Scare quotes as scare tactics
The use of quotation in ultraconservative Polish discourse
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7514232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Małgorzata Waśniewska (0000-0002-8299-2677, Uniwersytet SWPS, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 337-354 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0957-9265 • E-ISSN: 1460-3624 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09579265261420954 |
| OpenAlex | W7130547548 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
The paper examines the role of quotation in shaping social attitudes and reinforcing norms and values within the discourse on issues such as abortion, hate speech, and LGBT+ rights of the Polish ultraconservative organization Centrum Życia i Rodziny. The aim of the paper is to classify and analyze the use of different varieties of quotation, with a particular focus on the distancing and expressive functions of scare quotation. It also examines instances of non-standard uses of name-informing, direct, and mixed quotation, and how these can be transformed into scare quotes and employed as a rhetorical strategy to support or delegitimize ideological stances and elicit action or emotional responses from the reader. Through corpus-based qualitative analysis, the paper attempts to identify the possible goals and motivations behind the use of quotation – especially scare quotes – and illustrate its strategic use in discourse
Action (physics · Discourse analysis · Distancing · Focus (optics · Ideology · Qualitative research · Rhetorical device · Rhetorical question · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |