Nomination

Jūratė Ruzaitė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
jurate.ruzaite@vdu.lt

In discourse studies, especially in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), nomination refers to the linguistic process by which social actors (individuals, groups, or institutions) are identified, labelled, or categorised in discourse. This process is central to how social actors are represented and how their roles, identities, and relationships are constructed and framed. Nomination often involves the use of proper nouns, titles, or descriptive labels that frame actors in specific ways. Through specific nominations and categorisations, speakers can subtly promote particular values, framing events, actions, or individuals to achieve broader (often manipulative) goals.

Some of the typical categories addressed in CDA when examining nominations are in-group and out-group terms. The former are used to refer to social actors with which speakers identify (usually through positive references to the group), while out-group labels distance or stigmatise others (typically through negative references such as illegal immigrants). Such nominations can either empower or stigmatise, victimise, and marginalise actors, depending on how they are represented in discourse. Thus, in opinion research, nomination serves as an important linguistic realisation that can be related to polarisation and ‘othering’ strategies.

The concept is primarily asscociated withe van Leeuwen‘s theory of social actors, but it is an important component of other CDA frameworks, such as Reisigl and Wodak’s approach. In their framework, the process of nomination is linked to referential strategies and is a key element of the broader discursive strategies used to construct social identities and manage social power, including predication, argumentation, perspectivation, intensification, and mitigation.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, othering, polarisation

References:
Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C. Rosa Caldas Coulthard & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp. 32–70). Routledge.
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2001). Discourse and discrimination. Routledge.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis. SAGE.