1. INTRODUCTION
In the Systemic Functional Grammar:
“Language seems to have evolved for three major purposes. These are: 1. to talk about what is happening, what will happen and what has happened, 2. to interact and/or to express a point of view, 3) to turn the output of the previous two functions into coherent whole.”
(Butt et al, 2003: 5)
According to this statement, there are three broad and principal functions of language that are central to the way the grammar works in the language system. These three functions express experiential (ideational), interpersonal and textual meanings. In order to understand the full functionality of any utterance it is necessary to consider all of these three meanings simultaneously.
The paper compares two …show more content…
Referring to the above Butt et al, 2003: 182 adds that ‘The relation between context and meanings is dynamic and reversible.’
The following is a complement of analysis already provided in sections: 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this assignment.
7.1 Register analysis: Field, Tenor and Mode
Register is ‘the configuration of semantic resources that the member of a culture typically associates with a situation type’ (Halliday, 1978: 111). The story originates from America and it is reported by British press to the British audience. However, the cultural and the social understanding of the account of events is in this case the same.
Register
Daily Mail Text
Daily Express Text
Field
The field of discourse is realised by the representational function of the experiential meanings of language that allows us to convey picture of our reality and encode meanings of …show more content…
Both texts are comprised of a simple theme selection with a very low interpersonal theme element giving the articles an impersonalised tone. The reports use only declaratives to provide information. However, Daily Mail information is provided in a relatively objective and sometimes empathetic towards the subject matter manner and thus the tone of the article is more impartial and tolerant while Daily Express approach is different. It seeks controversy and cultivates unfavourable opinion about the subject matter, hence its tone projects hostile attitude. This is achieved by different modality used, choice of lexis, different angle of point of departure followed by thematic differences and intertextual references.
My opinion with regard to the style and communicative functionality of tabloid articles has been substantiated in case of the Express report but less so with regard to the Daily Mail text. This is confirmed by results of comparative analysis enclosed in the appendix 1.