IMPACTO EN LA SOCIEDAD Accidentes Cerebrovasculares

As explained in 3.3.1, the DHA is a problem-oriented interdisciplinary approach that is interested in the study of language in its socio-historical context, paying special attention to the historical context within which discourse is embedded. This approach considers different analytical perspectives when analysing, understanding and

explaining the phenomena under investigation, combining various theories and methods in order to better understand and explain the research object. In this way, DHA analyses follow the principle of triangulation, where different forms of

background information, theories, methods and empirical observations are considered in the analyses carried out, which are determined by the object of study or problem under investigation. Reisigl and Wodak’s (2016) triangulatory approach is based on

four levels or dimensions of context. These include the immediate co-text and co- discourse, intertextual and interdiscursive relationships, extralinguistic social variables and institutional frames of the context of situation, and the broader socio-political and historical context of the discursive practices.

4.5.1.1. Nomination and predication strategies

The DHA focuses on three aspects or dimensions that guide the analysis. In the first dimension, the contents or topics of a discourse are identified, then the discourse strategies within them, and, finally, the linguistic means and realisations involved. Concerning the discursive strategies, five questions are considered in a DHA analysis. These focus on a) how entities, phenomena, processes and actions are referred to, b) the features ascribed to them, c) the arguments used to justify and question claims in the discourses analysed, d) the stance from which a), b) and c) are framed, as well as the involvement or distance of the text producer, and e) whether utterances are articulated overtly, or in an intensified or mitigated manner. From these questions, five types of discursive strategies have been elaborated. These are a) nomination, b) predication, c) argumentation, d) perspectivisation, and e) intensification/mitigation strategies.

Since the main focus of this study is on representations, nomination and predication strategies are considered in the analysis, because they play a fundamental role in the construction and characterisation of social actors and other phenomena. Strategies such as perspectivisation, or intensification/mitigation are excluded from this analysis, as they pertain to text producers’ stance and illocutionary force, being not as relevant to the purpose of this study. Similarly, argumentation strategies, which are used to question and justify claims of truth and normative rightness (Reisigl and Wodak 2016: 33), are not a focus of this study, as I look at justifications in the form of legitimation

strategies. However, arguments are sometimes mentioned, provided they relate to a representation identified.

Nomination or referential strategies refer to or identify entities, while predication strategies positively or negatively characterise or describe them. The former discursively construct, while the latter discursively qualify. As Reisigl and Wodak (2001) assert, once constructed or identified, social actors are provided with

predications or evaluative attributions. There are different linguistic devices that can help to construct and qualify social actors or phenomena, thus representing them. In the DHA, Reisigl and Wodak (2001; 2016) have identified a series of linguistic devices that can carry out these processes, although the list is by no means conclusive. Within nomination strategies, Reisigl and Wodak (2016: 33) have included devices that indicate membership categorisation, deictics, anthroponyms, collectives; tropes such as pars pro toto or totum pro parte synecdoches, or biological, naturalising, and depersonalising metaphors and metonymies; verbs and nouns that denote processes and actions, etc. Regarding predication strategies, linguistic devices include

stereotypical, evaluative attributions of negative or positive traits such as adjectives, appositions, prepositional phrases, relative clauses, infinitive clauses, etc.; explicit predicates or predicative nouns/adjectives/pronouns; collocations; comparisons, including similes, metaphors, metonymies, hyperboles, and euphemisms; allusions, evocations, presuppositions and implicatures, among others (Reisigl and Wodak 2016: 33). The extract in Table 4.6 shows examples of referential or nomination strategies in the form of proper names, action and professional anthroponyms.

Los coautores del documento son la profesora María Alejandra Carrasco, la psicóloga María Marcela Ferrer, la enfermera universitaria Paulina Johnson y el médico Christian Schnake. ENGLISH TRANSLATION: The co-authors of the document are professor María Alejandra

Carrasco, psychologist María Marcela Ferrer, university nurse Paulina Johnson and the physician Christian Schnake.

Table 4.6. Example of nomination strategies (in italics) taken from the ECC corpus.

In table 4.6 there is also an example of a predication strategy, realised with the adjective universitaria (university) which characterises the nurse mentioned in the extract and differentiates her from other nurses. Other examples of predication

strategies can be seen in Table 4.7, where predications take the form of adjectives and an infinitive clause.

También expresó que es necesario regular un marco legal que regule en materia patrimonial las relaciones estables entre parejas homosexuales. “Pero llamar a estas uniones matrimonio y equipararlas a la unión entre un hombre y una mujer es cambiar el orden natural de las cosas”, aclaró el Obispo.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION: He also stated that it is necessary to regulate a legal framework that regulates the stable relationships of homosexual couples in terms of inheritance. “But calling these partnerships marriage and equating them to the partnership between a man and a woman is to change the natural order of things”, the Bishop clarified.

Table 4.7. Example of predication strategies (in italics) taken from the ECC corpus. In the extract in Table 4.7, predication strategies positively characterise the creation of a law for stable gay couples, while the infinitive clause negatively evaluates same-sex marriage by characterising it as unnatural.

Although the identification of strategies in tables 4.6 and 4.7 is unproblematic, Reisigl and Wodak (2001) note that separating nomination from predication strategies is not always a straightforward process, as a referential identification often carries in itself a

certain connotation. An example of this can be seen in Table 4.8, where the noun

pecadores (sinners) nominates gay people (also nominated with the noun

homosexuales (homosexuals)) while negatively evaluating them from a religious point of view.

Notemos cuidadosamente que en la lista de pecadores de los versículos 9 y 1 el apóstol incluye a los homosexuales y a los afeminados, pero en el versículo 2 dice claramente “esto eran algunos de Ustedes”.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Let us carefully note that in the list of sinners in verses 9 and 1, the apostle includes homosexuals and effeminate men, but in verse 2 he clearly says that “some of you used to be like this”.

Table 4.8. Example of a nomination strategy (in italics) with a predicational function taken from the ECC corpus.

In the analysis carried out in this thesis, I identify nomination and predication strategies by looking for any linguistic devices that identify and characterise in concordances of the search terms homosexual*, lesbian*, gay*, fleto*, cola*, maric*, lela*, camion*, lésbic* and the phrase mismo sexo (samesex) (discussed in more detail in 4.5.3.4). However, the main focus of my analysis is on the representations that these strategies produce, so I do not spend much time discussing them in the analytical chapters. In fact, I usually refer to them as ‘characterising’ or

‘nominating/referring to’ a particular entity, rather than mentioning them by name. In what follows, I explain the theoretical framework I use to categorise the legitimation strategies identified in the analysis.