According to the sociocognitive paradigm, discourse and social structures are mediated by social cognition or a system of mental processes constructed on-line by discourse participants. If this is so, an examination of the mental processes triggered by discourse may help us understand how opinions and evaluations may potentially guide public opinion. One of these processes is Conceptual Blending. To investigate how use of language relates to this phenomenon, this paper qualitatively looks at the role of nominal subordinate clauses in the construction of blends and their corresponding psycho-pragmatic effects in a corpus of 20 Brazilian editorials.

1. 8th AELCO, Oct 17-19, 2012
Blends and their psycho-
pragmatic effects in editorial
discourse
Tânia Gastão Saliés
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)
taniasalies@uerj.br

2.  UNDERSTAND the role of
conceptualization in the discursive
construction of meaning in editorial
discourse;
 Examine the psycho-pragmatic effects
activated by nominal subordinate
clauses in editorial discourse.
GOALS

3. Research question
 How / why may de media’s use of
language relate to public opinion
formation?

4. Corpus / Context
 20 newspaper editorials (6,708 words)
 5 regions across Brazil
 Time of publication: onset of the Iraq war (2003)
 Genre: Institutional editorials
 Topic: Iraq war and its effects
 Target Audience: Readers of online newspapers
 Purpose : Show and sell the newspaper’s point of
view to readers
 Discursive orientation: Globalization; anti-
imperialism

5. Selection criteria
 Number of words per editorial: 315-368
 Genre structure
 Topic and time of publication

6. The editorials as a genre
Summary of the
event
Factuality
Analysis of the event
 Positive
 Negative
Pragmatic uptake
narrative-coda
 Recommendation
 Advise
 Warning
 Suggestion

7. 1
Foi com um indisfarçável orgulho que
autoridades norte-americanas anunciaram a
fase “Choque e Pavor”da ofensiva militar,
na qual centenas de bombas e mísseis
foram lançados sobre Bagdá e outras
grandes cidades iraquianas. O problema
por trás da linguagem asséptica dos
militares, que evoca jogos de videogame, é
que existem em Bagdá cerca de 5 milhões d
epessoas que podem morrer por causa dos
bombardeios.
It was with undisputable pride that north American
authorities announced the “Shock and terror” phase
of the military offensive, in which hundreds of
bombs and missiles were launched over Bagdad and
other big Iraq cities. The problem behind the
aseptic language used by the military, which evokes
videogames, is that there are in Bagdad about 5
million people who may die because of the
bombing.
2
Aliás, é bastante razoável supor que um
número ainda indeterminado de civis tenha
de fato perecido nos ataques. Por maiores
que tenham sido os avanços da tecnologia
bélica e por mais que tenha crescido a
precisão das bombas e dos mísseis, o ser
humano permanece suscetível a explosões
de grande magnitude. É preciso desprezar
a vida humana para lançar um ataque como
o de ontem sobre uma cidade povoada por
milhões de pessoas, a esmagadora maioria
deles de civis tão inocentes quanto os
notre-amercianos mortos nos atentados
terroristas de 11 de setembro.
Saddam Hussein é um tirano sanguinário
que merece o pior dos destinos. O Iraque
certamente ficará melhor sem ele. Mas isso
não significa que os EUA e o presidente
George W. Bush tenham o direito de
arriscar milhares de vidas de iraquianos e
de soldados da coalizão para iniciar uma
guerra para depor o ditador.
Bush e os países que o apóiam não dispõem
de justificativa moral ou de mandato legal
para atacar o Iraque. Ao contrário, lançam
a ofensiva militar sob protestos da maioria
dos governos do mundo e de grande parte
da opinião pública do planeta.
Actually, it is very reasonable to suppose that a
number of civilians yet to be known have perished
in the attacks. As impressive as the military
technology advances have been, and as accurate as
the bombs and missiles might have become, the
human being remains susceptible to explosions of
large magnitude. It is necessary to disregard human
lifes to execute an attack as done yesterday over a
city inhabited by millions of people, out of which
the overwhelmingly majority is as innocent as the
north Americans who died in the September 11
terrorists attacks.
Saddam Hussein is a sanguinary tyrant who
deserves the worth end. Iraqi will certainly be
better off without him. But this does not mean that
the US and president George W. Bush have the right
to place at risk millions of Iraqi citizens’ and
coalition soldiers’ lives to start a war to depose a
dictator.
Bush and the countries that lend him support do not
hold a moral justification or legal mandate to attack
Iraq. On the contrary, they launched a military
offensive under protestation by most of the World
governments and by a large majority of the public
opinion in the planet.
3
É chocante o argumento de que a campanha
bélica tem como fim estabelecer a
democracia no Iraque. Washington não
apenas tolera ditaduras como foi
responsável por derrubar diversos governos
legítimos e representativos que não se
curvaram aos interesses da Casa Branca.
No mais, é certo que democracias não se
constroem com bombas e mortes.
It is shocking to argue that the military campaign
has as an objective the establishment of a
democracy in Iraq. Washington not only tolerates
dictatorships but also has been responsible for
overthrowing legitimate and representative
governments that have not curved to the interests of
the White House. Furthermore, it is in order to
point that democracies are not build upon bombs
and deaths.

