Active promotion of alternative norms challengingdaunting repetition of wordsstructure

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• An Interview to Lady D
• (BBC transcript) BBC Panorama, November 1995
• PREDICTION ON TITLE keywords Interview/Lady
  D/BBC/1995
• What interview on being part of Royal Family
• Who Lady Diana
• To whom TV audience
• Channel TV (BBC program)
• When November 1995
• Which strategy?

Active promotion of alternative norms
(challenging/daunting repetition of
words/structure)
A representative of formal power commenting on
her marriage she displays feminine features in
language and style i.e. focus on feelings of
wife/husband (social stereotype)
2

• TONE tentative (Would modal, Seem/think
  lexically modal, desperately here lexically
  modalrepetition) more emotional
• STYLE informal (Short sentences, Coordinating
  conjunctions,Verb forms (-ing), Personal forms,
  Active voice) she presents herself as
  stereotyped wife (not direct, she would be guided
  by her husband-to-be she wasnt like that)
• LEXIS gt monosyllabic, germanic (clusters on
  family husband, marriage, divorced parents,
  family, team, engaged, together)
• REPETITIONS reinforcing simple strategy
  husband/marriage, daunting/challenge are most
  recurring words we/to share structures
• PRONOUNS feminine use (INTERPERSONAL FUNCTION)
  to reinforce the relation, even more in interview
  (relation is primary in communication) I/you
  idea of dialogue

3

• NEWSPAPERS
• Complex function in our culture not only INFORM
  but also FILTER news (we choose a newspaper one
  version of the stories)
• Classified in broadsheets quality (more
  in-depth coverage of events/fewer trivial
  stories) tabloids popular (much wider
  circulation)
• Were now going to analyse a couple of articles
  taken from Mirror /The Independent same day (30
  January 1989) same story
• But, before we do it, lets have a look at some
  first pages from Scottish broadsheets/tabloids

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6

• Kidney
• dealer rumpus
• A GERMAN count wants to
• set up a kidneys-for-sale
• base in Britain.
• Already he earns 5,000
• for every organ deal he ar-
• ranges abroad.
• And he expects to sell
• nearly 100 kidneys in the
• next year at prices of up to
• 30,000.
• But last night the National
• Kidney Research Fund con-
• demned hisplans saying
• they could wreck the present
• kidney donor system.

Moral Businessman Rainer Rene Count Adelmann van
Adle-mannsfelden, speaking in Birmingham, said he
felt no guilt about the organ deals. It is hard
work, because the moral thinking is against me,
said the 41-year-old father of ten. But NKRF
director general James Wellbelove warned that the
counts scheme must not be allowed happen in
Britain and may be needed to prevent it.
from the Mirror
7

• Kidneys for sale business may open

From The Independent
8

• Headline structure NP with head (rumpus)
  premodified by another NP (kidney dealer) NP as
  premodifier typical of tabloid style
• Lexis rumpus ( quarrel, trouble) informal
  register, kidney dealer would be ordinary
  unmarked words (denotative meaning), but here it
  implies trading in human organs. Headline
  suggests that a quarrel has developed concerning
  this trade, but it doesnt suggest any editorial
  bias.
• Headline structure complete sentence VP (may
  open) with modal verb ( still some doubt wheter
  the story will ever come about). Subj NP with
  head ( business) premodified by another NP
  (kidneys for sale) typical newspaper style
  construction (x for sale formulaic expression)
  collocation (kidneys/for sale) catches attention
  of reader and provides shock that makes him/her
  read on no apparent editorial bias, but
  business suggests that in materialistic economy
  all business may be equally valid

9

• Same basic fact German businessman is setting up
  a kidney dealing business in England
• Broadsheet more background detail about
  business/ what has led to the present episode
• Tabloid story 7 paragraphs in single column
  secondary headline between par. 4/5 each par.
  contains 1 sentence (3/4 begin with co-ordinating
  conj) typical tabloid layout easier to grasp
  meaning at first reading (to cover a broad
  spectrum of reading ability) gt premodification
  in NPs (see underlined in article) to produce
  shorter punchier sentences (typical of tabloid
  style hard-hitting journalism) irrelevant info
  (red) clichés of tabloid
• Broadsheet story longer, but only 6 paragraphs
  in 3 columns under long horizontal headline (more
  explicit than single-column one). Par. 3/6
  contain direct speech and consist of several
  sentences with co-ordinates/subordinates quite
  long sentences (mostly due to postmodification in
  NPs e.g. par. 1/4 background information and
  par. 2 info about business)

10

• LEXIS similar in both stories semantic field
  related to organ transplantation (broadsheet
  slightly more technical, but not for experienced
  readers)
• TONE
• Broadsheet apparently unbiased (no judgement on
  the German still only a possibility) no
  explicit editorial disapproval, but continued
  (doubts expressed in grammar) idea of matching
  donors and recipients in morality as well as
  tissue type (underlined sick meaning also
  amoral irony) no reference to his
  aristocratic origins/plan(neutral)
• Tabloid explicit criticism reported comment
  from Director of National Kidney Research Fund
  (blue) stressing aristocratic origins (Count)
  maybe makes a political point)/ scheme(negative
  connotation) subsidiary heading (Moral) raises
  questions of morality of business (guilt
  suggesting our reaction green)gt more emotional,
  less info, simpler language doubts expressed in
  vocabulary

