”De påståede voldtægter skulle angiveligt være foregået”
En undersøgelse af mediernes sproglige fremstilling af voldtægt, røveri og indbrud
Keywords:
Written media language, rape, robbery, burglary, epistemic modality, evidentialityAbstract
This study tests the claims put forward by two media debaters, who argue that the Danish press throw suspicion on rape victims in news articles by using linguistic expressions which question whether the crime has occurred. Both debaters mention the Danish adverb “angiveligt” (which corresponds roughly to the English adverb “ostensibly”) as a frequent and in their view problematic word in articles about rape. They also argue that such language usage does not exist in articles about other crimes such as robbery and burglary.
The study thus compares the language usage in news articles about rape, robbery, and burglary for July 2015 and 2018 in terms of the use of epistemic and evidential markers.
The applied method is linguistic textual analysis of these markers which the journalist uses to comment the content of his/her proposition with the aim of evaluated probability (epistemic modality) or information source (evidentiality).
The results show that in this data material there is a difference in the language used in articles about rape compared to articles about robbery and burglary. Epistemic and evidential markers are also used in articles about robbery and burglary, but not to the same extent as for rape. This suggests a greater linguistic caution when it comes to descriptions of rape.
References
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