Integrated Methodology for Emotion Talk in Socio-legal Exchanges. Politeness, Accommodation and Appraisal Insights

This book aims to offer new methodological insights for the analysis of discursive exchanges that take place in the landscapes of socio-legal care. The hybrid nature of such contexts requires diverse analytical tools that are introduced in clear steps both through theoretical considerations, supported by specialised literature, and through examples of their operation. Chapter 1 deals with Politeness issues from an intercultural, discourse-sensitive perspective. From a complementary standpoint, Chapter 2 introduces the Communication Accommodation Theory – one of the most prominent frameworks in the social psychology of language – by focussing on its potential for new cross-disciplinary applications in critical discourse studies, which is a field of multiplicity, complexity and versatility. Chapter 3 provides an overview of and insights into new Appraisal Framework developments, with extensive illustrative examples (especially where the instantiation of emotion talk is concerned). The fourth chapter builds on the first three to propose an interpretive reading, based on such an integrated methodology, of a selection of protective order interviews by U.S. help-seeking Latinas. Moreover, the potential of this multidisciplinary approach, where resources from Politeness, CAT and APPRAISAL were synergistically utilised, is prospected for new explorations in discourse analysis.