Linguistic-discursive elaborations of empathy in contemporary times
a corpus-based study on the social uses of the term in the English language
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20873/asel.v34i2.23588Keywords:
Empathy, Systemic functional linguistics, Corpus linguisticsAbstract
A corpus linguistic approach to analyzing “empathy” (Routledge, 2026), by Sabrina Fusari, investigates the lexicogrammatical profile of empathy through an analysis of the English Web 2020 corpus. Divergences between neuroscientific definitions and social usage are examined utilizing systemic functional linguistics to identify ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions. The results indicate that lay usage reifies empathy as a quantifiable commodity. It is observed that the morphological shift via nominalization of the correlate verb condenses interpersonal processes, as the term’s syntactic passivity suggests a static entity. The research validates the efficacy of large corpora in elucidating the discursive construction of internal states. Furthermore, the study grounds the understanding of empathy as a complex construct, bearing direct implications for clinical, psychological, and language studies fields.
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