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STUDIES IN SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE , Riassunto
Academic and Scientific Discourse
A contrastive study of encapsulation and prospection in written scientific text, Imaculada Álvarez de Mon y Rego
1. Introduction
This chapter deals with the role of encapsulation and prospection in the construction of scientific text from a contrastive point of view. The sample texts were selected from the well-known journal Scientific American and from its Spanish version Investigación y Ciencia. Encapsulation reclassifies a previous sentence by ‘demoting’ it into an element of the structure of the new sentence (Sinclair). Prospection , on the contrary, occurs where the phrasing of a sentence leads the addressee to expect something specific in the next sentence. We can find two planes in the text (Sinclair): autonomous , which deals with content, and interactive , which reveals the presence of the author in the text and organizes the thread of discourse. The analysis of encapsulation and prospection confirms their decisive role in the integration of one plane into the other. Three Hallidayan metafunctions: textual, ideational, interpersonal. The text is the result of the integration of these functions and the product of writer-reader interaction, too.
2. Corpus and Method
For this study of scientific text a comparable corpus was prepared, consisting of more than two thousands sentences belonging to 12 texts, 6 written in English and 6 in Spanish. The texts in both samples vary in length. Sentences were numbered; then, cohesive links between sentences were manually signalled and instances of the different cohesive mechanisms were identified. All the sentences in each of the samples were classified.
3. Some theoretical and terminological remarks
According to Sinclair, discourse is directional and purposeful, that is, it heads somewhere, proceeding from one point to another. In this model of text, the minimum free element of structure is the sentence or move. For each sentence or move there is an utterer and a receiver, which Sinclair represents as I VB YOU, as in “I say TO YOU THAT you do look happy”. “I say TO YOU” corresponds to the interactive segment, which is followed by the autonomous segment, “you do look happy”, which refers to the content of what is being said. The interactive segment depicts what is going on in the real world at the time of utterance, while the autonomous segment is a report about something which may include the current state of the real world but is certainly not restricted to it. For encapsulation, the following linguistic realizations were distinguished: nouns, nominalizations, pronouns, adverbs and implicit encapsulation. For prospection, the linguistic devices found were the following: the same type of nouns that act as encapsulation, the nominalization of adjectives and relative clauses, verbs in imperative and extraposition, sentence adverbs, discourse markers and questions. Encapsulation (also called retrospective encapsulation) not only allows the recovery of what has already been said in order to continue adding new information, but is also the mechanism to
evaluate and justify previously given information. A distinction is made between encapsulating nouns and nominalization (as encapsulating mechanism): a nominalization is a noun derived from a verb or an adjective and its use in scientific texts relates to word formation mechanisms and writing devices. Nominalization refers to the process by means of which the derived noun encapsulates a previous clause or sentence. The verb or the adjective from which that noun derives is present in the previous clause. In the case of encapsulating nouns, also known as anaphoric nouns or discourse labels, the verb or the adjective from which the noun is derived is not present in the previous sentence. (ex p. 26). Nominalization requires much less processing effort. Implicit encapsulation : it is linked to the presence of certain vocabulary items that presuppose the existence of previous information in the text. It also occurs when the author uses a connector.
4. Results of the analysis of encapsulation and prospection in English and Spanish
The comparison between the two samples reveals that the catalogue of encapsulating and prospecting devices is the same for both English and Spanish; the devices function very similarly in both languages, although there are certain interesting differences in the preferred choices: Predominance in Spanish of encapsulation by means of a noun, a pronoun or an adverb, which encapsulate an indefinite amount of text that the reader must identify. (ex. Curiosidad, ello, eso, todo lo dicho..). Predominance in English of encapsulating nominalizations. This is the only encapsulating device prevalent in English texts. A nominalization makes it easier for the reader to identify the amount of text encapsulated. In Spanish it is more difficult to identify the amount of text encapsulated; frequently, acts of encapsulation in this language include a larger amount of information than in English, containing more than one sentence. The differences between the samples that can be attributed to the distinct grammar systems of English and Spanish are minimal; encapsulation by means of a pronoun is much more common in the Spanish sample, especially in prepositional groups such as A PESAR DE ELLO (in spite of), GRACIAS A ELLO (thanks to that) or PARA ELLO and POR ESTO and POR ELLO (for this or that reason). In contrast, in the English sample, encapsulating pronouns tend to be the subject of the sentence. Concerning prospection, the same devices can be used both in English and Spanish. For example, the use of prospective nouns and connectors is similar and the slight predominance in the Spanish sample is simply due to the fact that the Spanish texts in the sample contain more sentences and they are for the most part longer. In the Spanish sample verbs in the imperative and extraposition predominate (the overt presence of the writer directing the reader’s mental actions is evident and accounts for the more argumentative nature of the texts; ex: PERO VEAMOS CON MÁS DETALLE, EMPECEMOS POR..), while in English the imperative is a marginal device in scholarly research articles; here, the most frequent imperative is that of the verb SEE. This use of the imperative, found in both samples, is the procedure employed to introduce a reference to another paper published in the journal that deals with the same topic. This is where the two samples coincide.
