Analysing Evaluation in Coming Out Narratives

Abstract

The experience of coming out is often experienced and perceived as a life-changing event of major significance by those identifying as lesbian, gay and bisexual.¹ When speakers or writers produce discourse which functions to reflect on life-changing experiences, linguistic markers of evaluation tend to be very dense throughout the text. This chapter identifies and classifies some of the linguistic markers of evaluation in an electronic corpus of coming out narratives. This relates to one of the wider concerns of this book which focuses upon exploring the uses of linguistic tools and methodologies within the study of language and sexual identity. Examining evaluation markers can help us to identify the narrators’ attitudes and feelings towards the event they are reflecting upon. Linguistic evaluation markers can also be used to indicate social and political ideologies present in the discourse produced by the narrator. Analysis of coming out narratives shows how speakers/writers engage in constructing a social identity rather than simply reflecting on their experiences of sexual desire. Thus, we continue to develop and support our argument that social relationships and contexts of interaction play a crucial role in the discovery and construction of sexuality.