Abstract
Empathy has gained considerable currency across a variety of contemporary discourse domains. Analogous to other important abstract concepts such as love and freedom, empathy nevertheless remains elusive and, in English-speaking Western societies, can evoke controversy. In an endeavor to investigate the meaning of empathy as a word in the English language, Sabrina Fusari provides a novel analytical perspective grounded in discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics. Examining the English Web 2020 corpus as empirical support, the book challenges prevalent stereotypes surrounding empathy: (1) empathy is positive; (2) empathy is an individual feature of a person’s character; (3) empathy is moral; and (4) empathy makes us human. By interrogating these deeply ingrained assumptions through language, this book not only enriches academic discourse but also provides practical insights for navigating empathy in everyday interactions and professional settings, making it a vital intervention in both discourse studies and interdisciplinary empathy studies.
Grounded in Fairclough’s (1995) assertion that language not only depicts but also constructs reality, this book employs a discourse-analytic framework to examine the deployment of empathy. Building on Halliday (1966) and Sinclair (1966), this book further integrates systemic functional linguistics and corpus linguistics—two approaches that have historically cooperated—to bridge the divide between theoretical linguistic frameworks and the empirical evidence of language in use. Although the use of corpora as a central methodology in systemic functional linguistics has yielded substantial insights into emotion talk over the past decades (Bednarek, 2008), the construct of empathy has remained notably underexplored. While scholars have investigated empathy from diverse perspectives, there remains a need for more interdisciplinarity. This book thereby endeavors to take a preliminary step toward a deeper understanding of empathy while highlighting the importance of enhancing empathy levels within discourse.
The monograph is structured into four chapters, prefaced by a concise exposition of its theoretical underpinnings and the social context of contemporary English-speaking Western societies, including pandemic discourse, social polarization, and empathy’s contested role in politics, media, and society. In the introduction, Fusari explicates the definitions, methods, difficulties and importance of empathy. In the chapters that follow, the analysis of empathy is organized around three metafunctions in systemic functional linguistics: “Empathy: an experiential and logical overview” (Chapter 2), “Empathy: an interpersonal overview” (Chapter 3), and “Empathy: a textual overview” (Chapter 4). This structure aligns with the core tenets of systemic functional linguistics while providing a natural progression of the metafunctions of empathy that makes the complex linguistic analysis accessible to readers across disciplines. By organizing the inquiry this way, Fusari ensures that no aspect of empathy’s linguistic manifestation is overlooked, thereby presenting a holistic account that bridges micro-level grammatical patterns with macro-level discourse dynamics.
To be specific, Chapter 1 overviews the interdisciplinary definitions of empathy and centers on its nature and features, laying the ground for the following exploration of empathy from a systemic-functional approach. Fusari begins Chapter 2 by analyzing the grammatical roles that the word empathy plays in ideational structures. Through linguistic analysis, she concludes that empathy is often associated with negative, rather than positive feelings. Notably, the linguistic manifestations of its logical and experiential meanings both confirm the complexity of empathy.
Drawing on the framework of the appraisal system, with a core focus on attitude, Fusari guides readers through an exploration of the interpersonal meaning of empathy in Chapter 3, noting that it frequently co-occurs with negations and is associated with suffering. Chapter 4 explores the role of empathy in textual cohesion, with texts treated as semantic units. Fusari analyzes non-structural cohesive devices such as reference, substitution, and lexical cohesion, showing how empathy functions as a linchpin in constructing meaningful discourse while also highlighting the challenges of consistent interpretation across contexts. The concluding section synthesizes these findings, reinforcing this book’s central argument that empathy is a complex, context-dependent construct shaped by linguistic practice, and calls for further interdisciplinary research to build upon its findings.
A Corpus Linguistic Approach to Analyzing “Empathy” stands out for its innovative methodological design, which combines systemic functional linguistics with discourse analysis drawing on a 36-billion-word corpus. This data-centric method provides empirical evidence for lexical, grammatical, and discursive patterns of empathy. For instance, it identifies collocations and transitivity patterns to unpack empathy’s multifaceted meanings, thus avoiding overreliance on theoretical speculation.
Beyond its exceptional method, the book is reader-friendly and well-structured. It guides readers from conceptual foundations through linguistic layers to the conclusions with minimal jargon and abundant examples from the corpus, thus ensuring its accessibility to both linguists and scholars across other disciplines.
A further strength is the book’s critical and balanced perspective. Fusari challenges prevalent misconceptions about empathy with cross-disciplinary insights and corpus data. For example, she highlights the dark side of excessive empathy and evidence of empathy in non-human animals.
Most significantly, this book makes a substantial contribution to narrowing the gap between linguistic research and real-world application. By demonstrating how empathy operates discursively, Fusari provides a foundation for professionals in fields such as healthcare and education to reflect on how language shapes their interactions. For instance, the corpus analysis of empathy in medical discourse reveals patterns that can inform training programs for healthcare workers, helping them balance empathetic engagement with emotional resilience. Although this book does not delve into practical strategies, its linguistic insights provide a solid foundation for translating academic findings into actionable practices around empathy.
One constraint worth noting is that the analysis draws exclusively on a monolingual English corpus, potentially limiting its generalizability across different languages and cultural contexts. Future research incorporating multilingual corpora could expand its insights and address the constraint. This book is, nevertheless, invaluable to discourse analysts, educators, and professionals invested in fields such as healthcare and psychology. As scholars of discourse analysis, we contend that the author’s corpus-based exploration of empathy will inspire future interdisciplinary research across linguistics, psychology, philosophy, and health, specifically by promoting targeted discourse analysis of empathy in diverse domains.