5. Concluding remarks
Despite the fact that the sample was too small to justify a statistical analysis, the qualitative analysis revealed some interesting results:
2. Literature review
Various studies have investigated the use of adverbs in English, but very few of these deal with spoken academic language. We can easily find research on adverbs in hedging and discourse marker studies. Hedging involves the introduction of those comments which the authors make to express their attitude toward what they are writing. Adverbs are one of the most frequent and important expressions of hedging in English. Salvager-Meyer identified four types of hedging: shields, approximators, expressions of the author’s personal doubt, and emotionally-charged identifiers. The most written adverbs in academic written English are probably, apparently, relatively, essentially and generally. Hyland highlights the importance of the position of adverbs in a clause. Modal adverbs may change the meaning of a clause depending on the position they occupy (initial position confers predominance. Hedges in academic writing received considerable attention in the 1980s and 90s. The main characteristic of discourse markers is that they impose a relationship between some aspect of the discourse segment they are part of (S2), and some aspect of a prior discourse segment (S1). Fraser distinguished discourse markers from commentary pragmatic markers, which rather signal a comment, a separate message, that relates to the following segment. Our two main research questions: do British and American lecturers use the same – ly adverbs? What are the functions and positions of – ly adverbs in their lectures?
3. Methods
We concentrated on – ly adverbs that originate from nouns and adjectives with – ly as a suffix and retain a meaning derived from the root word (thus, adverbs such as only, hardly o nearly were not analysed). We selected a corpus of 10 British lecturers in the field of the social sciences, specifically related to economics and business studies. All lecturers were recorded in a British university. Ten additional lecturers were added; they belong to the social sciences and deal with topics related to economics, psychology and sociology. We carried out two complementary studies. First, a quantitative study of – ly adverbs in British and American lectures classified adverbs according to their semantic function: space and time adverbs, manner adverbs, degree adverbs (including amplifiers or intensifiers, diminishers or downtoners, additive or restrictive), stance adverbs (adding speakers’ comments on what they are saying and how they are saying it), linking adverbs. Then, we searched for the most frequently used adverbs in the corpus and proceeded to carry out a qualitative analysis in the two lecture sub-corpora. This qualitative study analysed the position and syntactic function of the most frequent adverbs, establishing their scope of influence in the phrase, clause or part of the discourse.
4. Results
Our first search for – ly adverbs in the two sub-corpora of British and American lectures showed a great variety of this type of adverbs. The frequency of such adverbs is slightly higher in the British lectures. Degree and stance adverbs account for most – ly adverbs in both British and American lectures. The percentages shown for each category of adverbs are very similar in both types of lecture, with Manner ranking second for frequency, Space and Time third and Linking last. Among the ten most frequent – ly adverbs in both corpora, really and actually account for almost 30% of the occurrences. However, actually seems to be more frequent in British lectures, while really is more common in American lectures. The other adverbs are far less frequent. We proceeded to study their position and scope of influence. The position of adverbs shows their syntactic function in the discourse; we found a similar situation regarding the position of the five
most frequent adverbs: about 90% are in medial position in British lectures and about 95% in American lectures. Only one adverb (basically) seems to have a significant number of occurrences in initial position. We wanted to find how these adverbs were related, in medial position, with other elements of the clause. For this analysis we selected the two most frequent adverbs: really and actually. About half of the occurrences of really in medial position are associated with a verb; a third of these adjuncts are found in clauses with the verb to be. The remaining occurrences of really in medial position have the function of pre-modifying, or post-modifying, an adjective group, a noun group, an adverbial group or a prepositional group. As regards the adverb actually, the modification of the verb accounts for about 75% of occurrences in American lectures ad well over that in British lectures. Of these, only about 9% in the British and 14% in the American corpus are clauses with the verb to be. It seems that the most frequent – ly adverbs in British lectures modify a verbal group (really, 50%; actually over 75%). They are used to modify adjectival, noun, adverbial and prepositional groups in varying percentages. American lecturers show a preference for the modification of adjectival groups whereas British lecturers prefer to modify noun groups. As for actually, British lecturers do not seem to favour this adverb for modifying noun, adverbial or prepositional groups, some adjectival modification was found to be significant.
