Functions of lexis in hard news stories: Methods, theory and interpretation Michaela Mahlberg and...

Functions of lexis in hard news stories: Methods, theory and interpretation

Michaela Mahlberg and Matthew Brook O’Donnell

Research of the AHRC Textual Priming Project with Michael Hoey and Mike Scott

Corpus linguistic context:

Growing emphasis in corpus studies to

extend lexical description beyond lexico-

grammatical patterns

Textual Priming Project: Aims

Do certain words and phrases have associations with the beginnings of texts and paragraphs?

If such words exist, what are their functions at the textual level?

Textual Priming Project: Method

Using Home News section of Guardian (1998-2004; approx 52 million words) examine words in terms of their position:

TISC = text-initial sentences

PISC = paragraph-initial sentences (not in TISC)

NISC = non-initial sentences

(Single sentence paragraphs and headlines captured in other subcorpora SISC & HISC)


Create word lists of TISC, PISC and NISC

Use the Key Word procedure to highlight candidates for text-initial status

Select items from Key Word list for more detailed analysis

Textual Priming Project: Example

fresh

TISC 6% of corpus

PISC 24% of corpus

NISC 37.1% of corpus

occs. 923 1074 1302

per million words 295.6 85.8 67.3

Comparing collocates of fresh (R1)

TISCEVIDENCE 55

CONTROVERSY 41

ROW 41

EMBARRASSMENT 27

BLOW 25

ALLEGATIONS 20

PRESSURE 20

ATTEMPT 19

ROUND 17

CRISIS 16

START 16

AIR 15

ATTACK 13

DOUBTS 12

APPEAL 10

NISCSTART 82

AIR 57

FROM 41

EVIDENCE 33

WATER 30

AND 27

FRUIT 25

ELECTIONS 11

IN 11

RESOLUTION 11

FACED 10

MEAT 10

VEGETABLES 10

BLOOD 9

FOOD 9

Examples from NISC

Imports of livestock, fresh meat and unpasteurised dairy increase in demand for fresh meat. More fresh food markets opened, and there was We get fresh food, unlike other places Yet fresh fruit and veg, which should be taken supplies of fresh fruit and vegetable were beginning Even fresh water is scarce. As fresh water is poured on to land much of

Comparing collocates of FRESH (R1)

TISCEVIDENCE 55

CONTROVERSY 41

ROW 41

EMBARRASSMENT 27

BLOW 25

ALLEGATIONS 20

PRESSURE 20

ATTEMPT 19

ROUND 17

CRISIS 16

START 16

AIR 15

ATTACK 13

DOUBTS 12

APPEAL 10

NISCSTART 82

AIR 57

FROM 41

EVIDENCE 33

WATER 30

AND 27

FRUIT 25

ELECTIONS 11

IN 11

RESOLUTION 11

FACED 10

MEAT 10

VEGETABLES 10

BLOOD 9

FOOD 9

Comparison with BNC

fresh BNC 6614 occs per 100 mill words Guardian 9848 occs per 100 mill words

Guardian (Home News) BNC

FRESH EVIDENCE 250 479.7 53

FRESH CONTROVERSY 65 124.7 7

FRESH ROW 81 155.4 2

FRESH EMBARRASSMENT 49 94.0 0

FRESH BLOW 56 107.5 3

FRESH ALLEGATIONS 69 132.4 7

Comparison of collocates with BNCBNC AIR 489

AND 339

WATER 262

FRUIT 208

FROM 177

START 139

IN 102

VEGETABLES 82

OR 82

FISH 70

FLOWERS 61

ELECTIONS 56

FOOD 56

LOOK 55

EVIDENCE 53

TISCEVIDENCE 55

CONTROVERSY 41

ROW 41

EMBARRASSMENT 27

BLOW 25

ALLEGATIONS 20

PRESSURE 20

ATTEMPT 19

ROUND 17

CRISIS 16

START 16

AIR 15

ATTACK 13

DOUBTS 12

APPEAL 10

Comparison of collocates with BNCBNC AIR 489

AND 339

WATER 262

FRUIT 208

FROM 177

START 139

IN 102

VEGETABLES 82

OR 82

FISH 70

FLOWERS 61

ELECTIONS 56

FOOD 56

LOOK 55

EVIDENCE 53

NISCSTART 82

AIR 57

FROM 41

EVIDENCE 33

WATER 30

AND 27

FRUIT 25

ELECTIONS 11

IN 11

RESOLUTION 11

FACED 10

MEAT 10

VEGETABLES 10

BLOOD 9

FOOD 9

Comparing collocates of FRESH (R1)

