Evaluative patterns in the official discourse of human rights in Chile: giving value to the past and building historical memories in society

Abstract

This paper analyzes certain patterns of voice realization of the Chilean National Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 1991, established after the end of the military dictatorship (1973-1990). In this official document, produced and promoted by the Chilean Government, the authors strive to present themselves as powerless to judge society or to explain historical events. However, they propose evaluations (evoked and inscribed) of relevant sectors of society, offer an interpretation of history, and specifically, give explanation for the "military intervention" and the possible causes for the severe human rights violations during the dictatorship. Informed by the complementary theoretical approaches of SFL and CDA, I focus on Appraisal analysis (White 2000, 2003; Martin 1997, 2003, 2004; Martin & Rose 2003; Martin & White 2005) and a transitivity analysis of mental and verbal projections in the discourse, as tools for a more flexible and detailed exploration of the use of evaluation resources. This analysis allows us to create a systemic network of the patterns of grammatical and lexical resources used by the Commission to generate mitigation and self/others representation in the discourse. This linguistic analysis, inserted in a social practice, also offers a complementary understanding of the subjectivities found in the field of oral history, specifically in the study of testimonies that account for different and contradictory memories of the recent Chilean past (Stern 2006).

Discursive construction of human rights violations: the case of the Chilean Rettig report

“…As shown in Oteíza's (2009;Oteíza 2010) analysis of the introduction and political framework of the report, responsibility is attributed to society as a whole: "All Chileans are represented as responsible for the repressive and extremist violence. Society as a whole is represented as responsible" (Oteíza 2010: 166).…”

De “la conspiración de silencio” al reconocimiento de voces alternativas. Las violaciones a los derechos humanos en Chile según el Informe Valech (2003)

“…La TVA constituye un desarrollo posterior sobre la metafunción interpersonal y su instanciación en el nivel léxico-gramatical en el sistema de Modo por Halliday (1994). este aporte ha sido realizado inicialmente por J.R. Martin (1997Martin ( , 2000Martin ( , 2003aMartin ( , 2003bMartin ( , 2004aMartin ( , 2004b y P. White (2000White ( , 2003, J.R. Martin y D. Rose (2003) y J.R. Martin y P. White (2005), entre otros lingüistas que han trabajado en este marco analítico aplicándolo al ámbito de la historia como en estudios de corpus (Achugar 2004(Achugar , 2008Coffin 2003Coffin , 2006Coffin y O'Halloran 2006;Oteíza 2003Oteíza , 2006Oteíza , 2009aOteíza , 2009bOteíza y Pinto 2008, entre otros).…”

“…Las categorías de análisis propuestas por Martin y White, ampliamente citadas en trabajos previos, se muestran a continuación en la Figura 1: La Teoría de la Valoración es una herramienta flexible que permite explorar la construcción de los significados interpersonales en el discurso en el plano discursivo-semántico. Hemos postulado en trabajos previos (Achugar y Oteíza 2009;Oteíza 2003Oteíza , 2006Oteíza , 2009aOteíza , 2009bOteíza y Pinto 2008) que la TVA ofrece un rico potencial de análisis ideológico de los discursos y que, por lo mismo, es complementaria a los análisis que, por ejemplo, se han hecho de los eventos y actores sociales desde una orientación del análisis crítico del discurso (T.van Leeuwen 1996;N. Fairclough 1995N.…”

Historical cosmologies: Epistemology and axiology in Australian secondary school history discourse

“…Science and history discourse are compared in Martin (1993aMartin ( , 1993b, Martin and Rose (2008); Christie and Derewianka (2008) examine the development of these discourses through school. Latin American scholars inspired by this tradition include Schleppegrell's colleagues Achugar and Oteiza (Schleppegrell, Achugar & Oteíza, 2004;Achugar & Schleppgrell, 2005;Achugar, Schleppegrell & Oteíza, 2007;Achugar, 2009aAchugar, , 2009bOteíza, 2003Oteíza, , 2009aOteíza, , 2009b. Both groups have influenced academic literacy oriented research by Moyano and her team (e.g.…”

“…As Coffin has shown, explicit evaluation tends to be strategically placed in prospective or retrospective points of textual prominence, and propagated through quantification and intensification (as in academic discourse in general; see Hood, 2010). Achugar (2008) and (Oteíza 2006(Oteíza , 2009a develop this perspective for Spanish; for the graduation resources used to propagate prosodies of attitude see Hood and Martin (2005). Importantly for purposes of this paper, history is not just about what happened in the past; it is also about how we evaluate what happened.…”