%0 Journal Article %A Ullmann, Stefanie %T Epistemic stancetaking and speaker objectification in a spatio-cognitive discourse world: A critical contrastive analysis of political discourse %D 2019 %J Journal of Language and Politics %V 18 %N 3 %P 393-419 %@ 1569-2159 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17038.ull %K critical discourse studies %K cognitive linguistics %K discourse space theory %K Syrian civil war %K epistemic stance %K inter/subjectivity %I John Benjamins %X Abstract

This paper seeks to apply a cognitive-linguistic approach to critical discourse studies in an investigation of epistemic stancetaking and types of inter/subjectivity of the speaker in political discourse. More specifically, the paper presents an analysis of responses by three different politicians, i.e. John Kerry, Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin, to the chemical weapons attack in Syria in August 2013. By incorporating cognitive-linguistic theories in a critical investigation of language, I address diverging representations of the same event and their discursive functions in representing underlying ideologies and motifs of the respective politicians. Specifically, I propose a more nuanced incorporation of epistemic stance in a spatio-cognitive representation of discourse. My analysis shows that type of inter/subjectivity has bearing on the epistemic quality of a proposition. The more prominently a speaker construes him-/herself as evaluator of an event, the stronger his/her assertions become, which is equally visible in a discourse space model. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.17038.ull