8. N=20; frequency:1000
Type Nominal Relative Adverbials
Mín 9 6 0
Max 49 46 40
Range 40 40 40
Mean 29 23 16
Median 27 22 26
Total/1000 586 455 330
Note: values have been rounded to the next decimal place
Why Nominal Subordinate
Clauses ?

9. Distribution
Nominal
Subordinates
Frequency: 1000
Editorials %
49-41 5 25
38-33 4 20
28-18 8 40
16-9 3 15

10. AELCO, October 17-19, 2012
Theoretical Premises

11. A sociocognitive, critically
oriented approach
 Language
 reflects the experience and perception of a socio-
historical subject who acts in the discursive scene and
who becomes a hostage of his/her own perception – the
viewer.
 may transform the experience and perception of
discourse participants.
 cues other more complex cognitive processes over which
it structures itself whenever within a context of use.

12. Key Concepts
•Figure-ground asymmetry
•Blends

13. Figure-ground
 Figure-ground asymmetry: : gestalts
oriented toward relevance
 Information cognitively salient/thematic
 CONTEXT may play the role of ground.
(Grundy & Jiang, 2001)

14. Figure-ground
 Traditionally:
 Information in the foreground = figure
 Information in the background= ground
 If information which is syntactically
figure functions as background, it is
pragmatically marked.
 hidden discourse purpose is at work.

15. Blends
 Mental Spaces: “partial assemblies of meaning we dynamically construct as we think
and talk for purposes of understanding and action” Their internal structure derives from
stable domains such as ICMs, frames, image-schemas. (Fauconnier and Turner, 1996:113).
 Space builders: linguistic expressions (adverbs, epistemic verbs, connectives)
CONTEXT features that activate mental spaces.
 Blends: unique type of mental space that arises from a network of mappings among
input spaces, a generic space and the blended space itself
 Mappings: correspondences among input domains established by pragmatic functions
or schemata. They allow to establish links across domains and organize information
into packages or mental spaces.
 Blending operations:
by composition: integrate two elements by drawing on a simple frame.
by completion: structure projected from the inputs (matches information in long-term memory).
by elaboration: RUNNING OF THE BLEND
(Fauconnier and Turner, 2002)

16. AELCO, October 17-19, 2012
The psycho-pragmatic
effects

17. Example (1)
It is very difficult to estimate the consequences
of a military conflict between the US and Iraq
over the Brazilian economy. An exercise in
economics futurology points toward conditions
typical of emerging countries who are subjected to
the behavior of the international markets. If
governmental resources for investments are already
scarce, in case of a war, they will inevitably get
shorter. We will have to tighten our belts to comply
with our financial obligations.

18. Gloss
É muito difícil dimensionar,
It is very difficult to estimate
as conseqüências do conflito bélico
the consequences of a conflict military
Entre os EUA e o (def. art. m.) Iraque
between the US and Iraq
em nossa economia.
over our economy.

19. Outcomes of a war as an exercise in
economics futurology
GENERIC INPUT
ICMs:
War
Economic Politics
Foreign Trade
....
The Iraq war and its economic
outcomes:
- Market ups and downs
- Few resources for investments
- Bombings
- US x Iraq
War
Financial obligations
Brazil (emerging country)
International markets
…
Difficulty to estimate
Economic outcomes
...
A war in Iraq will affect the
Brazilian economy. The consequences
cannot be estimated.
INPUT 1 INPUT 2
BLEND
V

20. Findings
 Nominal subordinate clauses trigger
mental spaces where opinions and facts
are integrated.
 Arising blends:
 functions of discursive context and the editorial
communicative frame.
 reinforce the communicative purpose of
editorials.

