Choice and Lateral Verbs in Newspaper Editorials

The paper examines co-occurrences of the major theme types with the various lateral verbs, as outlined in G. Kress and R. Hodge (1979). primarily unmarked/participant themes, other (non-participant) noun group themes, and marked themes. The data consist of 60 editorials from 2 major British newspapers, "The Times" and "The Sun," that presumably share similar ideologies, although they disseminate these ideologies through very different styles. It is suggested that the distinctive styles owe something to the choices of theme and lateral verb type made by the respective writers. Ratios of actional to relational verbs and those of several other subcategories for each theme type were made to discern patterns for interpretation in terms of rhetorical motivation. Findings suggest that in "The Sun," pronoun participants wee most numerous, where they were coupled relatively frequently with equative relational verbs, indicatini evaluative manipulation. In "The Times," institution participants were the most numerous, in line with the newspaper's image as the voice of the establishment. Gender differences between the newspapers were also found. (Contains 15 references.) (NAV) l'********** Reproductions supplied by EDRS z:e the best that can be made from the original document. ****************************;.A ' ' ' ' ' *********************************