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Article In:
The Social Semiotic Forum: Special issue of the Journal Language, Context and Text 6:1 (2024)
Edited by Elizabeth A. Thomson, Awni Etaywe, Ingrid Wijeyewardene and Penny Wheeler
[Language, Context and Text 6:1] 2024
► pp. 2–26

Moving towards peace, compassion and empathy through semiotic enquiry

ORCID logo | Charles Darwin University , Australia
ORCID logo | University of Wollongong , Australia
ORCID logo | University of New England , Australia

In our interconnected world, exposure to hate, fear, violence and adversarial communication is commonplace. Yet, this exposure underscores the urgent need for a more just, peaceful, and inclusive society. While research stresses the importance of nurturing peace, compassion and empathy for enhanced well-being and social justice, these three terms are rarely discussed at length in linguistics and communication studies. Little systematic work explores how language and semiotic resources actualise these ideals across contexts. This special issue, grounded in systemic functional linguistics, addresses this gap. It aims to contribute to a more just world, promote non-violent efforts for social justice, and lay the foundation for future research on the semiotics of peace, compassion and empathy. This paper outlines key definitions and contributions.

Keywords: peace, compassion, empathy, semiotics, systemic functional linguistics, multimodality, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, digital communication, morality
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining “peace”, “compassion” and “empathy” in the special issue
    • Macquarie dictionary (2nd edition)
  • 3.Overview of the articles in the special issue
  • 4.Final remarks
  • Author queries
  • References
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