The case for case in Putin’s speeches

Abstract Vladimir V. Putin has banned the use of word ‘war’ to refer conflict in Ukraine. While one’s choice words is deliberate and conscious, grammatical categories are obligatory pivotal signaling roles notions have a discourse. Over- underrepresentation cases can be identified by Keymorph Analysis, which measures deviations from corpus norms analogously Keyword Analysis. This first application Analysis Russian data compares case for nouns meaning ‘Russia’, ‘Ukraine’, ‘NATO’ Putin’s speeches period leading up immediately after invasion Our analysis reveals narrative depicts Russia as dynamic, agentive, foregrounded actor, reliable partner collaboration, but also victim unfair geopolitical maneuvers. Ukraine, contrast, dehumanized relatively static backgrounded, often merely territorial location rather than state. NATO appears primarily label an untrustworthy organization destination