LINGUISTIC AND COGNITIVE FEATURES OF THE REPRESENTATION OF THE FUTURE IN INTERVIEWS WITH MILITARY PERSONNEL IN 2024–2025: A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The article examines the linguistic and cognitive features of representing the future in interviews with Ukrainian military personnel in 2024–2025. The study is based on a conceptual analysis of the verbal strategies used by military personnel to describe the future. The discourse of military interviews has become a mechanism for recording social expectations and values, as well as an important resource for studying the mental structures that are formed in crisis situations. Analysis of the interviews allowed us to identify five different concepts: “defeat,” “victory as preservation of the state,” “uncertainty,” “struggle,” and “victory as a complex goal.” The polyvectorality of visions was revealed, in particular the dominance of the concepts of struggle, victory, freedom, and uncertainty. Each of them is traced as a result of the conceptualization process, reflecting the individual and collective worldview of the military. It has been determined that these concepts shape perceptions of the future not only at the level of personal experience, but also through the prism of national discourse, influencing social narratives, moral resilience, and strategic thinking. A typology of concepts of the future in military discourse and their connection with cognitive models of perception of time and space in wartime is proposed.