5. Discussion
The results show many similarities in the use of – ly adverbs in lectures within British and American universities. However, some differences were observed at a more detailed analysis. (summary of the whole chapter, see p. 52).
6. Conclusion
The aim of this chapter was to find similarities and differences in the use of – ly adverbs in British and American lectures. Our results show the preference for actually rather than really in American lectures, whereas the opposite tendency was found in British lectures. The most common semantic function of – ly adverbs seems to be degree and stance in both corpora. Regarding the position of adverbs, medial seems to be the preferred choice, though on closer inspection only a limited percentage of occurrences were associated with a verb in this position. -ly adverbs play an important role in academic speech in both British and American universities.
Metamorphosis: conference abstract, conference presentation, published paper, Irena Vassileva
1. Introduction
A great number of conference presentations are precursors of published articles. Conferences are occasions in which scholars present their latest research and find out where they stand within the discipline and the discourse community (adjusting their professional behaviour accordingly). The usual production line of the final published paper goes through metamorphosis of the conference abstract, the conference presentation, then the publication itself, with a long time-span within the stages. The first and the last phase are samples of written discourse, while the second one is an instance of oral production. Sometimes conference papers come from previously prepared written texts (especially in the case of young or inexperienced presenters). Scientific conferences consist of multifarious genres (often called agnate genres). Shalom views the conference as an event with three time phases: before the actual conference takes place, during the
3.3 Here and now versus future and past
Conference presentations and discussions take place in given space and time, but only as far as the performance of the particular communicative act is concerned. In presentations we can observe the use of references to timing/time constraints that frequently serve as advance organisers and thus facilitate the comprehension of the presentation structure.
3.4 Informal versus formal
Oral academic communication is less formal than its written variety. Papers presented at conferences are, more often than not, prepared beforehand in a written form and presenters frequently read out the written text they have before them. Even when one writes down a text and memorises it, we are dealing with written and not with spoken language. Ellipsis is often observed in presentations, especially when the speaker backtracks. Deixis (reference to visual materials) could also be treated as a kind of surface text ellipsis. Lexical substitution, especially substitution with general words, is also frequently observed. Lexical cohesion is predominantly realised by means of simple repetition. We can note an abundance of fillers (so, well, now, and, ok, anyway). Jokes are also important rhetorical devices for attracting the attention of the audience and for raising the level of ‘interestingness’. They contribute to the establishment of a less formal relationship between speaker and audience. Another notable difference between the presentation and its published version is the way of introducing examples. While the example in the presentation is based on real life experience, the example in the article is a fictitious one.
3.5 Primary versus secondary discourse
In conference language it is the written form of the presentation that is primary, at least in terms of time of production, whereas the oral presentation plays a secondary role.
3.6 Natural versus artificial communication
The distinctions between natural and artificial communication on the one hand and interpersonal and objective/distanced communication, on the other, are closely interrelated and basically refer to the real-time/postponed communication dichotomy. These distinctions are blurred. The speaker is not so flexible in adjusting his/her production to the reactions of the audience owing to the fact that he has already prepared the text beforehand and the audience itself is usually unknown.
3.7 Spontaneous versus planned discourse
Conference presentations are definitely planned far in advance both in terms of content and in terms of structure and it is only in discussion sessions that spontaneous interaction occurs. Spontaneity in academic communication is a rare exception.
3.8 Sharing of context versus no common context
In both written and oral academic communication producer and receiver share a disciplinary context that, of course, is situationally dependent, but its variations are not so great in comparison to other spheres of communication.
3.9 Fleeting versus permanent discourse
It is the written form of communication that remains for the future generations of scholars to be discussed, quoted, criticised or further developed. Even today, in the time of real-time electronic exchange of ideas the ‘hard copy’ published material is still the most reliable and trustworthy source of extracting scientific truths.
3.10 Unconscious versus conscious discourse
Scientific discourse is by definition conscious.
