Abstract
This study investigates the anthropocentric and pragmatic aspects of emotive-evaluative vocabulary in Kazakhstani and foreign media discourse. Based on a corpus of over 2,500 lexical units drawn from Kazakh, Russian, and English sources, the research examines how emotionally charged words and evaluative expressions operate as instruments of persuasion, cultural framing, and identity construction. The findings indicate several noteworthy tendencies. In Kazakhstani media, there is a strong emphasis on national and cultural values such as unity, honor, and morality, which highlights the role of collectivist traditions and patriotic rhetoric. By contrast, foreign media rely more heavily on universal categories such as democracy, justice, and corruption, reflecting broader global ideological concerns. The polarity analysis shows that positive vocabulary is more frequent in Kazakhstani discourse (55%), whereas negative evaluation dominates in foreign outlets (60%), demonstrating divergent journalistic orientations: affirmation versus critique. Genre-based analysis reveals that analytical and opinion pieces contain the highest density of evaluative lexicon, though even news reports employ subtle emotional framing. A particularly important result is the "self–other" opposition: both Kazakhstani and foreign media reinforce collective identity by portraying the "self" positively and the "other" negatively. Semantic distribution further shows the predominance of political and ideological vocabulary (40%), followed by moral, emotional, and socio-cultural fields. Headlines are found to be especially saturated with emotive lexicon, amplifying emotional resonance. Overall, the study enriches anthropocentric and cognitive-pragmatic linguistics and has practical implications for journalism, media literacy, and cross-cultural communication.