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- Volume 13, Issue, 2006
Functions of Language - Volume 13, Issue 1, 2006
Volume 13, Issue 1, 2006
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Recognizing and realizing ‘what counts’ in examination English: Perspectives from systemic functional linguistics and code theory
Author(s): Mary Macken-Horarikpp.: 1–35 (35)More LessThis paper interrogates examination English in Australia from the point of view of two analytical frameworks: Bernstein’s code theory and systemic functional linguistics. Linguistically it explores the semantic features of six responses to an open question about an unseen narrative in Year 10 examinations. Two responses at three achievement levels are described in terms of ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings and the overall orientation to narrative interpretation in each grade is related to a particular type of reading — tactical, (D or E grade), mimetic (C grade) and symbolic (A- grade). Capturing students’ orientations to meaning through text analysis is one aspect of the challenge. The other is explaining how some students appear to ‘recognize’ and ‘realize’ what the ‘open question’ requires of them in this context while others do not. The second half of the paper applies Bernstein’s code theory, particularly his notion of ‘recognition’ and ‘realization rules’ to the readings students make of the interpretive context. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the potential of this dual analysis (textual and contextual) for making success in school English both more visible for students currently disadvantaged by examination English and more tractable rhetorically in their production of successful responses.
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The continuity of topics in journal and travel texts: A discourse functional perspective
Author(s): A. Jesús Moya Guijarropp.: 37–76 (40)More LessFollowing a functional view of topic as a discourse, cognitive and contextually-referential notion, independent of special language-systematic coding (Cornish 2004), this paper aims to study topic continuity strategies (Givón 1983, 1995; Dik 1997) in news items and tourist brochures. The empirical analysis carried out reveals that the two subgenres show different relative frequencies of linguistic resources for maintaining topic continuity. While in the news items the use of active voice (25.4%) and anaphoric proforms (20.4%) are the prototypical strategies for topic continuity, in the tourist brochures nominals preceded by definite articles, possessives or demonstratives (24.1%), and proper nouns (12.3%) are the most commonly used resource for maintaining a topical referent alive in the discourse. From a lexico-grammatical perspective significant differences have also been established in the utilization of zero anaphora and nominalizations (the latter being found only in the news items). From a syntactic point of view, the use of relative clauses and passive structures is also distinct in the two text types. Inversions and imperative clauses are exclusive to the tourist brochures. The use of specific linguistic strategies and their different frequencies seem to be basically determined both by the emphasis or semantic prominence the writer wishes to give to the informative segment he is referring to, and by the particular communicative purpose of each of the two subgenres under study.
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The role of appraisal and corpora in detecting covert evaluation
Author(s): Caroline Coffin and Kieran O'Halloranpp.: 77–110 (34)More Less‘Dog-whistle politics’ is a phrase that has recently been coined to capture a form of covert evaluation. This is where political communication seemingly uses neutral meanings but where in fact a negative message is likely to be ‘heard’ by the target community (Manning 2004). This article explores the use of dog-whistle journalism in the British popular tabloid The Sun by examining a news report published in it on May 1st 2004, the day that 10 new countries joined the European Union (EU). In order to systematically account for the positioning effect of this form of covert evaluation we suggest that it is useful to combine an APPRAISAL analysis of the May 1st text with an APPRAISAL analysis of a corpus of related news articles published in the run up to EU enlargement. As further substantiation, we interrogate the 45 million word corpus of Sun news texts in the Bank of English. The combined method, we argue, provides an empirically-based, systematic account of how the May 1st report is likely to position Sun readers to see the new EU citizens as a threat to Britain’s lifestyle and welfare system — despite the fact that there are no directly inscribed wordings stating such a viewpoint.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 31 (2024)
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Volume 30 (2023)
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Volume 29 (2022)
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Volume 28 (2021)
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Volume 27 (2020)
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Volume 26 (2019)
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Volume 25 (2018)
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Volume 24 (2017)
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Volume 23 (2016)
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Volume 22 (2015)
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Volume 21 (2014)
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Volume 20 (2013)
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Volume 19 (2012)
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Volume 18 (2011)
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Volume 17 (2010)
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Volume 16 (2009)
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Volume 15 (2008)
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Volume 14 (2007)
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Volume 13 (2006)
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Volume 12 (2005)
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Volume 11 (2004)
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Volume 10 (2003)
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Volume 9 (2002)
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Volume 8 (2001)
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Volume 7 (2000)
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Volume 6 (1999)
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Volume 5 (1998)
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Volume 4 (1997)
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Volume 3 (1996)
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Volume 2 (1995)
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Volume 1 (1994)
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Language patterns and ATTITUDE
Author(s): Monika Bednarek
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