TISCCONTROVERSY 41 (4.4%)

ROW 41 (4.4%)

EMBARRASSMENT 27 (2.9%)

BLOW 25 (2.7%)

CRISIS 16 (1.7%)

• This accounts for 16.1% of the occurrences of FRESH in TISC

• Whereas as only 0.9% of the occurrences in NISC

Key Words procedure can be extended to find ‘key collocates’, i.e. those words that occur significantly more frequently with fresh in TISC than with fresh in NISC (in a 10 word span)

fresh controversy (TISC 41)

a fresh controversy 1 2.5%

in/into fresh controversy 18 44%

embroiled/engulfed/mired in fresh controversy 10

plunged/ran/erupt into fresh controversy 8

braced for/FACE fresh controversy 5 12%

triggered/sparked/stoked/prompt/

risking fresh controversy 7 17%

Fresh controversy (first word of sentence) 4 9.8%

fresh row (TISC 41)

a fresh row 41 100%

a fresh row over 20

a fresh row with 7

a fresh row about 5

at the centre of a fresh row 6

embroiled/engulfed in a fresh row 10

FACE a fresh row 4

sparked/ignited/triggered/PROVOKE a fresh row 11

fresh embarrassment (TISC 27)

a fresh embarrassment 0

FACE fresh embarrassment 18

fresh blow (TISC 25)

a fresh blow 25 100%

SUFFER a fresh blow 9

DEAL a fresh blow 8

FACE a fresh blow 3

fresh crisis (TISC 16)

a fresh crisis 14 88%

plunged into (a)/ thrown into a fresh crisis 6

FACE a fresh crisis 5

A fresh crisis (beginning of sentence) 3

fresh patterns in TISC: Initial summary

fresh

controversy

row

embarrassment

blow

crisis

FACE

SUFFER

DEAL

sparked/triggered

ignited/PROVOKE

embroiled in

plunged into

at the centre of

(a)

So what?

“Empirical linguists […] are always at risk of having their scholarly reports greeted with cries of ‘So what?’ […] The findings from careful data analysis are often so fascinating to the researcher that he or she forgets that the rest of the world wants an evaluation of the data and not merely a report on it.” (Sinclair 2007: 1)

Transitions from method -> theory

Examining the textual functions Corpus approach explores the link between form and meaning

Most widely explored at level of concordance line Sinclair’s - Lexical Item Hunston & Francis - Pattern Grammar Stubbs - Discourse Prosody Hoey – Lexical Priming

Link also applies at textual level Lexical Priming’s ‘textual’ claims Local Textual Functions

Building a link to text linguistics

White’s characterisation of hard news reports

“Textual structure acts to implement the informational and interpersonal meanings carried by a text so as to achieve certain rhetorical or communicative objectives.”

White (1997: 110)

White (1997)

‘hard news’ deals with “events or situations

which are construed as threatening to

damage, disrupt or rearrange the social order

in its material, political or normative guise.”

White (1997: 104)

EVENT story: material

ISSUE report: communicative

Two primary phases of an article:

nucleus:

headline plus first sentence (headline repeats subset of information)

signposts key meanings reader cast abruptly into core subject matteranchor pointhighest concentration of intensifying

interpersonal meanings

Two primary phases of an article:

body of article:

mainly develops meanings of nucleus

links back to textual centre of gravity orbital structure

National roundup: Politics: Labour in trouble over gifts

(1) Labour faced fresh embarrassment over its funding yesterday when the independent electoral commission criticised it for continuing to break rules on donations.

