pronouns, pro-verbs, place and time adverbials in newspaper reportage and newspaper editorial

63 Pages·2005·0.24 MB·English

Vilnius Pedagogical University
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Department of English Philology
Rita Povilaityt(cid:417)
PRONOUNS, PRO-VERBS, PLACE AND TIME ADVERBIALS IN
NEWSPAPER REPORTAGE AND NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
Supervisor:
Assistant Professor
Daiva Verikait(cid:417)
Vilnius, 2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ..........................................................................................................................3
I. Introduction..................................................................................................4
1. Development of text linguistics...........................................................................6
2. Text and context.................................................................................................8
II. Discourse analysis........................................................................................10
1. Register and genre...............................................................................................10
2. Newspaper genre ................................................................................................17
2.1 Newspaper reportage vs. newspaper editorial.....................................................19
3. Pronouns, pro-verbs, place and time adverbials....................................................21
III. Analysis of the used linguistic means...........................................................25
1. Pronouns............................................................................................................26
1.1Personal pronouns..............................................................................................26
1.2Indefinite pronouns............................................................................................33
1.3Demonstrative pronouns....................................................................................35
2. Pro-verbs ..........................................................................................................38
3. Place adverbials.................................................................................................41
4. Time adverbials.................................................................................................43
IV. Conclusion...................................................................................................45
Summary.................................................................................................................47
References...............................................................................................................49
Sources....................................................................................................................52
Appendices..............................................................................................................57
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ABSTRACT
The present paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the pronouns, pro-verbs,
place and time adverbials in newspaper reportage and newspaper editorial. The aim of
the paper is to examine and compare the frequency of the use of the pro-verbs, place
and time adverbials in the texts of newspaper reportage and newspaper editorial. The
method chosen for achieving the set aim is that of quantitative analysis combined with
comparative studies. The results show that the general frequency of the occurrences as
well as the relative frequency of the occurrences of the analysed linguistic means does
not vary significantly; however, there are certain differences in the use of the particular
linguistic means within the genres of newspaper reportage and editorial. Thus, the
patterns of the use of certain linguistic means were influenced by genre.
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I. INTRODUCTION
The Research Question of the Present Study
Following Bhatia’s (1993: 13) definition “any major change in the communicative
purpose is likely to give us a different genre”, it could be concluded that newspaper
reportage having the communicative purpose to objectively inform the readers about the
current issues/events/facts and newspaper editorial having the purpose of influencing
the readers’ political or other views belong to different genres.
Therefore, the research question of this study is whether the use of pronouns, pro-
verbs, place and time adverbials in the genres of newspaper editorial and newspaper
editorial was influenced by the conventional structure of the genre.
The Scope of the Present Study
The present study concentrates on the texts of newspaper reportage and
newspaper editorial that appear to be within the same newspaper genre. The texts of
newspaper reportage and editorial were selected as the central focus for the present
study because of the fact that this genre has been little analysed. It is hoped that the
present study will contribute to the development of the genre theory.
The aim of the paper was to investigate whether genre significantly influences the
choice of the analysed linguistic means of pronouns, pro-verbs, place and time
adverbials in newspaper editorial and newspaper reportage.
The present study presents a detailed analysis of the pronouns, pro-verbs, place
and time adverbials in newspaper reportage and newspaper editorial. 50 newspaper
articles and 50 newspaper editorials from various British and American newspapers
were subjected to analysis, which involved approximately 200 pages of the text.
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The Objectives of the Present Study
1. To make a detailed inventory of the analysed linguistic means –
pronouns, pro-verbs, place and time adverbials - in newspaper reportage
and newspaper editorial.
2. To present formal and functional characteristics of pronouns, pro-verbs,
place and time adverbials.
3. To analyse the results of the relative frequency distribution of the present
linguistic means in the genres of newspaper reportage and newspaper
editorial.
