Who said ‘abortion’? Semantic variation and ideology in Spanish newspapers’ online discussions.
(2015) Australian Journal of Linguistics — Vol. 35, n° 1, p. 53-75 (2015)
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- Abstract
- In this paper, we defend the study of semantic variation from a cognitive sociolinguistics perspective. Through a case study on the semantic variation of ‘abortion’ in Spanish newspapers' comments, we investigate quantitatively the influence of the independent factors (‘source’, ‘date’, ‘ideology’, ‘gender’, ‘quote’) on conceptual onomasiological variation. The chi-square tests show that ‘ideology’ and ‘quote’ affect significantly the preference for direct (to abort) or indirect expressions (to murder) and for particular conceptual bases (e.g. death/to kill, not have a baby, trip to london …), pointing to two different conceptualizations of ‘abortion’ for defenders and detractors. By demonstrating the entrenchment of particular construals in their established discourses, we exemplify the indexical power of semantic variation.
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Pizarro Pedraza, A. (2015). Who said ‘abortion’? Semantic variation and ideology in Spanish newspapers’ online discussions. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 35(1), 53-75. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/185614 (Original work published 2015)