Evaluation in emotion narratives
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Manuela Romano
Abstract
Narratives are cognitive means of organizing and constructing our experience in a particular way. In emotion narratives, narrators do more than report propositional information; they need to attract the listener’s empathy and understanding. By applying sociocognitive and functional models of language and discourse (Herman 2003; Redeker 2006; Bernárdez 2008) in order to complement the Labovian approach to narratives, this study shows (i) that, in this specific text type, evaluation – the expression of the narrator’s emotions – is not an independent section, but suffuses the whole texts from beginning to end, and (ii) that the recurrent linguistic and pragmatic strategies chosen in order to disclose highly personal information – discourse markers, repetitions, repairs, profusion of details, etc. – are related to the specific linguistic activity and discourse context.
Abstract
Narratives are cognitive means of organizing and constructing our experience in a particular way. In emotion narratives, narrators do more than report propositional information; they need to attract the listener’s empathy and understanding. By applying sociocognitive and functional models of language and discourse (Herman 2003; Redeker 2006; Bernárdez 2008) in order to complement the Labovian approach to narratives, this study shows (i) that, in this specific text type, evaluation – the expression of the narrator’s emotions – is not an independent section, but suffuses the whole texts from beginning to end, and (ii) that the recurrent linguistic and pragmatic strategies chosen in order to disclose highly personal information – discourse markers, repetitions, repairs, profusion of details, etc. – are related to the specific linguistic activity and discourse context.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Preface xi
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Section 1: Introduction
- The many faces and phases of evaluation 3
-
Section 2: Theoretical considerations and approaches to evaluation
- The emergence of axiology as a key parameter in modern linguistics 27
- AFFECT and emotion, target-value mismatches, and Russian dolls 47
- Appraising Appraisal 67
- The evaluative palette of verbal irony 93
- The implementation of the axiological parameter in a verbal subontology for natural language processing 117
- The evaluative function of situation-bound utterances in intercultural interaction 137
- Prosody, information structure and evaluation 153
- The evaluation of intonation: pitch range differences in English and in Spanish 179
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Section 3: Evaluation in different contexts
- “An astonishing season of destiny!” Evaluation in blurbs used for advertising TV series 197
- Graduation within the scope of Attitude in English and Spanish consumer reviews of books and movies 221
- Register diversification in evaluative language: the case of scientific writing 241
- The role of negative-modal synergies in Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species 259
- Exploring academic argumentation in course-related blogs through ENGAGEMENT 281
- Multimodal analysis of controversy in the media 303
- The expression of evaluation in weekly news magazines in English 321
- Evaluative phraseological choice and speaker party/gender 345
- Evaluation in emotion narratives 367
- Evaluative discourse and politeness in university students' communication through social networking sites 387
- Index 413
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Preface xi
-
Section 1: Introduction
- The many faces and phases of evaluation 3
-
Section 2: Theoretical considerations and approaches to evaluation
- The emergence of axiology as a key parameter in modern linguistics 27
- AFFECT and emotion, target-value mismatches, and Russian dolls 47
- Appraising Appraisal 67
- The evaluative palette of verbal irony 93
- The implementation of the axiological parameter in a verbal subontology for natural language processing 117
- The evaluative function of situation-bound utterances in intercultural interaction 137
- Prosody, information structure and evaluation 153
- The evaluation of intonation: pitch range differences in English and in Spanish 179
-
Section 3: Evaluation in different contexts
- “An astonishing season of destiny!” Evaluation in blurbs used for advertising TV series 197
- Graduation within the scope of Attitude in English and Spanish consumer reviews of books and movies 221
- Register diversification in evaluative language: the case of scientific writing 241
- The role of negative-modal synergies in Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species 259
- Exploring academic argumentation in course-related blogs through ENGAGEMENT 281
- Multimodal analysis of controversy in the media 303
- The expression of evaluation in weekly news magazines in English 321
- Evaluative phraseological choice and speaker party/gender 345
- Evaluation in emotion narratives 367
- Evaluative discourse and politeness in university students' communication through social networking sites 387
- Index 413
