The Discursive Construction of Republicanism Through the Quotes of the President of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia after the 2017 Self-Determination Referendum. The Case of President Joaquim Torra i Pla.
This paper addresses recourse to quotations as a polyphonic resource conveying a particular ideology. We argue that they serve to persuade audiences by eliciting an emotional response (pathos) that affects the transmission of ethos, both of the locutor (Maingueneau 2002b) and the community it claims to represent. By examining the quotes found on the President’s official Twitter account and in his public speeches, we aim to identify the emotions that are semiotized by citations or “secondary aphorizations” (Maingueneau 2012). We later examine their intended persuasive impact on the target audience. In short, we conclude that “aphorizations” play a crucial role in the ideological construction of discourse in the political sphere.
