UDC

81’2:316.752

Authors

Evgeniy N. Molodychenko
National Research University Higher School of Economics
20 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation;
e-mail: e.molodychenko@gmail.com

Abstract

The article aims to show how critical discourse analysis (CDA) can contribute to interpretation of evaluation and appraisal in their ability to invoke values of the so-called discourse of consumerism, instantiated, inter alia, by popular gender-specific ‘lifestyle’ internet resources. The key theoretical concept drawn upon in this paper is the concept of “values” construed as socially shared ‘forms of excellence’ related to specific social practices. Values are generated, legitimized and disseminated primarily through discursive elements of social practices, i.e. discourses. Textual analysis is conducted vis-à-vis the concept of ‘axiological discourse semantics’ which stands for the semantic space related to invocation of values (as social representations) in the overall discourse semantics of a given textual instance. One of the systems through which axiological semantics is realized lexicogrammatically is the system of appraisal. As far as immediate rhetorical effects are concerned, axiological semantics is a means of strengthening solidarity with the putative addressee, simultaneously projecting ‘disalignment’ with some ‘axiologically alien’ third party. At the same time axiological semantics can be a means of legitimizing the need to purchase certain goods on the part of the addressee – a functionality traditionally associated with promotional messages and advertising. However, a more productive approach is to interpret appraisal and axiological discourse semantics in terms of CDA and socio-linguistics as means of shaping recipient’s more stable social representations, including values. The texts of the analyzed genre should be thus viewed as tools of building and shaping a contemporary mentality, that of a consumer society.

Keywords

value, axiological discourse semantics, appraisal, axiology, critical discourse analysis, discourse of consumerism

References

1. Leont’ev D.A. Tsennost’ kak mezhdistsiplinarnoe ponyatie: opyt mnogomernoy rekonstruktsii [Value as an Interdisciplinary Concept: The Experience of Multi-Dimensional Reconstruction]. Sovremennyy sotsio-analiz: sb. rabot avtorov, poluchivshikh granty Mosk. otdeleniya Ros. nauch. fonda i Fonda Forda [Modern Sociological Analysis: Сollected Papers of the Authors Who Had Received Grants of the Moscow Branch of the Russian Science Foundation and Ford Foundation]. Moscow, 1996, iss. 6, pp. 5–23.
   
2. Leont’ev D.A. Psikhologiya smysla: priroda, stroenie i dinamika smyslovoy real’nosti [Psychology of Meaning: The Nature, Structure, and Dynamics of Conceptual Reality]. 3rd ed. Moscow, 2003. 511 p.
   
3. Fairclough N. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London; N. Y., 2003. 270 p.
   
4. Harman G. Explaining Value. Soc. Philos. Policy, 1994, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 229–248.
   
5. Boudon R. The Origin of Values: Essays in the Sociology and Philosophy of Beliefs. New Brunswick; London, 2013. 230 p.
   
6. Martin J.R., White P.R.R. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London; N. Y., 2005. 278 p.
   
7. Halliday M.A.K., Matthiessen C.M.I.M. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London, 2004. 689 p.
   
8. Chernyavskaya V.E. Lingvistika teksta. Lingvistika diskursa [Text Linguistics. Discourse Linguistics]. Moscow, 2014. 200 p.
   
9. Chernyavskaya V.E. Fantomy i sindromy diskursivnoy paradigmy [Discourse Paradigm: Phantom Objects and Syndromes]. Voprosy kognitivnoy lingvistiki, 2014, no. 1, pp. 54–61.
   
10. Van Dijk T.A. Discourse and Cognition in Society. Crowley D., Mitchell D. Communication Theory Today. Oxford, 1993, pp. 107–126.
    
11. Vol’f E.M. Funktsional’naya semantika otsenki [Functional Evaluation Semantics]. Moscow, 2014. 284 p.
    
12. Dokuchaev I.I. Tsennost’ i ekzistentsiya. Osnovopolozheniya istoricheskoy aksiologii kul’tury [Value and Existence. Basic Principles of Historical Axiology of Culture]. St. Petersburg, 2009. 595 p.
    
13. Marcuse H. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston, 1964. 257 p.