Meta-discursive Formulas A Subtype of Keywords and its Pragmatic Effects: The Case of ‘Fake News’ in the Francophone Press

This article argues that, in socio-discursive studies on keywords, it is worth examining not only the fluctuating meaning of those keywords (which is what is usually thoroughly investigated), but also more basically also their denotation: I thereby postulate that the type of realities to which keywords refer matters. Taking ‘fake news’ as a case in point, this contribution holds that keywords referring to forms of discourse can be considered to fall into a subtype of keywords, which thus have particular pragmatic implications. Using the theoretical framework that Krieg-Planque (2009) helped to establish for the notion of formula, I call this category meta-discursive formulas. The analysis of ‘fake news’ in the francophone press leads me to identify different levels of this metalinguistic feature of the formula. By drawing from a punctual comparison with other keywords of the same type, as well as by going back from the general notions of keyword and formula, I then focus on the performativity that might be specific to those meta-discursive formulas. Three interwoven rhetorical effects are briefly discussed in this regard: the participation in a process of categorisation of other discourses, a return effect of self-legitimisation and the creation of a specific interactional contract with the recipient of the text.