Idioma: Español
Fecha: Subida: 2021-04-19T00:00:00+02:00
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Analyzing evaluative stance in a corpus of British newspaper discourse

Laura Hidalgo-Downing (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Paula Pérez-Sobrino (Universidad de La Rioja)

Descripción

Repeated stance patterns produced by individual and collective groups of speakers
or writers may be indexical of specific social and cultural identities (Marin-Arrese 2011,
2015). From this, it follows that an examination of the choices of markers of evaluative
stance may allow us to explore what these choices reveal regarding the shaping of social
identities and, more specifically, the ideological positionings of different newspapers. In
previous studies on the choices of epistemic and effective stance markers in newspaper
discourse, it was shown that differences could be observed in the distribution and
frequency of stance categories in the newspapers The Times and The Guardian, as well
as in El País and ABC (Hidalgo Downing 2004, Marín-Arrese, Hidalgo Downing &
Molina Plaza 2004, Hidalgo Downing & Núñez-Perucha 2013).
In the present study, we focus on evaluative stance in newspaper discourse. In
order to move forward in the systematic exploration of evaluative patterns in real
discourse, the present paper seeks the following two goals: a theoretical one, consisting
in the introduction of a new model to approach the analysis of evaluation (Hidalgo
Downing et al 2020) which distinguishes between (a) classifying, predicational and
attitudinal evaluative categories depending on the grammatical categories and semantic
nature of the evaluative expression; between (b) metaphoric and non metaphoric
evaluative expressions, and between (c) positive and negative connotations; and an
applied one, resulting from the application of such model to a corpus of authentic British
newspaper articles to then study the frequency and the role of markers of Evaluative
Stance and metaphor.
With respect to the first goal (theoretical), we use the terms ‘evaluation’ and
‘evaluative stance’ at discourse level in two ways. First, as a type of stance act (du Bois
2008). In this sense, speakers position themselves towards topics and real or potential
audiences by evaluating objects and aligning or disaligning themselves with their
addressees. Second, our understanding of evaluative stance is inspired in the definitions
of Evaluation by Thompson and Alba-Juez (2014), of Attitude in Martin and White
(2005) and of evaluation as a function of language related to persuasion as social practice
in CDA and cognitive approaches to (critical) metaphor analysis (Charteris-Black 2004,
Musolff 2008, Semino et al 2018, van Leeuwen 2008, van Dijk 1998).
With regard to our second goal (applied), two comparable corpora of opinion
articles from the British newspapers The Times (30,000 words) and The Guardian (30,000
words) were collected. With the application of our model of evaluative stance we seek
the following sub-goals: (1) to identify and compare the frequency and distribution of the
categories of Evaluative stance and metaphor in the two newspapers; (2) to discuss the
preferences for specific categories in each of the newspapers, and (3) to discuss how the
different choices contribute to the shaping of specific identities and ideologies in the two
newspapers. Differences in the frequency and distribution of markers of evaluative stance
are expected, more specifically, that evaluative stance markers will be used more
frequently in the conservative newspaper The Times than in the Guardian, but no
difference in terms of the use of metaphor will be expected. We also expect the direction
of the evaluation (positive or negative) to greatly vary depending on the topic discussed.

Propietarios

Congreso Cilc 2021

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Serie: CILC2021: Discurso, análisis literario y corpus / Discourse, literary analysis and corpora (+información)