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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)
Textual Priming Project: Method
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: Method
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
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
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.
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.
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