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Emotive Language

English (Year 12) - Language Features

Ben Whitten

What is emotive language?

Emotive language is a type of language that is used to evoke emotions in the reader or listener. It is a way for a speaker or writer to express their own emotions, or to influence the emotions of the audience. Emotive language can be found in literature, poetry, speeches, and other forms of writing.


Emotive language can take many forms, including the use of certain words, phrases, and sentence structures that are designed to evoke specific emotions in the audience. For example, a speaker might use words like "heartbreaking," "horrifying," or "thrilling" to describe an event, or use a metaphor or simile to create an emotional connection with the audience.


Adjectives and adverbs can also be used as emotive language, for example, words like "beautiful," "terrible," "sad," "happy" can be used to evoke an emotional response. Additionally, exclamation marks, rhetorical questions, and other punctuation can be used to emphasize the emotions being expressed.


In some cases, emotive language can be used to manipulate the audience's emotions, for example, it can be used to create a sense of fear, anger, or sympathy. For example, a political speech might use emotive language to elicit a strong emotional response from the audience in order to influence their views or actions.


Emotive language is also a technique used in persuasive writing and speeches, it is used to appeal to the emotions of the audience to convince them to take a certain action or believe a certain point of view.


Overall, emotive language is a type of language that is used to evoke emotions in the reader or listener, it can be used to express the writer or speaker's own emotions or to influence the emotions of the audience, it can be found in literature, poetry, speeches, and other forms of writing and it can be used to manipulate the audience's emotions.

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