4. ‘Integration’ versus ‘fragmentation’, ‘involvement’ versus ‘detachment’
Chafe distinguishes among four functional notions which are particularly useful in textual interpretation: integration, fragmentation, involvement and detachment. Integration refers to the way in which a large amount of information is typically packed into relatively few words in writing, because the writer does not normally operate under time constraints and can therefore construct a carefully organized text. Typical speech cannot be highly integrated because it is produced and comprehended in real time. Fragmentation refers to the linguistic characteristics of texts produced under severe time constraints, as is the case in typical speech. Under these conditions, information cannot be carefully incorporated into the text. Involvement refers to those linguistic features that reflect the fact that the speaker and listener interact with one another, while writer and reader do not. Speakers often make direct reference to the listener (by the use of second person pronouns, questions, imperatives..) and express their own thoughts and feelings by use of first person pronouns, affective forms such as emphatics and amplifiers, and cognitive verbs such as think or feel. As a result, speech often has a distinctly non- informational and imprecise character. Detachment refers to the characteristics of typical writing, which results from the fact that writer and reader usually do not interact. Approximately one third of the language material in the presentation secures the interactional character of the genre.
5. Conclusions
The conference abstract and the published paper demonstrate all the typical features of written language. The abstract is succinct, tightly structured, unambiguous, but also leaves enough leeway for future changes; it reflects the author’s intentions and hypotheses rather than the results of a study that has already been completed. The presentation is supposed to present the information in such a way as to make real-time comprehension as easy as possible. The linguistic means employed are: Repetition; it is not a sign of bad style. Unlike the reader, the listener cannot go back in the text to search for missing information; A narrative-like way of representation of processes; Presentation of statistical data in the form of charts and diagrams and not in tables; A larger amount of metadiscoursal indicators as to the structure of the presentation, a lower degree of formality realised by means of simple grammatical structures, fillers use of colloquial words in order to further facilitate information retrieval. Another feature is a direct address to members of the audience and to the audience as a whole, jokes, time-references, real-life examples (dialogicity).
The fact, event or proposition indicated as the causing factor is only one amongst several others that have had a role: in many cases in the corpus the expression of causality is accompanied by a hedging adverb; for instance due to is accompanied by an adverb like mainly, predominantly, chiefly.. in over 34% of its occurrences. The statement of causality affords a very powerful instrument to orient the addressee’s reception of a text, thus qualifying as an instrument conveying the author’s views. The writer/speaker being obliged to select one or few amongst a whole set of causing factors, is in the position to present a purely marginal element as the main reason for a certain fact or state of affairs, thus orienting the recipient’s understanding of it. In the case of the drafting of ACRs, this kind of strategy could be aimed at minimizing the effects of unhappy strategic decisions, building a positive image for the company, emphasizing the efficiency of the Company’s directors.
3. Opinions for the encoding of causal relations in English
3.1 Types of causal relations
The types of causality expressed in language are mainly centred upon four main poles: direct cause , encoding the perception of an inherent objective connection in the real world; reason , i.e. where the inference of a connection is expressed; motivation , expressing the motivation or intention of an animate being that has a subsequent result/consequence, involving agency; circumstance , which involves the expression of the relationship between a premise in the form of circumstantial factors and its results or conclusions.
3.2 Causal constructions in English
The causal relation in itself, being a semantic relation between prepositions, need not to be overtly marked; it can be expressed asyndetically. This is why the frequency of causal connectors is relatively low. It has been shown that human beings have a strong tendency to interpret sequences of events in terms of causal relations, even when there is no real causality involved. In syntactic terms the options available in English are the following: Prepositional linkage: a preposition normally relates a nominal member with adverbial function to the rest of a clause; e.g. because of, due to, owing to, as a result of, as a consequence of; amongst these the most frequent are because of, due to, as a result of. Subordinating linkage: it differs from prepositional linkage in that the members connected are clauses, and not nominal expressions; e.g. because, since, as, for. Here because, since and as are the most commonly used. Adverbial linkage: the link is a cohesive adverbial which typically connects causal members in different clauses. E.g. consequently, as a consequence, as a result. Clause-integrated linkage: the causal link is integrated into the clause as a central element, usually as subject or complement (the result is, the cause is, to reflect, to lead..). See p. 93. The first two sets of connectors signal the actual expression of the clause or reason, the resulting event or fact being encoded in the main clause, which may precede or follow the subordinate clause or prepositional phrase. Adverbial expressions, on the other hand, mark the consequence and are by necessity preceded by the sentence expressing the cause or reason, representing the events in the order in which they actually occurred.
