionally-evaluative lexemes, emotional subjective judgments, usage of suggestive neuro-linguistic technologies etc.
In modern science, a sufficiently large number of scientific works is devoted to the study of mechanisms for the formation and implementation of the image strategy of the state. In this area G. Pocheptsov's works are particularly worth noting ("Image: from pharaohs to presidents", 1997 [8]; "Image", 2006 [7]; "Profession: image-maker", 1998 [9]; "Public Relations, or How to successfully manage public opinion", 1998 [10] etc.). For instance, the list of the main image strategies and tactics (i.e. positioning, manipulation, mythmaking, emotionalization, verbalization, metaphorization etc.), proposed by the scholar, is, to our mind, quite logical; accordingly, it is widely used by representatives of various areas of image-makingpolitical, economic, linguistic asf. Scientific interest is also given to innovative research conducted by A. Novyk [5], I. Panteleichuk [6], O. Tyukarkina [12], G. Rogochai [11], I. Vasylenko [1,2] etc.
The scientific researches of the psychologist O. Zmanovska [3] are important for understanding the basic principles of image management and, accordingly, the peculiarities of constructing effective image strategies. The researcher explains the concept "image strategy" as "the direction and general guidelines for building an image" [3, p. 87].
Content analysis of publications about Ukraine in modern mass media demonstrates widespread usage of precedent names and figures, symbolic for Ukrainians and their language consciousness. The founder of the new Ukrainian literary language Taras Shevchenko is, beyond any doubt, one of the most decisive and notable figures of Ukrainian culture. Moreover, the poet's image is an integral part of the national memory of our country.
Today Taras Shevchenko is not only a precedent name. He is a carrier of heterogeneous meanings, reflections which require detailed study and scientific argumentation. We fully agree with L. Shevchenko that "shevchenkiana is a great continent in both philological and historical studies, where there are various research genres, concepts, ideologues, attempts to find subtle tools for the interpretation of the mystery of Shevchenko's word" [13, p. 8].
In linguistic science, an image aspect can be a new stage in Shevchenko studies. In particular, the object of our research interest is the linguistic peculiarities of the usage of the proper name Taras Shevchenko in image strategies of modern Ukraine. It should be noted that in media communication a well-known proper name Taras Shevchenko is used quite often, which can be explained by the special role of the poet in the national-cultural identity of Ukrainians. The monitoring of recent publications in Ukrainian and foreign media proves that the appeal to the precedent name for the Ukrainian cultural consciousness Taras Shevchenko is an important part of the image campaign of our state, in the context of which one should emphasize the following image strategies: 1) the strategy of the universal (mass) imageis formed on the basis of social stereotypes and collective images [3, p. 87]. The main objective of the above-mentioned strategy is to construct an image which "focuses simultaneously on different social groups" [3, p. 87]. According to our observations, in media this strategy is used by selecting lexemes that have a nation-oriented character and expressive emotional and appraisal connotation. At the linguistic level, this strategy is implemented in: • periphrases with appreciative component 2 , e.g.: "It is Kobzar who remains and will remain the marker of Ukrainian identity. Like Shakespeare for all Englishmeneven those who never read his books and saw his plays. That is why our knowledge and especially our idea of the poet matters principally: how we perceive him, we perceive ourselves and our future" 2) target image strategyis constructed with an orientation towards a particular image audience and its characteristics [3, p. 87]. The purpose of the target image strategy is to meet the expectations of a clearly defined social group (i.e. narrowly professional, children's, youth, intellectual, etc.) [3, p. 87-88].
