Sposoby wyrażania emocji w hasłach z Młodzieżowego Strajku Klimatycznego
Linguistic Ways of Expressing Emotion in Youth Climate Strike Slogans

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on an analysis of linguistic ways of expressing emotions in the protest slogans of the Youth Climate Strike (Młodzieżowy Strajk Klimatyczny) from 2018 to 2023. The aim of the research was to identify the linguistic exponents of emotion used in slogans on banners and their function – both as carriers of emotion and ecological problems. The research material included 500 slogans written on banners, with data mainly derived from social media and news websites. The research methodology was based on the analysis of emotion exponents at various levels of the linguistic system. The slogans were divided into two main groups: 1) those communicating emotions directly (explicitly), and 2) those expressing emotions indirectly (implicitly); they were further divided into subgroups according to the level of the linguistic system from which the means of emotional expression were derived: lexical, lexical morphological, lexical syntactic, and graphic. The analysis took into account Paul Ekman’s list of basic emotions, including emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, and contempt. The analysis also referred to the communicative context of the protests, where emotions are either directed at decision-makers or stem from reflection on the future of the planet. The results of the study showed that, within the collected material, most emotions were expressed indirectly, through various linguistic resources, such as syntactic parallelisms, vulgarisms, and morphological processes. A significant portion of the slogans referred to fear for the future and anger related to the passivity of the authorities. The externalization of emotions was also supported graphically by visual enhancements on the banners. Moreover, the analysis indicated that extralinguistic knowledge plays a crucial role in emotion decoding.

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