Linguistic Markers of Emotion in Justyna Mazur-Kudelska’s Podcast Series “Droga Po Kres”

Abstract The article examines lexical markers of emotion in Justyna Mazur-Kudelska’s true crime podcast series “Droga po Kres.” The analysis aims to explore which emotions dominate in the author’s speech, whose emotions are expressed, how these emotions are linguistically shaped, and what function emotional marking serves in a true crime program. To achieve this objective, the content analysis method and the pragmalinguistic method were employed. The research material consists of the author’s statements containing linguistic references to her own emotions, those of the story’s protagonists, and of the people they enco unter. Special attention was paid to the strong connection between emotions and value judgements. The study confirmed that expressively marked utterances serve to shape the author’s image, capture the audience’s attention, and create a virtual community of communication. The analysis showed that negative emotions, mainly fear and surprise, predominate in the material, while references to positive feelings are rare. This emotional profile aligns with the subject matter of the podcast. The conclusions note a low degree of variety in the means of expressing emotion and emphasize the need for further research on emotionality in true crime podcasts.