Describing, Expressing and Provoking Emotion in Political Discourse: What can Corpus Linguistics Contribute?

This paper looks at uses of corpus linguistics for researching emotion in language, and explores some applications to recent political discourse. Starting from current theories of emotion/affect in psychology, I will look at how emotions are classified. I will then explore how these emotions can be identified in discourse, using various quantitative approaches (sentiment and semantic analysis, corpus linguistics). My talk will then focus on a series of examples from the UK, Germany, Spain and the USA, showing how emotions are represented, invoked and exploited by political figures, particularly those considered “populist”. Examples will illustrate the key contrast between anger and fear: while fear can be mobilised to support the status quo, politicians invoke anger and condone violence in order to spur radical change. Other examples will show how positive emotions associated with in-group identity are harnessed by political leaders to widen dichotomies. I will end by suggesting some ways that corpus linguistics can be used in combination with discourse analytical methodologies in this context.