Dogwhistles as a Pragmatic-Argumentative Phenomenon in Contemporary Ukrainian Public Discourse

Abstract

This article examines dogwhistles as a distinct pragmatic-argumentative phenomenon in contemporary Ukrainian public discourse. Despite substantial development of dogwhistle theory in anglophone scholarship since the early 2000s, no systematic analytical framework for this phenomenon exists in Ukrainian academia – a paradox given that Ukraine represents an environment particularly conducive to dogwhistling. The methodological basis is conceptual analysis within pragmatics and argumentation theory, drawing primarily on Henderson and McCready [17], Saul [25], and Potts [23]. Analysis of three examples from contemporary Ukrainian discourse proposes a preliminary typology distinguishing dogwhistles with stable versus dynamic interpretive asymmetry, and identifies borderline cases where asymmetry is a property of the discursive environment rather than speaker strategy. The article argues that the binary «general audience / in-group» model requires extension for contexts with unstable interpretive communities. Developing a conceptual apparatus for recognizing dogwhistles is presented as both an academic and practical task for Ukrainian society's information resilience.