The Data Analysis Method
The method of quantitative analysis together with comparative studies were used
in the present study. The general frequency of the occurrence of the analysed linguistic
means was calculated, relative frequency of the items in the genres of newspaper
reportage and newspaper editorial was determined since, as noted by Bhatia (1993: 25),
“linguistic analysis of frequency of syntactic properties in different genres are
interesting and useful in the sense that they provide the necessary empirical evidence to
confirm or disprove some of the intuitive and impressionistic statements that we all tend
to make about the high or low incidence of certain lexico-grammatical features of
various genres.”
The texts used for analysis were restricted to the genres of newspaper reportage
and newspaper editorial. This ensured that the study dealt with the texts of the same
register, within the frame of Modern English. The newspaper reportages and editorials
were selected randomly from different British and American newspapers, as the present
language varieties best represent modern English language.
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1. Development of Text Linguistics
The language was, is, and most probably will remain for decades the most
important means of communication. As noted by Bloor (Bloor, 1999: 2), “it would be a
task of mammoth proportions to list all the ways in which language plays a part in the
day-to-day life of a society or, indeed of any individual in that society. Only a reclusive
hermit bereft of all printed matter and entirely lacking artificial means of
communication and recording - telephone, radio, TV, computer, tape recorder, and so
on - could be expected to make a nil return. And even such lonely souls probably talk to
themselves or to some higher Being”. Language, as a semiotic system, raised the
interest of linguists and is still the focus of many linguistic analyses.
It has become almost axiomatic to regard linguistic analysis and description as a
kind of prerequisite to the development and design of any language. In the last few
decades the nature of linguistic analysis has developed considerably. Discourse
analysis, as a study of language use beyond the sentence boundaries, has become an
established discipline. It started attracting multidisciplinary attention in the early
seventies and has developed into a variety of approaches motivated by a wide range of
interests and orientations. The analysis of language has diverse names in different
spheres of science, as for example, in cognitive psychology it is defined as frame or
conceptual analysis, in literature – literary or linguistic stylistics, and in linguistics it has
been given several names, such as: text-linguistics, text analysis, and clause-relational
analysis. The main object of all these studies has been to understand the structure and
function of language use to communicate meaning (Bhatia, 1993: 3). Early text linguists
concentrated on the development of various paradigms for the study of how sentences
interconnect. They have drawn attention to the various linguistic devices that can be
used to ensure that a text “hangs together”.
Bhatia (1993: 3) provides several parameters along which discourse analysis has
developed and can be distinguished. These parameters include theoretical orientation,
general-specific orientation, application and surface-deep analysis. Models of discourse
analysis have changed in the past three decades, moving from a surface-level
description to a more functional and grounded description of language use.
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Discourse analysis, of which applied genre analysis is a recent but very significant
development, is a multidisciplinary activity to which a number of researchers from a
variety of disciplines in the last quarter of a century have been drawn. Bhatia (1993: 11)
presents three different kinds of orientation from the point of which the analysis of
functional variation in language could be viewed upon. According to him, genre
analysis could be associated with linguistics, sociology and psychology.
One of the predominant orientations is supposed to be that of linguistics. The
analysts in most of these studies have generally been interested in an above-average
incidence or even lack of certain linguistic features in the texts under study. This
category includes earlier works on register analysis (Barber, 1962; Halliday, McIntosh
and Strevens, 1964; et al). However, very few of linguistic studies distinguished a
variety (or register) from a genre. This creates some problems. Firstly, it potentially
misinterprets not only the communicative purposes of different genres, but also the
relationship between the participants taking part in the linguistic activity. Secondly, it
might lead to a grossly misleading impression that the same genre may seem to be very
different in diverse registers.
The second type of orientation is more of sociological concern, which makes it
possible for the analyst to understand how a particular genre defines, organizes and
finally communicates social reality. The present aspect focuses on conventional and
often standardized features of genre construction.
The third type of orientation being that of psycholinguistics, reveals the cognitive
structuring, typical of particular areas of enquiry, whereas the tactical aspect of genre
description highlights the individual strategic choices made by the writer in order to
execute his or her intention.
