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Global schemas and local discourses in Cosmopolitan
Author(s) -
Machin David,
Leeuwen Theo
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of sociolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9841
pISSN - 1360-6441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2003.00239.x
Subject(s) - allegiance , german , schema (genetic algorithms) , sociology , linguistics , modalities , social psychology , psychology , computer science , political science , social science , politics , law , philosophy , machine learning
This paper investigates the representation of female identity and practice in the U.K., Dutch, German, Spanish, Greek, Finnish, Indian and Taiwanese versions of Cosmopolitan magazine . It shows how a ‘problem–solution’ discourse schema underlies a range of articles that do not all use a problem–solution genre. While this schema is clearly global and occurs in all the versions of the magazine, it allows for local variation in terms of the kinds of problems and solutions it can accommodate. The schema is described as an interpretive framework which constructs social life as an individual struggle for survival in a world of risky and unstable relationships. The community of readers of the magazine is described as a globally dispersed and linguistically heterogeneous speech community which nevertheless shares an involvement with the same modalities and genres of language and the same linguistic constructions of reality and which can signify its allegiance to the values of the magazine through dress, grooming and other behaviours.