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Article published In: Formality and Informality in Online Performances
Edited by Sofia Rüdiger and Susanne Mühleisen
[Internet Pragmatics 5:1] 2022
► pp. 165–195

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Persuasive language and features of formality on the r/ChangeMyView subreddit

 | University of Basel
 | University of Basel
Published online: 6 April 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00072.day
Abstract
The paper investigates formal language in persuasive discourse on the r/ChangeMyView subreddit. We collected a corpus of 100 million messages, split into subcorpora based on the user-awarded marker delta, which rewards changing an original poster’s view. Assuming that formality/informality is potentially an important factor in the persuasiveness of a message, we examine the two subcorpora with respect to formality markers. The results indicate no systematic variation along the formality/informality continuum between persuasive and non-persuasive posts on r/ChangeMyView. The posters use personal pronouns, suasive verbs, emphatics, imperatives, elaborate connectors and WH-questions with similar frequency, and express themselves using vocabulary and syntax of similar complexity. Moreover, keyword lists and n-gram rankings indicate no register difference. A qualitative analysis of concordance lines for persuade and change PRONOUN view paints a picture of a community that values factual, evidence-based discourse and openness to logical persuasion, with a linguistic norm of relatively formal, sophisticated register.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Setting the scene: Language and persuasion
    • 2.1Defining persuasion
    • 2.2Linguistic aspects of the persuasive message
    • 2.3Extant studies of CMV
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1r/ChangeMyView: Describing the corpus and the data source
    • 3.2Method
  • 4.Discourses of persuasion in CMV
    • 4.1Talking about persuading
    • 4.2Talking about change PRONOUN view
  • 5.Delta and non-delta corpora on the formality continuum: Corpus findings
    • 5.1Results of pairwise comparison of formality markers in the two subcorpora
    • 5.2Looking at keywords in the delta corpus
    • 5.3Looking at n-grams in the delta and non-delta subcorpora
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (66)
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