Opinion Types
Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Poland
barbara.lewandowska-tomaszczyk@konin.edu.pl
‘Opinion’ is a polysemous lexical form constituting a radial category (see Radial Categories) of concepts, which refer to judgements, assessments, beliefs, emotions, and are based either on conclusions and interpretations of objective facts (knowledge), on linguistic interpretations of factual or non-factual statements, or on personal or communal judgements, or else on preferences and biases, not based on or related to evidence. Opinions can be expressed verbally or multimodally via body language, behaviour; they can be expressed directly (explicit opinions) or via indirect ways (implicit opinions).
Opinion types:
Negative:
an opinion that considers only bad aspects or properties of a
person, situation, etc.
Positive:
an opinion that considers only good aspects or properties of a
person, situation, etc.
Biased:
an unreasonable or unjustified preference or dislike based on one’s
own or (an)other person(s)’ opinion
Communal:
an opinion shared, or used in common by members of a group or
community
Individual/Personal:
an opinion expressed by one particular person rather
than shared by other people
Informed:
a belief, judgement or way of thinking about something based on
information
Indirect:
an opinion expressed in a way that is not obvious
Personal
(see Individual)
Public:
an aggregate of the individual views, attitudes, and beliefs about a
particular topic, expressed by a significant proportion of a
community. For Carey, traditional definitions of public opinion
emphasised the influence of elites and those best informed in
society, further on leading to the empirical analysis of public
opinion in terms of opinion polls, measuring public opinion that
represented the population.
Expert:
a belief or judgement about something given by an expert on the
subject, ‘an individual that excels in his/her field’/Professional
‘an individual that is engaged in a particular profession’.
Professional opinions are judgements/evaluations formed from data,
science, evidence, principles, education, training, and/or relevant
experience.
Objective:
An
objective opinion is the one that sets aside one’s personal
preferences or feelings about something and instead assesses it
based on facts and reality.
Subjective:
A subjective opinion refers to someone’s personal opinions or
feelings regarding a particular subject matter. Subjective views or
opinions are not based on truth or fact. They are one person’s
unique interpretation of an idea and their own thoughts, feelings,
and background.
Keywords: knowledge, radial category, thought, truth
Related Entries: Bias, Subjectivity, Objectivity
References:
Carey, S. D. (2009). Public opinion. The concise Oxford dictionary of politics (3rd ed.) McLean, L. & McMillan, A. Oxford University Press.
Ehret, B., & Taboada, M. (2016). The interplay of complexity and subjectivity in opinionated discourse. Discourse Studies. (See original paper for volume/issue and page numbers.)
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B., Baczkowska, A., Ruzaitė, J., Dylgjeri, A., Kazazi, L., & E. Lombart (2023). Opinion events: Types and opinion markers in English social media discourse. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 19(2), 447-481.
