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Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 12:2 (2024) ► pp.139–170

They were not radical, even when they committed that

An appraisal-driven discourse analysis of feelings and attitudes towards the 17-A terrorist cell in Barcelona

ORCID logo | University of Zaragoza
ORCID logo | University of Granada
ORCID logo | University of Granada
ORCID logo | University of Córdoba
ORCID logo | University of Córdoba
Identity conflict and the loss of meaning experienced by some Muslim young people in Western countries are key factors behind fanaticism, leading some of them to find purpose in life within extremist groups (Adam-Troian et al. 2021; Moyano and González 2021). The narrative that emerges from the radicalisation process provides a rich source for psychologists and discourse analysts, exploring not only the ‘why’ and the ‘how’, but also issues stemming from self-perception and other-representation. Such conflict-based narratives materialise in individuals’ evaluative language patterns (Etaywe and Zappavigna 2022). In this paper, we conduct a close analysis of the discursive construction of emotion and opinion in a collection of semi-structured interviews with social workers or neighbours who knew the perpetrators of the 2017 terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. To do so, we use corpus-driven methodologies and a refined version of Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal framework (see Benítez-Castro and Hidalgo-Tenorio 2019). Our analysis aims to cast light on the social frictions that may have contributed to their endorsement of violence (Moyano et al. 2021).
Keywords: identity conflict, radicalisation, 17-A terrorist cell, CDA, Appraisal framework, emotion
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The current threat of terrorism
    • 1.2The 17-A cell and attacks
    • 1.3The cell’s local context
    • 1.4Research goals
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Corpus linguistics and CDA
    • 2.2The language of evaluation
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1The interviews
    • 3.2The tagging system
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1What are the most salient evaluative representations of the cell, their environment and the terror attacks in the eyes of all the interviewees?
    • 4.2What emotions and opinions feature most frequently in the interviews with the two Muslim interviewees?
    • 4.3Are there any differences in the communicative style of the two interviewees?
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Declaration of interest statement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00084.ben
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