Hence, discourse analysis is fundamentally concerned with the interpretation of
texts; however it shall not be possible without taking its context into consideration. On
the one hand, text and context are relatively easy to conceive and describe, while on the
other hand, these terms are complex and they should be defined in a more detailed way.
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2. Text and Context
Language is obviously the most elaborate semiotic system among those that human
beings have developed for their social needs of communication. As linguistic
communication is not achieved by individual units of language such as sounds, words or
sentences, the communication is realized through distinct units of expression – texts.
There could be found many definitions of text suggested by a number of linguists.
Halliday (1994: 311) observed that “text is something that happens, in the form of
talking or writing, listening or reading. When we analyse it, we analyse the product of
this process, and the termtext is usually taken as referring to the product.” However, the
most universal definition of text is provided by Beaugrande and Dressler (1981: 25) who
state that text is a communicative occurrence which conforms to seven criteria of
textuality: cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality
and intertextuality.
Although context is relatively easy to conceive and describe, it is quite hard to
define it in a precise way. The origins of the notion of context are interdisciplinary. It
was introduced into linguistics in the mid-1960s, when by the influence of work in
sociology and anthropology it was realised that language cannot be analysed as a formal
system which can be abstracted from society and culture. The notion has been used by
different linguists having different views thereof. In a general way it could be defined as
“a world filled with people producing utterances: people who have social, cultural, and
personal identities, knowledge, beliefs, goals and wants, and who interact with one
another in various socially and culturally defined situations” (Schiffrin 1994a: 364).
However, unanimously two unifying components may be identified: situation and
knowledge.
What is more, text is in close relationship to the context, as stated by Halliday and
Hasan (1985: 36), “in the normal course of life, all day and every day, when we are
interacting with others through language, we are making inferences from the situation to
the text, and from the text to the situation.” Thus, text differs every time it appears in
different conditions and environment; different language functions require different
language forms, the use of which is seen as register. Some theorists argued that the
concept of register is not sufficient for representing the theoretical construct intervening
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between language function and form; therefore, they introduced the term genre.
According to Biber (1995: 8), there is no general consensus within sociolinguistics
concerning the use of these terms. Since the present paper focuses on the use of
pronouns, pro-verbs, place and time adverbials in different genres, the two terms register
and genre must be discussed in detail.
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II. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
1. Register and Genre
The term register first came into general currency in the sixties. According to
Halliday, it was first used by Reid in 1956 and later developed by Ure (Ure 1968, Ellis
and Ure, 1969). Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens (1964: 87) postulated that “language
varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations. The name given to a variety
of language distinguished according to its use is register.” Register refers to
situationally defined varieties.
In Halliday’s (1978: 32) view, “the theory of register attempts to uncover the
general principles which govern the ways the language we speak or write varies
according to the type of situation. But surprisingly little is yet known about the nature of
the variation involved, largely because of the difficulty of identifying the controlling
factors”.
A nother approach to register was to circumscribe it by comparing and
contrasting it with dialect. Dialect was defined according to user, and register according
to the use (Halliday 1978: 110). Also, dialects “differ in phonetics, phonology, and
lexicogrammar, but not in semantics”; registers “differ in semantics and hence in
lexicogrammar and sometimes phonology, as a realization of this” (1978: 35, cf. p .67).
These definitions signal an important dualism in Halliday’s work: lexicogrammar
differs both for dialect and register, but for register, semantics is interposed as the
controlling factor.
In the late 1950’s and the early 1960’s, a number of papers and books appeared
describing particular registers of various languages and the ways in which linguistic
form is influenced by communicative purpose and the context of situation. These
included studies by Ferguson on high and low diglossic varieties and on baby talk, by
Brown and Gilman on the role of the second person pronouns in relationships of power
and solidarity (Biber, 1995: 6).
Although register distinctions are defined in non-linguistic terms, there are usually
important linguistic differences among registers as well. Many language choices are
functionally motivated, related to these differing purposes and production
circumstances, and thus, there are often extensive linguistic differences among registers.
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