Citation

Marín-Arrese JI. J. Pragmat. 2021; 177: 135-148.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pragma.2021.01.022

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper explores the potential effect of emotion on the use of stance expressions by columnists in their comment on acts of terrorism in the UK and in other European countries. The paper brings together work on epistemicity and effectivity (Marín-Arrese 2011, 2015), and stance strategies in discourse (Englebretson 2007; DuBois 2007). The paper focuses on epistemic stance, aimed at striving for control of conceptions of reality, and on effective stance, aimed at striving for control of relations at the level of reality (Langacker 2009, 2010). The strategic interplay of epistemic and effective expressions serves the persuasive purpose of legitimisation of knowledge about events and of action plans. The paper addresses the following research issue: the potential effect of emotion on variation in the deployment of epistemic and effective stance markers in three types of texts along a cline from high to neutral cultural/emotional proximity. It is hypothesized that columnists' expression of epistemicity and effectivity in their comment on terrorism will vary in relation to cultural/emotional proximity or distance towards the event. The paper presents results of a case study with data from an ad hoc corpus of opinion columns published in The Guardian and The Observer.

Language: en

Keywords

Emotion; Epistemic and effective stance; Journalistic discourse; Persuasion