SPATIAL, TEMPORAL AND EPISTEMIC PROXIMIZATION AS DYNAMIC EVENT CONSTRUAL STRATEGIES

Abstract

The present paper examines the discursive construal of the Coronavirus as the proximizing entity in the Anglo-American political discourse with the goal of elucidating the pragmatic effects and underlying construal operations of threat representation.  The research was carried out within the theoretical framework of cognitive pragmatics, and the data consists of the written samples and transcripts of the political statements made by the ruling party representatives at the Coronavirus public briefings. The corpora were concluded to be replete with linguistic forms that realize intersubjective positioning strategy for the sake of achieving shared cognitive viewpoint, thus legitimizing policies implemented during the pandemic.