3.3 Prepositional phrases
The frequent recourse to prepositional phrases is probably associated with a preference for nominal expressions, which can be explained according to a number of different factors: it helps compact meaning as it connects two states of affairs causally within the boundaries of a single clause; it defines a direct cause-and-effect relationship between facts or events; there is the possibility to omit the subject and avoid expressing tense and mood. In addition, the causing facto is not announced, but rather taken for granted, thus reducing its actional prominence. See p. 94- The expression of causality by means of a prepositional phrase tends to be preferred when dealing with ‘hard’ facts, and it is functional to presenting the causal relation between the two facts or events described as reflecting objectively observable facts or events in the real world.
3.4 Adverbial links
Adverbial links connect sentences and are subject to restrictions in the order in which the two propositions they link are put forth, the only order possible being cause-effect or reason- consequence. The paratactic organization that ensues guarantees clarity and articulateness, and is particularly suitable when hard facts or events are to be presented objectively. Recourse to an adverbial link for the expression of causality tends to be made more frequently when facts or events are involved (rather than reasons or motivations), and a multiplicity of facts and events, so that not only is it impossible to condense them into a prepositional noun phrase, but also to compact them into one sentence, as two or more sentences or even a whole paragraph is necessary to describe them.
3.5 subordinating linkage: because, since, as
Expression by means of a clause complex is the expression of causality that potentially conveys most details about the causal relation. It provides more information than a prepositional phrase and it is more specific in identifying the elements linked to each other causally than the paratactic options. The most common causal subordinators are because, as and since. They have different syntactic status: because-clauses are adjunctive since and as are content disjuncts. Only the adjunct because-clause can: be the focus of a cleft or pseudo-cleft sentence; be the focus of negation; be focused by focusing subjuncts; answer a why-question. (see examples p. 99). Because expresses a semantically strong causality, in contrast with the weaker causality encoded in as - and since - clauses. The difference is even more marked if one considers that the latter two also serve to express relations of time and such dual function often gives rise to ambiguity. This difference in strength is confirmed by a study on the use of causal constructions in tobacco industry documents ( Brown and Rubin ): it found that this difference was exploited in the text to convey or deflect tobacco companies’ responsibility towards the devastating effects of cigarettes on human health (strong adjunctive causal clauses were used when the tobacco industry was exculpating his actions, while weaker disjunctive causality was expressed in those sentences which admitted culpability).
Close links between the domains of economics and medicine have also been highlighted (healthy, pernicious, economic recoveries..), as well as metaphors connected to games and gambling. Apart from the water metaphor, however, very few semantic fields are to be considered consistent sources of lexicalization within the domains of business and economic discourse.
3. Water and diverging economic viewpoints
Metaphor can manifest itself in other media than language alone: for example, the effects of the global housing boom illustrated by a picture of a huge sand castle gradually being submerged by incoming waves (The Economist) clearly reflects a pessimistic outlook, while the illustration of the troubled man trying to fix a pipe, without knowing ‘what’s broken’ (Business week) sustains a similar negative outlook, but also implies that Americans at least make an effort to change the economic scene. The first illustration, on the contrary, demonstrates impotence and lack of control over the precarious economic situation. If we concentrate on articles about the world economy at large, the despondency of the British again verges on pessimism in its choice of metaphorical language (“..the central banks seem to be helping to anchor inflationary expectations..”); in Business Week, on the other hand, American economists are more active and positive in their approach ( “..society can tap the ability and energy of older people..”, “.. pumping money into the economy..”).
4. Bubbles and froth : two approaches to the housing market
Whereas the bubble is connected with pain and disease in The Economist (“global housing boom is the biggest financial bubble in history”), in Business Week it is associated with balloons and parties (“they have suddenly ballooned out of control..”). A search for keywords such as bubble, froth, boom and bust in articles about the economy in general demonstrates that the British are far more concerned about the effects of the housing bubble than the Americans. In both weeklies, the effect of the slowing down of the housing boom will hurt but according to Business Week, it would be only temporary, whereas according to The Economist, it is rather difficult to recover from such busts.
