Proximization and Distanciation in Political Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Analysis of Tokayev’s 2022 State of the Nation Address

Proximizationis a discursive strategy for reducing symbolic distance in Discourse Space, while distanciationis another strategy for increasing or maintaining symbolic distance. Both strategies are capable of serving the pragmatic functions of legitimization of the Selfand delegitimization of the Otherwithin a text. This study integrates the two devices into a novel Symbolic Distance Adjusting framework. With Kazakhstan President Tokayev’s 2022 State of the Nation Address as an example, we analyze the lexico-grammatical realizations of the aforementioned discursive strategies in political discourse, explain the related cognitive mechanisms, interpret the discourse semantics, and attempt to reveal their ideological effects. This study adds to approaches of Critical Cognitive Linguistics and provides a new perspective to political discourse studies.