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• Language play in newspapers headlines punning,
  play gt tabloids (small page format, less
  serious than broadsheets) tabloids focus on
  national concerns and depend upon narrow cultural
  knowledge
• The Sun most successful tabloid sex scandals,
  private lives of VIPs, trivial/bizarre events
  political opinions strongly, briefly,
  simplistically expressed (uncomplicated/self-confi
  dent tone) DISTORTION OF FACTS tending to
  conservative/mainstream PoV some critics say
  that simple opinions pass thanks to the strength
  of simple expression, but its not correct to
  define language of tabloids simpler making
  sense of deliberately cryptic headlines demands
  considerable cultural knowledge/ awareness of
  colloquial and dialect uses / interpretative
  skills
• e.g. headline GEORGE ILL FIRE MY FLOP GUNNERS
• George Graham (manager of Arsenal football club)
• Arsenal (nicknamed Gunners)
• Strikers ( attaccanti) warned to improve their
  goal-scoring record or risk dismissal

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• Compression of info formal simplicity/brevity of
  tabloid prose but high degree of compression,
  rigid conformity to house style, K, coin words
  and combinations (so that 1 linguistic unity
  classified in 2 ways) and ubiquitous punning
  linguistic inventiveness/dexterity, language play
• e.g WEDDING PREZ (President Clinton unexpectedly
  attends a wedding)
• Language play is distributed according to
  topics/positions 1/2 front page stories have
  puns, not serious topics on page 2 p.3 punning
  dominates (less serious news), p. 6 editorial
  paragraphs follow order serious, light-hearted
  in a sense, its the use of language play that
  creates rather than reflect the
  levity/seriousness of item
• e.g IM BLACK AND BLUE (black policeman beated by
  Anti-Nazi League protesters)
• Punning refusal to be involved in serious
  implications of event humorous effect comes from
  sense of relief

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• These issues particularly well illustrated by
  language accompanying one of most controversial
  features in The Sun the page 3 girl picture
  of naked/topless young woman
• Many regarded it as degrading and offensive, but
  reaction of The Sun was defiant each picture has
  short caption (30/40 words) with intense punning
  (1 every 6.5 words)
• Captions add nothing to pictures
• Info is invented or embellished only as vehicle
  for puns
• Punning here is end in itself

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• ADVERTISMENT
• If we include logo brand names on products,
  advertisement is everywhere obvious predominance
  in a world market economy
• Very specific purpose to sell goods, promote
  services, promote social behaviour
• Discourse type with most prominent use of
  language play associations, rhymes, rhythms,
  sound effects, parallelism, metaphors,
  neologisms, intertextual echoes, emotive
  resonances, fictional worlds it manipulates all
  levels of language from pronunciation/letter
  shapes, through morphology/grammar to discourse
  structure images, cartoons, music etc.
• Some features brevity (20/30 seconds-less 1
  minute on TV, a single page on magazines)
  LINGUISTIC COMPRESSION
• CONTEXT shape/colour/positioning of letters,
  images, music, sounds message needs to be
  interpreted in interaction with context

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• No typical adverts as they strive to originality,
  but advertisers exploit existing discourse types
  (e.g. language in childrens books) manipulation
  of all levels of language working in concert
  advert like a puzzle to be solved, a language
  game
• We should consider how they make use of
• Writing
• Particular letter shapes, sizes and arrangements
• If there are characters age, sex, class and any
  other clue
• To which audience they appeal
• The way in which the effect/meaning of language
  altered by combination with pictures
• Rhyme, rhythm, allitteration
• Neologisms/conversions of grammatical word class
• Uses of individual words in unusual, metaphorical
  or emotive sense
• Grammatical patterning or deviation from
  conventional (Standard) English grammar
• Switching to other languages
• Reference to other discourse types (e.g. films)
  or assumed knowledge of other adverts
• Adoption of another generic ( genre) form (e.g.
  childrens book)

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• Adverts must attract our attention, impress the
  existence of the product, associate it in our
  minds to smtg pleasurable driven by consumer
  responses (i.e. market/psychological researches)
• LORÉAL advert
• LAYOUT topbrand logo (LORÉAL paris)pictures
  (famous model/product)
• DERMO-EXPERTISE (Switch to French)
• LET SURGERY WAIT! (DIRECTIVE imperative
  suggesting and advising) advertisements rely a
  great deal on imperative sentences colour
• LEXIS anti-creasing, BOSWELOXTM
  micro-contractions, wrinkles (compounds
  technical semantic field of cosmetics)
• WRINKLE DE-CREASE pun on premodified VP
  (decrease diminuire, de-crease decontrarre)
  colour
• ADVANCED ANTI-CREASING CORRECTING DAY CREAM size
  (1st letters are taller and larger), font (bold)
  massive premodification in NP (underlined)
• Brief explanation 1st sentence more
  friendly/personal/informal, 2nd is quite
  technical note different sizes, fonts to
  emphasise some words
• Diagram with percentages to prove its
  effectiveness and appears reliable
• Dermo-expertise.
• From research to beauty. Full point at end
  refined adverts
• Because youre worth it. (refrain assumed
  knowledge of other adverts)

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• What wrinkle de-crease cream
• To whom women from 30 onwards
• Channel magazine
• Other details small sample of cream attached to
  page (positioned on image of product)
• Picture of model modified by lines representing
  wrinkles de-creasing