5. Natural phenomena and cyclical economic trends
Metaphors from the domain of weather and natural phenomena are fairly common in both The Economist and Business Week and these, too, give further evidence that the Americans take a more positive stance than the British. A search for the word ‘forecast’ reveals that while the ‘forecasts’ in Business Week for countries other than the U.S. are not particularly good, the forecasts for their own domestic economy are more positive. By contrast, forecasts in The Economist for Britain’s own economy are virtually non-existent. What emerges in articles about the general economy in BW is a sense of self-assurance and humour (a “warm front” is setting in, “growth prospects look sunny”); in TE, on the other hand, there is not that overt hint of optimism that is present in the American weekly. What emerges from metaphorical language from the domain of natural phenomena in TE is objectivity and caution. Though there is an occasional trace of negativity in the metaphors encountered in BW, especially in articles about pensions and the need for taxation, there is usually a parallel hint of hope. Here, it is always economists and politicians who manage to divert downward trends and the use of ‘flood’ also demonstrates the American economists’ capacity to speed up the negative periods.
6. Nature and economic growth
There is a long tradition of gardening and farming metaphor in Anglo-American literature. These metaphors are also present in business and economic discourse, where they give further evidence of the differing attitudes within the two cultures. If the Americans believe that they will ‘see the fruits of reform’, the British do not share this optimism. There are some references to shepherding money, and to the field of farming.
7. Metaphor in a competitive world
The link between animal imagery and competitiveness in business and economic discourse is often found in metaphors (‘tigerish rates of economic growth’ in China and the subsequent threat to American hegemony). The Economist also extends the use of the tiger metaphor to the European context. The metaphor of ‘animals’ and ‘hunting’ foregrounding fears and competitiveness is omnipresent in both The Economist and Business Week.
8. Concluding remarks
While the actual economic situation is very similar worldwide, the actual management of economic affairs is different. In both weeklies key words describing the economies have striking resemblances: we find the same ‘meltdowns’, the same ‘bubbles’ and ‘froth’. Yet, what really emerges from our analysis of metaphor is that economic analysts do not share the same viewpoint on either side of the Atlantic. Forecasts in the American weekly are less pessimistic than those in The Economist and the ‘water’ metaphor highlights this impression. The use of metaphor drawn from the animal world illustrates acceptance of the renewed challenge of Asian tiger economies and a firm belief in the liberalization of global market on the part of the British but attention is prevalently focused on their concern about American complacency and the negative effects it may have on the world economy. Neither the British nor the Americans have distanced themselves sufficiently to be able to understand the full impact of the global implications of the American’s firm belief in the cyclical nature of economic history, on the one hand, and the serious implications of what the history of the British Empire may teach, on the other.
Specialized discourse about mergers and acquisitions: exploring a cross-border deal, Gina Poncini
1. Introduction
Mergers and acquisitions have been studied from various perspectives and across a number of disciplines. Recent research on language and communication concerning mergers and acquisitions has focused on linguistic and cultural issues in specific mergers (Charles, for example, investigates internal communication in recently merged Finnish and Swedish banks, giving particular attention to language choice). Specific linguistic features have also received attention (Koller presents a study of metaphors in business discourse based on a corpus of articles appearing in the financial press; articles about merger are included) and some research has given attention to a single merger or a small set of mergers in a specific industry. This chapter investigates specialized discourse about mergers and acquisitions by focusing on a friendly cross-border deal involving a Malaysian automotive manufacturer and an Italian
contributing to maximizing news value. Business, finance and motorcycle racing meet in the discussion of the deal.
3.2 Proton’s statement following the Letter of Intent: synergies and Italian design
Proton issued a statement about the deal after the Letter of Intent was signed. The statement uses positive evaluation, much of it explicit, to present the deal as leading to benefits for both sides (“Italians are famous for designs..”; “they are class leaders..”). Synergy is suggested by implicitly positive linguistic choices highlighting the collective aspect of the deal (both, each other’s, alliance, complement..). In other texts following this statement, design also appears to be a value in the industry; for example, an item in BBC News Online focusing on the deal provides further information about MV Augusta, using expressions such as “stunning Italian designer bike..”. Texts on Italian online motorcycle publications and websites also include linguistic choices that have effects similar to those noted above.
3.3 Building credibility: inside sources, keeping up with the story and showing expertise
Linguistic choices and the ways a source is attributed seem to highlight the publication’s role as providing insider news in the financial sector or in the motorcycle industry because of access to inside authoritative figures.
