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Scare quotes as scare tactics: The use of quotation in ultraconservative Polish discourse

Małgorzata Waśniewska

Discourse & Society2026https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265261420954article
ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

The paper examines the role of quotation in shaping social attitudes and reinforcing norms and values within the discourse on issues such as abortion, hate speech, and LGBT+ rights of the Polish ultraconservative organization Centrum Życia i Rodziny. The aim of the paper is to classify and analyze the use of different varieties of quotation, with a particular focus on the distancing and expressive functions of scare quotation. It also examines instances of non-standard uses of name-informing, direct, and mixed quotation, and how these can be transformed into scare quotes and employed as a rhetorical strategy to support or delegitimize ideological stances and elicit action or emotional responses from the reader. Through corpus-based qualitative analysis, the paper attempts to identify the possible goals and motivations behind the use of quotation – especially scare quotes – and illustrate its strategic use in discourse.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265261420954

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@article{małgorzata2026,
  title        = {{Scare quotes as scare tactics: The use of quotation in ultraconservative Polish discourse}},
  author       = {Małgorzata Waśniewska},
  journal      = {Discourse & Society},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265261420954},
}

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Scare quotes as scare tactics: The use of quotation in ultraconservative Polish discourse

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.