Means of Positive Emotiveness of Persuasion Strategy in Environmental Discourse Texts (Based on the Materials of the Online Media Outlet The Ecologist)

Abstract

Nowadays, when anthropogenic pressure on the environment is increasingly exacerbating global environmental problems, the need for effective tools to overcome the environmental crisis, including through communication, is particularly important. In this regard, the study of environmental discourse, which helps shape social environmental awareness by identifying the connections between words, actions, and the state of the ecosystem, is becoming increasingly important. The aim of this study is to analyze environmental media discourse from a linguopragmatic perspective, identifying and systematizing the set of positively emotive linguistic means used in implementing communicative tactics within the «pathos» category of persuasive strategies. A brief review of scholarly works devoted to this type of discourse is provided. An interpretation of the linguistic tools used by the authors of the articles from the online media outlet The Ecologist, a reputable journal specializing in environmental issues, is given. Three communication tactics are identified that serve as a means of implementing the «pathos» category of persuasion strategy through the positive emotional coloring of a message: the tactic of declaring a positive assessment, the tactic of declaring a positive forecast, and the tactic of demonstrating positive performance results. Along with the use of vocabulary with positive connotations characteristic of all the identified tactics, specific features inherent to each tactic were also identified. Thus, the tactic of declaring a positive assessment is characterized by the use of contrasts, the tactic of declaring a positive forecast is characterized by the use of linguistic devices relating the statement to a future plan, which vary depending on the author’s degree of confidence in their forecast, and the tactic of demonstrating positive performance results is characterized by the predominance of expressive language, including phraseological units.