3.3.1. The Investment Agreement and MV Augusta’s 7 July 2004 press release
MV Augusta’s press release has a few features of interest. For example, the parties involved are presented as a company (Proton) and a person (Claudio Castiglione, sole shareholder); here the two entities are in a pair. The news of the Investment Agreement and parts of the press release are found in articles in the Italian print and online press and in motorcycle publications. The news are also found in blogs and online forums in different parts of the world (including Malaysia). Milano Finanziaria, for example, focuses on the creditors and the amount that will be reimbursed; it incorporates some information from the press release, but also cites financial sources, highlighting the newspaper’s specialized nature. Another example is from the online version of a motorcycle publication, which includes details such as first and last name of a journalist who reported on the agreement earlier: “The agreement, which Frank Melling reported on back in November…”.
3.3.2 After the Investment Agreement and before the closing: Reuters’ 9 November 2004 report
A report by Reuters is handled differently by three publications examined: two Asian online publications and an online motorcycle publication.
3.4 Finance and management details for motorcycle enthusiast
An interesting example of an online forum on a motorcycle website includes references to MV Augusta, to other Italian motorcycle manufacturers, their performance, directors and managers strategy and possible merger and acquisition activity. The online discussions and blogs report a strong interest among the community of enthusiasts for business issues, including links to articles and documents.
4. Concluding remarks
The investigation shows how the financial press presents the deal, incorporating their own comments with parts of press releases; it also shows how specialized business discourse originating in press releases is incorporated into motorcycle magazines and websites. In addition, it shows how emerging genres such as online forums and blogs include part or all of press releases. The study suggests that following certain brands and business activities is a shared value among motorcycle enthusiasts. Blogs today generally fall into two main categories (those serving an informational function with links and comments and those presenting a more personal commentary). The comments posted to blogs and forums seem to blend personal interests with the business world. Multiple audiences have access to materials on corporate websites, and press releases are used not only by the traditional media. Multiple audiences for corporate communications may contribute to the production of hybrid forms to serve their own specialist communities.
Editorial and institutional discourse
Speech representation in parliamentary discourse. Rhetorical strategies in a heteroglossic perspective: a corpus-based study, Cinzia Bevitori
1. Introduction
The reporting of speech and thought has been extensively researched in a variety of domains. However, in the domain of political discourse and more specifically parliamentary discourse, this phenomenon has received very scant attention. This study aims to explore what kind of reporting verbs are employed by Members of Parliament and what kind of evaluative meanings and rhetorical function they carry within this specific domain. Its purpose is not simply to describe the linguistic and discursive features characterising speech representation in the Commons but also to emphasise how the rhetorical functionality of this practice can contribute to institutional purposes. The analysis combined quantitative techniques with qualitative ones.
2. Speech representation: some issues
2.1. Brief literature review: only a terminological issue?
Whereas the traditional grammatical approach focused its attention on the distinction between direct speech and indirect speech and its transformation, other approaches provide different perspectives and a different terminology: ‘presentation’, ‘report’, ‘representation’. The term ‘discourse presentation’ is mainly concerned with how discourse is presented, while both ‘representation’ and ‘report’ involve a prior discourse against which what is reported is investigated. ‘Report’ is quite neutral, while ‘representation’ is particularly used by critical discourse analysts (whose aim is to investigate how social relations, identity and power are constructed through texts and therefore how linguistic choices relate to the speaker’s ideological positioning). Critical Discourse Analysis is concerned with the discrepancies and lack of correspondence between what was uttered in a particular context and represented in another.
‘acknowledging attributions’ can potentially act rhetorically to distance the authorial voice from the proposition reported. Another example of the semantics of contraction/expansion is referred to the verb argue. In fact, it could also be a synonym of the verb claim , which involves detachment from the attributed material. The reporting verb told in direct quotations is typically found in active voice, while, in indirect quotations, it is found exclusively in passive form with the agent elided. Impersonal structures are very infrequent in the corpus and through them the speaker seeks to deflect attention from the source of attribution and therefore it is not clear as to whether responsibility is shared or unshared. Here the context is crucial. (See ex. P. 163-169)
4.2. Rhetorical strategies in direct quotation: the case of said
The use of direct quotations in parliamentary discourse is an important rhetorical device in the interpersonal system of meaning-making; adding an external voice to one’s own argumentation holds implications of affiliation or dissent with both the reported voice and the reported message. The MP’s (members of parliament) positioning in relation to the reported proposition seems not to be conveyed through the reporting verb, which is neutral in its evaluative potential, but by other attitudinal elements.
