Emotive Language
What is Emotive Language?
If something is emotive it makes people emotional. If you have
just had your new bike stolen then your friends might avoid
boasting about their bikes: bikes are an emotive subject for
you at the moment.
Newspapers often choose emotive language (words) to get
their readers to react emotionally to a story. If you call an
event a 'riot' rather than a 'disturbance' you are much more
likely to get your readers excited.
How to read Emotive Language
The use of emotive language in academic writing can obscure
the message, and is no substitute for facts. As readers, it is
necessary to separate the fact from the emotion. As writers,
take care that emotion does not distort the factual/analytical
aspects. (Some personal comment is permissible in conclusions but take care!) Emotive language reflects the opinion of the
writer (for/against).
In journals, research that supports the writer may be
described as elegant, sophisticated or excellent whereas
research in opposition may be described as: sloppy, haphazard
or ill conceived.
If, when you read on, there is a 'but' or 'however', what
follows may help to redress the balance. As a reader, check
that the use of emotional language is not covering inadequate
facts or illogical or weak argument. These are valuejudgements by writers, not facts.
Here are a few hints to help you practice recognising
emotive language:
When you read any article, it's a good trick to see if you can
imagine what it might be like if written by someone who held
different views. How could a writer use language to try to sway
your emotions so that you come to a different conclusion?
Listen to politicians, too! They often use a lot of emotive
language to persuade people to agree with their ideas.
Emotive Language use in reporting
For mass media news to fulfill its purpose as a meaningful
source of information, it must be accessible to a wide
proportion of the population.
The role of emotive or dramatic language in the news is a
subtle one – though the story itself may not be dramatised, it
may be possible to inject emotive, attention getting language
into a story to “liven it up”. This would have benefits in terms
of engaging the audiences’ attention and understanding. The
criticism of this is that emotive language takes away from the
facts of a story and places an interpretative or dramatic angle
on the facts, thus skewing the viewers’ perception of events
via their emotions. Many items, such as disasters, crime, and
so on, do contain emotive content. To remove that content
would also be to skew the perception of the realities in the
stories.
By loading the news items with emotive language, some values
are automatically implied on each item, limiting the ways in
which it can be interpreted by the audience.
Emotive Language is defined as language used by the journalist
reporting the story that describes elements of the issue or
situation in an emotive manner, particularly language that
dramatises or places extreme meanings on the items in which it
is used. The words used in such language should be
recognisable as those words designed to elicit an emotional
reaction from the viewer, and describe the “feelings” of an
event, rather than the actual event itself. Examples include:
“horrific” accidents, “heroic” actions, “furious” politicians, etc.
Here are some examples of emotive language used in
newspapers (The part in brackets is the simple english):
1.
Scabs thrown out of the union
(Strike breakers must leave union)
2.
School blaze
(Fire at school)
3. Graf magic
(Skillful Graf)
4.
Stewart agony
(Stewart injured)
5.
Pensioner hit by muggers
(Old man hit by robbers)
6.
A hundred peasants slaughtered by troops
(A hundred peasants killed by troops)
7. Argument leaves factory gutted
(Argument closes factory)
8.
Train seats mauled by youths
(Train seats cut by teenagers)
9.
Real Estate prices plummet throughout the country
(House prices fall throughout country)
10. Money deficits result in havoc in schools
(Shortage of money creates problems in schools)
11. Player lashes out at umpire
(Player hits referee)
12. Political gathering results in riot
(Political meeting ends in disturbance)
Advertising
Advertising is useful to sell products, sell political candidates
and ideas, make announcements, and so on persuasion. Ads
often exaggerate, mislead and even lie. The psychology of ads
is that they play on our fears, desires, prejudices and
weaknesses. No expense is spared, and weasel words (fights
bad breath, helps control dandruff with regular use, gets
dishes virtually spotless) are generously used, especially in the
fine print.
There are two basic kinds of ads: those that give reasons, and
those that do not. All ads are guilty of suppressed evidence;
that is, they never give you sufficient information about a
product. Ads will never tell you what is wrong with the product
(for example, the commonly experienced mechanical problems
of a particular model car). Ads give weak promises (your
clothes will be "brighter" if you use a particular soap), use
vague comparisons (good, better, best), and make illegitimate
appeals to the authority of the crowd (most people use the
product) or to the authority of a particular individual (Jonty
Rhodes for cricket bats). Ads that provide reasons, promise
ads, submit reasons for buying the product. They tell us more
than that the product exists, but not much more. Usually the
promises are vague.
Exercises:
Below are four pairs of headlines.
In each pair which headline is most likely to excite the
reader? (a) or (b)?
(a) Scabs thrown out of the union
(b) Strike breakers must leave union
(a) Fire at school
(b) School blaze
(a) Skilful Graf
(b) Graf magic
(a) Stewart injured
(b) Stewart agony
Re-write the headlines below, replacing the words in bold
with more emotive words.
Man hit by robbers
( Pensioner hit by muggers )
A hundred peasants killed by troops
(A hundred peasants slaughtered by troops)
Resources:
http://library.thinkquest.org/C008200F/page9.htm
http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks3/lang
media/readallaboutit/yr9readallaboutit2.html
Lamya Baghonaim (B) 427201881