(2) Publishing its latest list of donors to parties, the commission warned Labour that it had again made late declarations of donations. (3) Labour failed to meet the deadline on reporting 12 gifts worth pounds 130,339.75.

(4) The commission is to seek a meeting with Labour's treasurer, Jimmy Elsby, to demand an explanation for the late reporting of gifts.

(5) Under legislation introduced by Labour, parties must inform the commission every quarter of any donations worth more than pounds 5,000 to national offices or pounds 1,000 to local branches. (6) Failure to register gifts on time is a criminal offence which can lead to a year's prison and an unlimited fine for the treasurer.

(7) Chris Welford, director of registration and compliance, said the commission would ascertain the reasons for late reporting, before deciding on appropriate action.

(8) Figures for the second quarter of 2003, published yesterday, showed Labour received a total of pounds 3,114,447, compared with the Tories' pounds 1,782,278 and the Liberal Democrats' pounds 807,588

(9) Labour's largest single donation was from the property magnate Sir David Garrard, knighted in the new year honours list, who gave pounds 200,000.

White and corpus findings ?

Hard news avoid or underplay interpersonal meanings, but intensification so common that it marks newsreporting as distinctive

nucleus: main place for intensification and

marking newsworthiness

form of intensification: lexis: axed vs dismissed

shake-up vs. reorganization

White and corpus findings

TISC illustrates features of the nucleus

key word list suggests candidates for nucleus functions (mainly intensification and time reference)

fresh in nucleus

Lockerbie trial setback

HOPES for a handover of the Lockerbie bombing suspects suffered a fresh blow last night when Colonel Muammar Gadafy said he wanted an international court and not the Scottish trial being prepared in the Netherlands.

branded in nucleus

£2,500 penalty for 'evil-minded' neighbour, 78

A judge yesterday branded a 78-year-old widow "evil-minded" and "wicked" for deliberately blocking a vehicle in her neighbour's drive with her own car.

Examining the textual functions

fresh

controversyrowembarrassmentblowcrisis

FACESUFFERsparked/triggeredembroiled inetc.

whenafter

X Z

The government was yesterday embroiled in a fresh row over ‘fat cat’ pay rises after it emerged that Chris Woodhead...is to be reappointed...

Labour faced fresh embarrassment over its funding yesterday when the independent electoral commission criticised it for continuing to break rules on donations

overabout

YTIME

Peter Mandelson is facing fresh controversy after the disclosure yesterday that he took five free flights in a private jet owned by the New York lingerie millionaire Linda Wachner...

Britain and the United States suffered a fresh blow last night when their main justification for war was undermined by reports that Special Forces have failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

The International Development Secretary, Clare Short, ran into fresh controversy last night after defending lone mothers who do paid work whilst drawing benefits

William Hague faced fresh embarrassment last night when it emerged that two of his most trusted aides have signed up to a rightwing group whose leaders want to force Britain to withdraw from the European Union.

The Tory leadership contest faced a fresh row over dirty tricks yesterday when the party chairman rejected calls from Kenneth Clarke to reveal how many members had cast their votes to date.

Peter Mandelson is facing fresh controversy after the disclosure yesterday that he took five free flights in a private jet owned by the New York lingerie millionaire Linda Wachner...

Britain and the United States suffered a fresh blow last night when their main justification for war was undermined by reports that Special Forces have failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

The International Development Secretary, Clare Short, ran into fresh controversy last night after defending lone mothers who do paid work whilst drawing benefits

William Hague faced fresh embarrassment last night when

two of his most trusted aides have signed up to a rightwing group whose leaders want to force Britain to withdraw from the European Union.

The Tory leadership contest faced a fresh row over dirty tricks yesterday when the party chairman rejected calls from Kenneth Clarke to reveal how many members had cast their votes to date.

it emerged that

Conclusions

Key word methodology provides lexical evidence for textual functions in the nucleus of hard news reports

Corpus linguistic patterns support text linguistic claims (i.e. nucleus functions described by a local grammar of text-initial key words)

Textual point of view can provide better groups for lexico-grammatical patterns

Functions of lexis in hard news stories: Methods, theory and interpretation Michaela Mahlberg and...

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