Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/jezik.2025.72.03
Self-reference in the Press Releases of the Ministry of Defence
Iva Gugo
orcid.org/0000-0001-5821-128X
Abstract
Self-reference – the practice of organizations referring to themselves in the third
person – is a key property of the press release (Jacobs, 1999.a). It is achieved through recurrence:
an organization can be identified by its full name or by a synonym, a hypernym,
a metaphor etc. (Linke and Nussbaumer, 2000.). In this research, self-reference was examined
on a corpus of 48 press releases issued by the Ministry of Defence. That ministry
is noteworthy because the Croatian Armed Forces operate as an autonomous organisation
within it, meaning that its press releases describe activities of two organisations. This study
investigated the frequency with which these organisations were referenced in the press releases,
along with the names used to identify them. The analysis revealed that the Croatian
Armed Forces were mentioned five times more often than the Ministry of Defence. The
authors of the press releases most frequently referred to the Ministry of Defence by its full
name. In contrast, when discussing the Croatian Armed Forces, they predominantly used
the legally admissible synonym Croatian army (Croatian Parliament, 2013.) rather than the
official name. Both names were analysed and compared. It was concluded that the name
Croatian army is more aligned with the principles of terminology. It is shorter and more
widespread; in the analysed texts, it was used sixteen times more frequently than the official
name. Furthermore, it is older, having served as the official name for the Croatian military
during the Homeland War (1991 – 1995). It also continues to be used today in the names of
memorial days. On the basis of the conducted research as well terminological, historical and
legal factors, it is concluded that Croatian army is a more adequate name for the Croatian
military. It is therefore proposed that this name once again be adopted as the official name
for that organisation.
Keywords
self-reference; press releases; Ministry of Defence; Croatian
Hrčak ID:
334963
URI
Publication date:
1.2.2025.
Visits: 520 *