Linguistic Means of Authorization in Modern English Magazine Discourse: Constructionist Rhetorical Approach

Abstract

The article discusses the linguistic means of authorization in English magazine discourse. It proposes a definition of authorization and its discursive realization with the implementation of rhetorical canons and ways of persuasion. The linguistic means of authorization is represented by constructions which due to the fusion of form and meaning or form and function reflect the authorship – individual, institutional or collective. The paper distinguishes two types of constructions: deictic indicating individual authorization and impersonal pointing to the institutional authorship. With respect to the referential meaning of its constituents, deictic constructions fall into orientational fixing the author’s place in the environment: somatic relating to the author’s body; perceptual rendering visual, auditory or tactile modalities; locational referring to the author’s whereabouts. Constructions denoting an author’s activity refer to different spheres: cognitive; communicative; professional. Constructions referring to social relations reveal the addressor’s roles in two domains: immediate surroundings, covering family, friends, household as well as the wide public life encompassing politics and economics. Constructions appealing to pathos evoke evaluation, emotions or human needs uniting the author and readers. Constructions rendering institutional authorization represent the authors’ distance from the contents by four subtypes of subjective constructions: nominal, pronominal, predicative referring to event participants as well as discursive. Moreover, the functioning of deictic and impersonal constructions as authorization devices is subordinated to disposition with differing frequency. The collective authorship, which can be bi- and multiple, results from the interaction of constructions rendering individual and institutional authorization.