Abstract
Visiting Scholar Dr. Valentyna Uschchyna, Professor of the English Philology, Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University, Lutsk, Ukraine, will present:
Sociocognitive Dynamics of Stancetaking in Risk Discourse Situation
At the beginning of the 21st century, with all the challenges of new technologies as well as growing political, economic, and environmental crises in different parts of the world and globally, humanity is facing new risks, often created in discourse and by discourse.
Looking at how language is used today, one can argue that it gives people the power not only to judge, evaluate or persuade, but also to coerce and manipulate. As a result, risk communication is now embedded in wide social and political contexts, being no longer about risk per se, but about responsibility, accountability and influence.
Risk discourse of the new modernity is characterized by uncertainty and alternativity, danger and fear, expectation of eventual harm or possible excitement. Having different expectations, subjects of the risk discourse situations base their decisions on them. Decision-making in risk discourse is equaled to stancetaking – a discourse activity, involving corresponding discursive actions and interactions.
This talk will reveal the discursive dynamics of stancetaking on risk with the help of mental spaces analysis, tracing how stances are constructed and re-constructed as the discourse unfolds.
Location and Address
Cathedral, Room 332