21. Nominal clause as subject
 Prototypical
 Strategically related to
 Factuality
 Figure-ground asymmetry

22. Nominal clause as subject
 Subjective subordinate clauses
 Ascend to the status of figures or marked
structures;
 Monopolize readers’ attention resources;
 Dynamically lead opinions to behave as facts
discursively.

23. Background
 Can only be found in the context of
discourse or in the communicative
frame;
 Cleft sentences overshadow the
discourse subject responsible for the
point of view.

24. Example (2)
Although official sources have been trying to mitigate current
concerns with an outbreak of a war between the US and Iraq, the
growing eminence of a military intervention and its
consequences to the Brazilian economy are under analysis by
the Brazilian government. The Treasury Secretary, Antônio
Palocci, admits that the war, in case it happens, will create a
severe crisis with temporary impacts on the economy.
Pallocci denies that the government economic area has been
preparing a package of measures to face the challenges of a
crisis, which will immediately result in higher exchange rates and
an increase in oil prices. The secretary hopes that foreign trade,
with some incentives, can contribute to minimize the effects of a
belic conflict in one of the most important oil production regions
worldwide.

25. Example 2: Gloss
O Ministro da Fazenda, Antônio Palocci,
The Treasury Secretary, Antônio Palocci,
admite que a guerra, caso ocorra,
admits that the war, in case it happens,
provocará uma crise aguda, mas temporária,
will create a crisis severe (fem.) but temporary (fem.)
sem impactos permanentes.
without impacts permanent (pl.).

26. The war as a severe and temporary crisis
War - US x Iraq
implications for Brazil:
crisis, world markets,
oil prices ....
Palocci
Eminent war
Official sources
Brazilian Government
US politics
Iraq ...
INPUT 1
Severe and
temporary
crisis...
INPUT 2
From Palocci’s point of view,
the crisis to be created by a
war will be severe and
temporary.
BLEND
ICMs:
- War
- Globalization
- Economy
- Crisis...
GENERIC INPUT
VV

27. Example 3
O presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva prometeu,
em discurso proferido nesta semana,
encaminhar, ao Congresso Nacional, no mês de
abril, as reformas tributária e previdenciária.
Essas propostas viraram projetos ainda no
governo passado, mais não foram adiante.
Hoje, parecem ser os únicos pontos da agenda
que o governo tem para tirar o país do buraco.
[...]
Voltando à guerra dos Estados Unidos contra o
Iraque, é muita temeridade apostar num único
cenário: uma vitória rápida americana (ainda
que muito provável). É preciso encarar
cenários mais difíceis. Mesmo se a
ocupação do Iraque acontecer da forma como
os americanos planejaram, o céu global não
será de brigadeiro. Nuvens carregadas
prometem mais sombras.
President Lula promised, in a speech given this
week to the National Congress, that in April
the reforms of the tributary and
government social assistance systems will
move on. These proposals became projects
in the previous Government, but till today
have not been executed. Today, they seem
to be the only agenda of the Government to
take the country out of the hole […].
Moving back to the US-Iraq war, it is temerity to
bet on a single scenario: A fast American
victory (though highly probable). It is
necessary to envisage more difficult
scenarios. Even if the occupation of Iraq
takes place as the
Americans have planned, global skies will
not be friendly. Heavy clouds promise
more shadows.

28. Configuration of a
storm-like global scenario
V
INPUT 2INPUT 1
GENERIC SPACE
BLEND
Brazil and the war:
President Lula
Congress
Reforms
GIP, Iraq war ...
MCIs:
- Theatrical
performance
- Weather forecast
- Military offensives
- Jogo ...
EUA
Iraq
War
Scenarios ...
More difficult scenarios:
- heavy clouds
- not-so-friendly skies
The scenarios will be more
difficult

29. Conclusion

30. Conclusion
 Pragmatic effects associated with:
 the figure-ground asymmetry
 blends: mental spaces where opinions are
invested with the power of facts
A socio-cognitive account of why folk
knowledge commonly grants editorials the
power of transforming reality

31. Implications and
Applications
 Empowerment of discourse participants;
 Development of multiliteracies in reading and
writing instruction;
 Training of prospective language professionals
(writers, journalists …);
 Potential of Blending Theory as a tool toward
critically oriented discourse analysis.

32. Future Studies
 examine the figure-ground asymmetry in
other genres and its relation with the
ideational dimension of language;
 examine the other types of dependent
clauses in editorials;
 investigate presuppositions that float in
reference spaces triggered by the copula in
nominal clauses.

33. Almeria, 17/10/2012
Thank you! ☺
Q&A