Date Thesis Awarded

4-2019

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

Linguistics

Advisor

Leslie Cochrane

Committee Members

Iyabo Osiapem

Brad Weiss

Talbot Taylor

Abstract

Due to their minority position in society, vegans, or individuals who refrain from consuming animal products, often justify their non-normative lifestyle on the basis of moral claims. As a result, they face criticisms from non-vegans who feel offended by these moral judgments. I argue that the linguistic tools vegans utilize to characterize their lifestyle might be contributing to the reaction of non-vegans. This honors project involves using sociolinguistic methods of analysis to examine the specific language resources vegans use to present themselves to both other vegans and to non-vegans. The data for this study are five sociolinguistic interviews with vegans of various backgrounds and who have been practicing the lifestyle for various periods of time. The recorded interviews were carried out at each individual’s home and investigate each participant’s “How I became a Vegan” story. Using Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal framework for investigating evaluation and Du Bois’ (2007) stance triangle to investigate stance-taking, I perform a discourse analysis (Schiffrin, 1994) of vegan speech to identify the preferred methods of evaluation vegans utilize.

Recommended Citation

Sandberg, Kate, "Persuasion in Discourse: Evaluation Methods of Vegans" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1298.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1298