The paper analyzes acts of ridiculization in public debates. Ridiculization is a communicative act that, through expressing a negative evaluation of lack of power on some person, makes her feel abased, isolated, dropped out of the group, thus fulfilling a function of moralistic aggression and one of enhancing group identity. Ridiculization is seen here as a way to discredit the opponent in a political debate, in such a way as to make him/her less credible and less persuasive in front of the audience. Several cases of ridiculization are presented, and the cues to ridiculization acts are listed, from smile and laughter to simple serious words, to pretended compassion and praise, to irony, imitation and parody.
Poggi, I., D’Errico, F., Vincze, L. (2012). Ridiculization in public debates: making fun of the other as a discrediting move. In 4th International Workshop on Corpora for Research on EMOTION SENTIMENT & SOCIAL SIGNALS ES³ 2012 (pp.44-49).
Ridiculization in public debates: making fun of the other as a discrediting move
POGGI, Isabella;D’Errico F;
2012-01-01
Abstract
The paper analyzes acts of ridiculization in public debates. Ridiculization is a communicative act that, through expressing a negative evaluation of lack of power on some person, makes her feel abased, isolated, dropped out of the group, thus fulfilling a function of moralistic aggression and one of enhancing group identity. Ridiculization is seen here as a way to discredit the opponent in a political debate, in such a way as to make him/her less credible and less persuasive in front of the audience. Several cases of ridiculization are presented, and the cues to ridiculization acts are listed, from smile and laughter to simple serious words, to pretended compassion and praise, to irony, imitation and parody.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
