Sochi 2014 in the crosshairs of French media

The work presents the analysis of linguistic means used for characterization of Sochi 2014 in the articles published in French newspapers, magazines and web-sites during, right before and after the Olympic games. The classification of the linguistic means used for Sochi 2014 characterization was made in the framework of this research. In the process of the analysis it was established that these means represent practically all levels of language: lexical, phraseological, morphological, and syntactical. At the lexical level the image of Sochi 2014 is represented, first of all, by words with axiological semantics, characterizing, on the one hand, Russian national team’s success at the Olympics, and on the other hand, organizational failures; secondly, by words with intensity seme, which are used for the description of huge financial investments in the Olympics and the grand scale which the Olympic games got in the reality and media space; finally, morbid, military and theatrical metaphors, giving Sochi 2014 the image of ostentatious farce event in the «ill» country, during which different battles - not only in sport, but also in geopolitics - take place. The superlative forms of the adjective cher ‘expensive’ and its synonyms help the authors of French articles to create the image of the most expensive Olympic games in the history, whose aim was to demonstrate Russia’s strength. The image of the Olympics is also represented by different comparative structures, with the help of which the authors of the articles draw a parallel between «Putin’s era» and the reign of Peter the Great, because, according to the journalists, in both epochs grandiose intentions of the country’s leaders did not correspond to the real economical possibilities of the state. Various rhetorical questions are used to throw discredit on appropriateness of holding the Olympics in Sochi, whose climate is absolutely unsuitable for winter games, and also to criticize huge investments in the Olympic village building. On the basis of this linguistic analysis the model of the image of the Olympics 2014 is elaborated, which is a part of another theoretical construct - Russia’s image, rapidly changing in the modern geopolitical situation. The main aim of the Olympics was to form positive notions of Sochi and Russia as a whole in the world community, but this research shows that in France this initiative faced serious information opposition, and the task was not accomplished, at least in full scale.