Download 1 CHECK LIST FOR NEWSPAPER ANALYSIS. (AA 2014

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CHECK LIST FOR NEWSPAPER ANALYSIS. (AA 2014-15)
(see Richardson, especially Chapter 3))
1) Naming and reference (e.g., Downing Street, our Chief Reporter..)
2) Predication strategies: use of adjectives, noun phrases, etc. to identify something/someone as
belonging to a social group (e.g., a black man, proposed hospital cuts)
3) Transitivity: who (or what) does what to whom (or what)?
- Passive/active voice: agent deleted? The reporter was told by the hospital
- Actions and processes: verbal (said/ shouted); mental (thinking /dreaming / wishing); relational: (it
is hot / you are Y / they have X).
4) Modality:
a) deontic (expressions of obligation, permission, abilities). Note: deontic expressions don’t
have to be verbs like should, must. They can also consist of other open class words (nouns,
adjectives and adverbs, e.g., the need to do this).
b) epistemic: levels of certainty. Again, it doesn't have to be a verb: ‘the probability of rain
tomorrow’.
5) Implicit meanings: more gets communicated than is said: implicatures and presuppositions.
6) Rhetorical tropes: metaphor / metonymy / hyperbole
7) Argumentative structure of each paragraph in the newspaper article. Its function within the
overall argument.): questions / statements / elaborations / hypotheses and conditionals (e.g., ‘ifconstructions) / denials / questions / concessions / etc.
8) Narrative structure: does the order of events in the article correspond with the order of events
that occurred in reality?
COHESION
1. LEXICAL COHESION
(i) lexical fields: the use of words and phrases from a particular area of meaning. (gay,
homophobic, gay rights, ex-gay, bisexual and transsexual believers)
(ii) direct repetition (same word /phrase repeated)
(iii) indirect repetition: e.g., synonyms (big /large). Connotation: thin  skinny. Bachelor
(positive associations) vs. Spinster (negative associations)
(iv) over lexicalization: (The newly elected female politician, who had long, blonde beautiful hair,
red high heels, expensive, fashionable clothes, Gucci sunglasses and a tattoo on her arm, said ‘there
was no problem’.)
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v) hyponomy: X is a type of Y. /A rose is a kind of flower’. / She wanted a child. Especially a
daughter.
vi) and more discursive relationships of inclusion: The Roman Catholic Church and the Russian
Orthodox Church are both Christian churches. / The Brazilian church welcomes gay believers into
the fold.
(vi) specific to general reference: asylum seekers  foreigners. Third-year English students 
students.
(vii) general to specific reference: foreigners  asylum seekers. Students  third-year English
students.
(viii) Antonyms: (opposite or contrasted meanings): Hot and cold = gradable opposites because
they can be qualified (‘very hot’, ‘rather cold’), and because there are intermediary terms ( warm,
cool) and more extreme terms (boiling, freezing). ‘Dead’ and ‘alive’ = ungradable: they cannot
usually be graded as ‘very’… or ‘rather’… .
ix) and more discursive relationships of opposition: ‘…. This church is not like the others.’ /
intolerance of free speech / politically incorrect / X will lead to Y rather than to Z /… in the defence
of freedom from terror
x) comparisons: as big as X, bigger than X,
xi) lexical collocations: lexical items words that frequently go together: seriously wrong, a broad
hint, a narrow escape, dire straits.
2. GRAMMATICAL COHESION
(i) Determiners: articles (the, a, 0 article), demonstratives (this, that), possessives (my, mine,
yours), quantifiers (few, some), numerals, wh-determiners (what, which). Their function is to limit
the meaning of a noun in some way, e.g., through deictic reference (distal/proximal: that/this),
through reference to part or whole (some, all), through reference to knowledge as new or already
known (a student / the student).
(ii) Backward reference / forward reference (anaphora / cataphora) : The man came in. He sat
down / If she really wants that job, Mary should apply immediately
(iii) Conjunctions:
- and /but / or (coordination of clauses of equal rank)
- when, if, because (subordination: subordinate clause joined to a main clause)
(iv) Linkers / Connectives (also sometimes called ‘conjuncts’):
Contrastive: but, although, however
Additive: and, what’s more, moreover, firstly, secondly,
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Summative: All in all, In short
Resultative: (also called ‘causal’): so, as a result, consequently, therefore
Concessive: despite, although, even though, whilst (Although it’s raining, I’m still going out)
Temporal: then, next, meanwhile, afterwards
STRUCTURES OF ARGUMENTATION
Richardson: 159 3 modes of persuasion in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.
Pathos, Ethos and Logos
LOGOS = the structure of argumentation
Deductive argument (161): conclusion logically follows from the premises. /// Premises can be
implied rather than stated. Audience feels in the missing premise themselves. Example:
Stated premise = ‘Thatchers’s greatest achievement was to legitimise greed.’
Stated conclusion = ‘Thatcher was a bad prime minister.’
Unstated, implied middle premise which readers must infer themselves = Greed is bad.
Inductive argument (162 )
- symptomatic argument: individual example taken to illustrate a wider trend: ‘A is
typical/evidence of B’.
- comparison or analogy argument: say the situation is similar to another situation with which the
audience is more familiar. A is like B
- causal argument: ‘A creates/makes/gives rise to B.’
Fallacies (168)
Argumentum ad verecundiam : appeal to authority. Person(s) X said it so it must be true.
Argumentum ad populum: ‘and arguers will claim their conclusions should be accepted because so
many people agree with them’ Example: ‘This is not a racial issue at all, but common sense.’