In particular, in Ukrainian media this strategy is realized in the selection of lexemes with semantics of age: "Taras 3)"breaking usual stereotypes" or "creative explosion" strategyis aimed at creating "an original image which stands out sharply against the background of the usual images" [3, p. 89]. One should note that in Ukrainian media the use of the above-mentioned strategy is followed in publications which are of a sensational nature, mainly in headlines:" Taras  5) "mythologization" strategy, the main task of the latter is "to build a double message, bypass the filter of the audience, affect it at the subconscious level" [7, p. 144]. We should note that this strategy is very effective in image publications about Ukraine. It involves the usage of national myths and archetypes. In this context we fully agree with G. Pocheptsov's opinion that "myth and archetype belong to the very type of information which at a deep level is present in each of us, and the task is to activate this symbolism in a direction that is beneficial for the communicator" [7, p. 144]. For instance, in many Ukrainian and foreign media the proper name Taras Shevchenko is related to the archetypes "father" and "son": " Taras  6) "emotionalization" strategy, aimed at special accumulation of emotionally coloured information in a text, which "easily passes the audience filters and is much more memorable" [7, p. 162]. Such information, according to G. Pocheptsov, is more "alive", respectively, it is perceived by recipients as clear and familiar [7, p. 162]. A linguistic analysis of the media content about our state before the Revolution of Dignity and after it clearly indicates that publications about Ukraine in recent years (2014-2018) are more emotionally coloured, hence, they perform better the most important function in mediathe influence function. Certainly, the figure of Taras Shevchenko plays an important role in this change, as Ukrainians perceive the poet's image as "the spiritual Hetman of the Maidan": "That is why the creative work of Taras Shevchenko is perceived so emotionally today, it lives so organically in the ethnonational spiritual space of the Ukrainian people's existence. In many respects, thanks to Shevchenko,  7) "visualization" strategy-the impact immediately on several channels: verbal and visual [7, p. 200]. It should be noted that visualization is a very effective and successful image strategy, because "there is no need to explain visual manifestations, they affect a person beyond his or her consciousness" [7, p. 200]. In the context of the image policy of our state we note that this strategy is often used by the Ukrainian media as a way to actualize the image of Taras Shevchenko in the cultural consciousness of the society. The latter includes the interpretation of the author's personality in contemporary art. And again, the events of the Ukrainian revolution in 2014 became a kind of impetus for a new reading, a new "vision" of Shevchenko, as after the Maidan new portraits of Kobzar were created: Shevchenko-Superman, Shevchenko at the Maidan, Shevchenko in the ATO etc. For instance, at the exhibition "Modern look at Taras Shevchenko (artistic interpretation)", which took place on March 11, 2015 at the Institute of Philology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv on the occasion of the International Roundtable to the 201 st anniversary of the writer's birth, paintings by world-famous Ukrainian artists A. Yermolenko, Y. Shapoval, O. Shuplyak and N. Guziy were presented. On these paintings Shevchenko is presented in rather unusual hypostases. In particular, A. Yermolenko depicted the poet as Elvis Presley (Figure 1), a сossack-anarchist (Figure 2), an Indian teacher-prophet ( Figure 3); in artistic interpretation of Y. Shapoval Taras Shevchenko is depicted as a participant of ATO on barricades with a tire in his hands ( Figure  4). "Ukrainian Salvador Dali" O. Shuplyak, a master of illusory paintings, depicted Shevchenko's face against the background of a boy who grazes lambs -in fact, it is an illustration to the author's poem "I was thirteen" (Figure 5), сossack playing the Kobza (painting "The spirit of freedom", Figure 6), etc., while N. Huziy presented images from "Kobzar" on Easter eggs (Figure 7). Our attention is also drawn to the portrait of a young Shevchenko, established on the square of Independence in Rivne (Figure 8). Created in the form of a mosaic of one and a half thousand photographs of Ukrainians, it clearly confirms that Shevchenko is each of us. Therefore, the analysis of contemporary Ukrainian and foreign media content indicates an increase in the level of media's interest to precedent figures which are significant for the language consciousness of a society. In the national memory of the Ukrainian people the proper name Taras Shevchenko occupies a special place. The events of Maidan and the Revolution of Dignity became a kind of "push" to the new reading of Shevchenko's creative work and the perception of the author's personality. The poet's image "revived" and was actualized in Ukrainian mass culture, which made it possible to use it in the image strategies of the state. The investigation shows that the appeal to Kobzar in the framework of the Ukrainian image campaign can be quite effective; after all, Taras Shevchenko is its "business card", an image that concentrates in itself a large number of meanings which are read by recipients on many levels: verbal and non-verbal, emotional and archetypal etc. Meanwhile, the issue of linguistic programming of a positive state image, taking into account the meanings formed in the mass consciousness of Ukrainians, needs to be thoroughly developed and opens the prospect for new scientific research in this field.