An Analysis of Ideological Speeches in Business Contexts: The Delegitimation and Defense of Renewable Energies

Authors

  • Esperanza Morales-López University of A Coruña

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.3.1864

Keywords:

critical discourse analysis, business critical discourse, recontextualization, delegitimation, cognitive frame, ideological conflict in business discourse

Abstract

In this article I offer an analysis of professional speeches in a business context in which ideological proposals of an economic nature are defended, in particular, several speeches in which the Spanish Association of Renewable Energy Producers (APPA) responds to criticism from multinational companies in the energy sector. Their criticism is largely based on the fact that the companies involved in renewable energy, particularly photovoltaic producers, are receiving subsidies from the government.

The results of the pragmatic-discursive and argumentative analysis reveal that the main discursive resource APPA uses to defend this kind of energy is the recontextualization of the criticism they have received by the aforementioned multinational companies, by transforming this criticism using a macro-strategy, i.e., delegitimizing renewable energies. By combining all of the analyzed speeches with the various argumentative strategies present in the speeches, one can observe that APPA uses this delegitimation, both argumentatively and persuasively, to show the absurdity of this criticism.

From a theoretical and methodological perspective, in this article I illustrate the importance of elocutive resources in these speeches; that is, those that are able to activate particular cognitive frames that evoke emotion since both convey simultaneously intention and action.

URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1203209

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Author Biography

Esperanza Morales-López, University of A Coruña

Esperanza MORALES-LÓPEZ es doctora en Filología Románica por la Universidad de Barcelona (con una tesis en el área de Pragmática). En 1990 y parte de 1991, así como en 1994 (durante tres meses), realizó dos estancias de investigación en la Universidad de California, en Berkeley. Otras estancias de investigación posteriores fueron en las universidades de Hamburgo (Instituto para la investigación en la Lengua de signos alemana), Gallaudet (Washington DC) y Lancaster.

Desde 1991 imparte docencia de Lingüística y Análisis del discurso en la Universidad de A Coruña (desde 1992 como Profesora Titular de Universidad). Es coordinadora de los proyectos Bilingüismo lengua de signos/lengua oral (más información en http://ruc.udc.es/dspace) y CEI (Comunicación en la Empresa y en las Instituciones: Mecanismos discursivos de gestión del conocimiento y persuasión social, http://cei.udc.es).

Ha publicado artículos en las editoriales Michigan University Press, Gallaudet University Press, Pergamon y Cascadilla Press; en las revistas internacionales Text, Review of Applied Linguistics, Discourse and Society, Sign Language Studies, Journal of Language and Politics, Discurso (UNAM, Mexico), Text and Talk, Journal of Pragmatics, EID&A; y en las revistas nacionales Oralia (Spain), Monteagudo, Signa, Tonos Digital, entre otras. Es co-editora del libro Sign Bilingualism (John Benjamins, 2008).

Published

2012-09-29

How to Cite

Morales-López, E. (2012). An Analysis of Ideological Speeches in Business Contexts: The Delegitimation and Defense of Renewable Energies. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.3.1864