Abstract
In this article, I explore clichés as socio-cognitive resources that enable the expression of attitudinal positioning in interaction. I examine a corpus of 150 clichés collected from a variety of publicly available sources and illustrate their function by exploring how they are used to convey evaluation in institutional meetings. By co-deploying the attitude system of the appraisal framework with socio-cognitive discourse analysis tools, I argue that clichés can be used to provoke evaluation through the socio-cognitive resources they evoke given the shared knowledge contained within them. The findings indicate that the majority of evaluative instances relate to performance or ability of human entities by reference to basic aspects of human experience contained in the socio-cognitive representations evoked. The article also finds that the provoked attitudinal values work in a cumulative way to create a flow of evaluative patterns, which, in turn, contributes to our understanding of the interpersonal function they perform, i.e. persuade, urge action and save face. The paper argues that the co-deployment of both approaches allows the investigation of clichés as resources for covertly expressing evaluation by reference to knowledge shared by the interlocutors.
About the author
Dr Stella Bullo is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research area is socio-cognitive discourse analysis. She is the author of Evaluation in Advertising Reception (2014, Palgrave Macmillan) and is currently working on Talking in Clichés: Uses and Functions in Discourse (Cambridge University Press). Other research interests include discourse and health and pain metaphors. Address for correspondence: Department of Language, Information and Communications; Manchester Metropolitan University; Geoffrey Manton Building; Rosamond Street West, Manchester M16 5LL (UK).
Appendix A
- Coding key:
- A/NA:
authorial/non-authorial
- Happ:
happiness
- Inc:
inclination
- Sat:
satisfaction
- Sec:
security
- Comp:
composition
- R/I:
reaction impact
- Val:
valuation
- Cap:
capacity
- Norm:
normality
- Prop:
propriety
- Ver:
veracity
- t,
token of
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