Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 15:5 (2024) ► pp.708–731

Affect in the pragmeme of delivering a health directive

Toward an analysis of affective potential in two BBC videos

ORCID logo | National Sun Yat-sen University

This study investigates how affect is manifested in the pragmeme of delivering a health directive in the Covid-19 context and how affect co-participates in the pragmeme. This research draws on theoretical insights from pragmeme theory, relevance theory, and the recent distributed language view, with the aim of contributing to the development of a language-body-environment perspective on pragmatic acts. By way of illustration, two videos used in BBC reports were analyzed, one featuring the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s order to the British people to stay at home and the other being an unofficial, self-made video that also appeals to the public to remain at home. This paper argues that affect in its various manifestations embodies affective potential, which should be regarded as being part and parcel of the pragmeme.

Keywords: affect, affective potential, directive, languaging, pragmeme
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical Foundations
    • 2.1Affect/emotion in pragmeme theory
    • 2.2Placing affect and cognition on the agenda of pragmatic research
    • 2.3Affective potential: Affect as meaning potential
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1James’ appeal to the public to stay at home: “this is the reality”
    • 4.2Boris Johnson’s instruction/order to UK citizens: “You must stay at home”
  • 5.Discussion: Affective potential and directives
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.23023.tse
References (35)
Alba-Juez, Laura and Tatiana Larina
2018 “Language and Emotion: Discourse-pragmatic Perspectives.” Russian Journal of Linguistics 22(1): 9–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allan, Keith
2016 “The Pragmeme of Insult and Some Allopracts.” In K. Allan, A. Capone & I. Kecskes (Eds.), Pragmemes and Theories of Language Use, 69–84. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allan, Keith, Alessandro Capone, and Istvan Kecskes
(Eds.) 2016 Pragmemes and Theories of Language Use. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baldry, Anthony and Paul Thibault
2006 Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Bates, Carolina Figueras
2021 “Mitigation in Discourse: Social, Cognitive and Affective Motivations When Exchanging Advice.” Journal of Pragmatics 1731: 119–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bråten, Stein and Colwyn Trevarthen
2007 “Prologue: From Infant Intersubjectivity and Participant Movements to Simulation and Conversation in Cultural Common Sense.” In Stein Bråten (Ed.), On Being Moved: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy, 21–34. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Capone, Alessandro
2005 “Pragmemes (a Study with Reference to English and Italian).” Journal of Pragmatics 37(9): 1355–1371. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “On pragmemes Again. Dealing with Death.” La Linguistique 46(2): 3–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Damasio, Antonio R.
1999 The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. London: William Heinemann.Google Scholar
de Saussure, Louis, and Tim Wharton
2020 “Relevance, effects and affect.” International Review of Pragmatics 12(2): 183–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
El-Dakhs, Dina Abdel Salam
2021 “#StayHome – A Pragmatic Analysis of COVID- 19 Health Advice in Saudi and Australian Tweets.” Language and Dialogue 11(2): 223–245. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra, and Dionysis Goutsos
2004 Discourse Analysis: An Introduction (2nd ed). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grice, H. P.
1957 “Meaning.” Philosophical Review 661. 377–388. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horst, Dorothea, Franziska Boll, Christina Schmitt, and Cornelia Müller
2014 “Gesture as Interactive Expressive Movement: Inter-affectivity in Face-to-face Communication.” In Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silva Ladewig, David McNeill & Jana Bressem (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication, Volume 21, 2112–2126. Berlin and Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Thomas W.
2014 “Emotion in Languaging: Languaging as Affective, Adaptive, and Flexible Behavior in Social Interaction.” Frontiers in Psychology 5(720). 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lüdtke, Ulrike
(Ed.) 2015 Emotion in language: Theory – Research – Application. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, J. Lachlan, and Laura Alba-Juez
(Eds.) 2019 Emotion in Discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mey, Jacob L.
2001 Pragmatics: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2016 “Why We Need the Pragmeme, or: Speech Acting and its Peripeties.” In Keith Allan, Alessandro Capone, & Istvan Kesckes (Eds.), Pragmemes and Theories of Language Use, 133–140. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ogiermann, Eva
(Ed.) 2023 “The Interpersonal Functions of Public Signs during the Covid-19 Pandemic [Special Issue].” Pragmatics and Society 14 (2). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parvaresh, Vahid, and Alessandro Capone
(Eds.) (2017) The Pragmeme of Accommodation: The Case of Interaction Around the Event of Death. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Pounds, Gabrina
2018 “Patient-centred Communication in Ask-the-expert Healthcare Websites.” Applied Linguistics 39(2): 117–134.Google Scholar
Pounds, Gabrina, Daniel Hunt, and Nelya Koteyko
2018 “Expression of Empathy in a Facebook-based Diabetes Support Group.” Discourse, Context & Media 251: 34–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pounds, Gabrina, and Carlos De Pablos-Ortega
2016 “Patient-centred Communication in British, Italian and Spanish ‘Ask-the-Expert’ Healthcare Websites.” Communication & Medicine 12(2–3): 225–241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwarz-Friesel, Monika
2010 “Expressive Bedeutung und E-Implikaturen – Zur Relevanz konzeptueller Bewertungen bei indirekten Sprechakten: Das Streichbarkeitskriterium und seine kognitive Realität.” In W. Rudnitzky (Ed.), Kultura Kak Tekst (Kultur als Text), 12–27. Moscow: SGT.Google Scholar
2015 “Language and Emotion. The Cognitive Linguistic Perspective.” In U. Lüdtke (Ed.), Emotion in Language, 157–173. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R.
1976 “The Classification of Illocutionary Acts.” Language in Society 51: 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson
1995 Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd edn.). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2015 “Beyond Speaker’s Meaning.” Croatian Journal of Philosophy XV1: 117–149.Google Scholar
Thibault, Paul J.
2011 “First-order Languaging Dynamics and Second-order Language: The Distributed Language View.” Ecological Psychology 231: 210–245. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021 Distributed Languaging, Affective Dynamics, and the Human Body, Volume I: The Sense-Making Body. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wharton, Tim
2009 Pragmatics and Non-Verbal Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilce, James M.
2009 Language and Emotion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Na
2021 “Engaging Readers across Participants: A Cross-interactant Analysis of Metadiscourse in Letters of Advice during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Pragmatics 1861: 181–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yus, Francisco
2019 “A Cognitive Pragmatics of the Phatic Internet.” In J. Lachlan Mackenzie & Laura Alba-Juez (Eds.), Emotion in Discourse, 161–188. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar