The linguistic construction of the giftedness discourse in the media texts of historical and digital times

Abstract

The aim of the study is to describe and explicate, using critical text analysis, how the socially weighty discourse of giftedness has been constructed historically and how it manifests in the media texts of the digital era. The diachronic analysis is based on the media texts of the 1890s–1990s stored in the Corpus of Standard Estonian, while the synchronic analysis applies to texts found in Delfi.ee. The results highlight the main media discourses dealing with giftedness, the relevant terms and expressions, and the social relations and meanings brought up in the media in connection with the topic. The study reveals that through history, the giftedness discourse has been subject to changes and, constructed with specific linguistic means, it plays an important role in modern social arrangements.

Keywords

• critical discourse analysis
• ideology
• social interaction
• media language
• Estonian