The pragmatics of emotion in socio-cultural contexts

Abstract This article develops a pragmatic model for the analysis of emotion in socio-cultural contexts and applies it to the study of the messages written on David Bowie’s mural/memorial in London. The data consists of 584 messages written and drawn on the mural between February and December 2016, after the artist’s death. The model allows for the analysis of the semiotic resources used for the expression of emotive pragmatic acts and their intensification. Results show that all the messages contain emotive pragmatic acts, which include the expression of emotions such as love and missing, the expression of good wishes, blessing, thanking, praise, commitment to remembrance and tribute. Emotive pragmatic acts are expressed mostly verbally but also visually. Emotion is more frequently expressed covertly by figurative means and evoking positive connotations. Emotion is intensified by recurrent lexical (hyperbole) and non-lexical (orthographic, grammatical) means.