4.3. The semantics of claimed in indirect quotations
Claimed in its expanding function typically acts to distance the authorial voice from what is reported. (see p. 171-175) The analysis also found occurrences of claimed in a negative environment (“no one claimed that”, “not a single speaker claimed that”): the authorial voice still acts to distance itself from the attributed material, but the negative attribution functions rhetorically to strengthen the speaker’s own position. Another distancing strategy can be realised by the use of negative (neither...nor) attributed to the reported voice, along with the verb claimed , where the speaker acts to distance the person who pronounced the reported voice from the proposition itself (“Neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Secretary claimed that..”).
5. Conclusions
The chapter demonstrates the usefulness of integrating quantitative-based techniques with qualitative procedures in the analysis of the speech representation in the House of Commons. The representation of speech is primarily concerned with rhetorical strategies of solidarity or, conversely, dissent with alternative positions. In parliamentary discourse the use of quotations typically carries authority and is thus seen as an important rhetorical device in the system of meaning-making. However, both in direct and indirect speech MPs generally make use almost exclusively of neutral verbal structures (in particular said ). In indirect quotations the presence of claimed is used as a distancing verb and performs different rhetorical functions.
The construction of stance in BBC television coverage of the Iraqi War, Louann Haarman
1. Introduction
Before, during and after the first wave of military operations in Iraq in 2003, media coverage of the war was felt as a very important issue. It had to do with the issues of objectivity and impartiality, fundamental to contemporary Anglo-Saxon models of journalism. In the UK, complaints regarding what some considered an anti-war stance on the part of the main British television broadcasters provoked research commissioned by the BBC and carried out by the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (2004). The Cardiff Report is concerned with the role of embedded reporting, but it also addresses the production, content and reception of coverage by means of interviews with reporters, editors and heads of new departments. It also focused group interviews with ‘members of the public’. With regard to impartiality, the Report states that “there is no doubt that broadcasters were acutely aware of the need to maintain impartiality in the coverage of the war…While much of the coverage in the US suggested the networks were supportive of the war…British broadcasters took care to avoid language that compromises their impartiality”. With regard to the BBC specifically, the researcher “found little evidence…that the BBC’s coverage was anti-war.” The expression of stance seemed to be carried principally in the language of the reports, and specifically in the linguistic mechanisms through which speaker/writer attitude are expressed.
2. Analytical framework
The analytical framework adopted in this chapter refers generally to work in the field of evaluation. In expressing an evaluation the text producer reflects his/her own value system and that of his/her cultural community. The discernment of evaluation would be carried out through the recognition in news discourse of the interpretation of the item, suggested or favoured by the news-giving source, which emerges from the linguistic elements of the verbal texts. There are two types of authorial voice: an ‘objective’ reporter voice which avoids all personal evaluation and explicit judgements, and a ‘subjective’ writer voice (associated with Correspondents and Commentators), which may openly express evaluations and judgements. Thus, it is common for Correspondents and Commentators to signal their presence through the use of first person pronouns, to express nuances of doubt or certainty through modality, and in general to exploit a vast range of lexical and syntactic resources in the formulation of explicit and implicit judgements (see p. 184). The token of judgement is a factual, objective report of events which are socially value-laden (see ex. p. 185). Implicit judgement may also be expressed through lexical choice in various ways: The use of heavily connotated word in terms of emotions or negative/positive evaluation (cf. a newborn baby dumped on the church steps vs. left on the church steps). The item itself regarding the abandonment of a newborn child would be considered a token of judgement and the word dumped reinforces the negative evaluation implicit in the reporting of the event; Through ‘infused’ intensification where non-core vocabulary items conflate ideational meaning with some form of authorial involvement ( plummet vs. fall rapidly ), or where there is a sense of involvement by the author who views the events described as significant ( torrential rains lashed the coast vs. heavy rain fell along the coast ); The use of formulations of affect (the president is worried/desperate/remorseful ) and lexis indicating mental processes (the generals think/believe victory is near).
These mechanisms highlight the text producer’s engagement with the text and implicitly construct the text producer as authoritative by tapping the shared cultural values of text producer and receiver. The textual voice may position itself ‘dialogically’ with respect to the reader in a textual/linguistic operation of ‘ contraction’ or ‘ expansion’. Where the reader is constructed as generally agreeing
