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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
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