Symbolic Power of Attitudinal Resources in Public Legal Education (PLE) Discourse

This study aims to investigate the symbolic power manifested through attitudinal resources in public legal education (PLE) discourse, with a view to uncovering the linguistic mechanisms behind its power construction and providing a theoretical basis for developing a PLE discourse system in the social media era. Drawing on the Appraisal System within Systemic Functional Linguistics and Bourdieu’s theory of the judicial field, the analysis centers on the attitudinal resources used in PLE discourse, examining their characteristics, forms of expression, and effects. The findings reveal that the overall distribution of attitudinal resources in PLE discourse is uneven and varies significantly across sub-genres. Judgment resources are predominantly employed to construct the institutional identity of legal actors, while emotional bonding and behavioral guidance are emphasized in sub-genres that explain legal topics or offer advice. Further analysis shows that under the influence of the language market, attitudinal resources establish symbolic power in three dimensions − emotional appeal, identity construction, and behavioral persuasion − through emotional identification, identity shaping, value transmission, and behavioral imitation. These processes facilitate the transformation of linguistic capital into social and cultural capital.