Means of Expressing and Implying Emotions and Impoliteness in Croatian and Montenegrin Public Discourse
Means of Expressing and Implying Emotions and Impoliteness in Croatian and Montenegrin Public Discourse

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses means of expressing and implying emotions (Langlotz, Locher 2012) inrealizations of impoliteness in written discourse thematizing language and identity in Croatian andMontenegrin media in 2010 and 2011. Realizations of impoliteness often relate to communicatingan emotional stance that can trigger emotional responses in readers. Our discourse sample can bedescribed as “disputes about language and identity” (cf. Felberg, Šarić 2013), which is largely characterized by conflictual disagreements. Conflictual disagreements, as Jones (2001) or Langlotzand Locher (2012) put it, do not leave one cold in face-to-face interaction: they arouse feelings ofannoyance, irritation, anger, or contempt directed to the communicative partner. These observations are relevant in our context, although we deal with written discourse. The main participantsin our data include well-known intellectuals, journalists, and editors. They all defend or attacka position in discussing, among other things, “how similar ‘our’ language (Croatian/Montenegrin)is to ‘their’ language” (Serbian), and “what makes this language (Croatian/Montenegrin) a distinctive and independent entity”. These participants clearly position themselves in relation to otherparticipants. Their positioning of the self and the other person involves negative identity-ascribingpractices. Taking into consideration parameters such as the role of participants in discourse andsociety, context, co-text, and activity types in which discourse participants engaged, we identified various highly context-dependent types and functions of impoliteness realizations (cf. Šarić,Felberg 2015). Contrary to our expectations, the participants in the media discourse in both countries frequently use impoliteness both strategically and systematically while defending their positions. The impoliteness realizations point to emotively significant places in discourse. Their usehas several functions: a prominent one is coercion through legitimizing one’s own standpoints anddelegitimizing those of one’s opponents.Keywords: Croatia; Montenegro; identity discourse; e

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