Pestaña 1

Chapter 7 "The Language of Newspaper Reporting"

by David Crystal (Book: Investigating English Style)

As is mentioned by Crystal and David (1969: 173) everything that happens to be printed in a
newspaper or written by a journalist is not going to be linguistically homogeneous‟. Crystal
and David (ibid.) also claim that there is not any reason to expect such a “homogeneity”
since a newspaper is always very eclectic from the stylistic point of view. We come across a
number of “journalises” in the pages of various daily press, and as a striking fact, while they
are dealing with the same issue their overall styles are very different.

(Essay from the web)

In this chapter, Crystal analyzes how language is used in newspapers, focusing on its
distinctive characteristics, stylistic conventions, and its role in shaping public discourse.David
Crystal examines two examples of newspaper articles to illustrate differences and similarities
in language use across types of reporting. These examples highlight how different styles
cater to specific purposes and audiences while adhering to common journalistic principles.

(chat gpt)

SUMMARY FROM THE TEXT

The author states that the term “ Journalese” is a pseudo descriptive term which never
gives any kind of precise definition. He believes it is a pejorative criticism of a way of writing
that people feel is in some way typical of the press of a particular paper.

Everything that happens to be printed in a newspaper magazine written by a journalist it's

not going to be linguistically homogeneous and the newspaper is always very eclectic from
the stylistic point of view.

Therefore our attention is to the central function of a newspaper: to inform and

consequently the notion of newspaper reporting and the linguistic characteristics associated
with it.

While there are certain amounts in common between the pages of daily dress their overall
style is very different.

The author has chosen two extracts in this chapter to represent different extremes of
journalistic writing. The pejorative use of the term journaleset seems to be restricted to the
kind of newspaper reporting language Illustrated an example number 1.

It is important to highlight that the kinds of English used are very different: that disparity
can be explained by reference to the very different audiences that have the papers.
The author concentrates as much on the linguistic differences as on the similarities to
clarify the idea that journalese is not a single thing. he says it is dangerous to make
generalizations about the uses of language.But the language in examples 1 and 2 does not
differ in every aspect,the two texts share:

A.​ some important linguistic features that are not generally found outside newspaper
reporting
B.​ Their underlying aims are identical: they are both concerned to present a certain
number of facts in as interesting a manner as possible to audiences.
 C.​ the general pressures working on the authors are the same: the need for
compression of the information into a limit space, the need for clarity, the avoidance
of ambiguity

Examples 1 and 2 are two treatments of the same story by different papers which appear on
the same day. The different styles which appear in each paper consist on:

1.​ VISUAL FEATURES: GRAPHETIC AND GRAPHOLOGICAL VARIATION: piece of

great importance in defining the distinctiveness of this kind of English. in articles
there are always different sizes and shapes of type juxtaposed:
a.​ HEADLINES: the most common and noticeable is the graphic highlighting of
the headline. headlines has a complex function: to contain a clear and if
possible intriguing message, to Kindle spark of Interest in the reader. trying
to produce eye catching effects by making use of the full range of graphic
contrast. They form part of the consistent visual house style which the
newspaper tries to maintain.
b.​ PARAGRAPHING: another obvious visual feature of the extracs in which the
narrative as a whole is split into smaller units. The use of subheadings is
shared by both texts.
c.​ PUNCTUATION: there is little that is distinctive about the punctuation of the
two extracts:
Comas are absent from many places where they would normally be
expected:
➔​ after initially place adverbials: “ in a few more months Mr
comet will be such…” ( line 58)
➔​ between coordinations
➔​ or between sequences of adjectives
The reason is probably to avoid disturbing the tempo of reading more
than is necessary, in such places the grammar gives sufficient
indication of where the break between structures comes and
consequently it is not essential to have an additional indication in the
form of a punctuation mark.
Inverted Commas frequent use for a variety of functions: used for
➔​ direct quotation,
➔​ indirect quotation: (line 13)
➔​ to Spotlight terms for the particular attention because they are
being used in a new or technical way: …the term “prediction”...
(line 131)
IMPORTANT! Sometimes this double function of attention- drawing
and actual quotation produces ambiguity. They could be an
unacknowledged quote, a reference to a well-known saying in the
field, or simply a remark of the author´s which he wants to give a
special prominence to.
The use of quotation gives a strong impression of verisimilitude and
immediacy to the articles as well as having extra interest and variety

Dashes are also interesting and characteristic of this kind of writing.

normally used to Mark a parenthesis, the effect of putting dashes
rather than Commas is to give the parenthetical phrase a greater
Independence, not necessarily and longer pause
 Ex: But only a few- from weather ships-are made from sea areas.
(line 171)

COMPARISON BETWEEN TEXT 1 AND 2

Visual features I II

Headlines were bold 10 high roman letter and no

1st letter in capital more
19 high heavy lowercase
italic letters

Paragraphing both share the subheadings in the centre of the column

breaks into short long paragraphs

paragraphs

Consequently gr and semantical variations

●​ Readability easy to read few resting places for the

´cause short paragraph and eye, the Rd has to
the variation of type size concentrate for longer
periods of time

Punctuation commas: mainly absent

inverted commas especially in text I

dashes:

is used in its informal way to

link expansions of thoughts
or afterthoughts with a main
part of the sentence.An
usage which is most
frequent in informal letter
writing where we can find
dashes used to replace
almost any punctuation
mark.
this is common in writing
which tries to give a general
impression of informality
and chattiness to a piece of
written utterance

2.​ PHONOLOGY : which underlines the written form of newspaper reporting is not
normally stylistically significant, presumably because this is language written to be
read, rarely read aloud. But certain auditory effects can be found which reverberate
mentally.

Phonology text I text II

 seems to favor alliteration to goes in for a more complex
give added zest to the rhythmical effect, using
story. Example” blow, balance phrases and
antithesis (a figure of speech
Blaze, below freezing”
that juxtaposes contrasting ideas
in a parallel grammatical
structure)

the simple phonological

structure of the words and
the relatively uncomplicated
rhythm units between
punctuation marks, add a
great deal to its readability

3.​ GRAMMATICAL LEVEL

IMPORTANT! headlines are a separate study in themselves being radically different from
the rest of newspaper reporting language.There are techniques of headline right in both
texts. The author doesn't make a separate examination of these techniques but consider
➔​ the kind of word which tend to be omitted to gain the desire compression: “Man
finds gun on beach”,
➔​ the type of ambiguity which may arise from leaving out important structural cues:
“Giant waves down funnel”
➔​ and the very restricted range of sentence types which may occur as headlines

There are two main areas of stylistic importance

1.​ SENTENCE STRUCTURE

2.​ GROUP STRUCTURE

1)​ SENTENCE STRUCTURE : the type of sentence defined by reference to its

internal structure and the ways in which the sentences link up with each other
within and between paragraphs.

The two extracts have a great deal in common:

➔​ In both sentence types there are largely statements, with a normal
order of elements SPC. ( Subject, Predicator (verb) and complement).
➔​ Occasionally there are questions which are not in inverted commas
and may be either questions which do not expect an answer or
questions with the writer answers himself.
➔​ And we may even find minor sentences, particularly functioning as
exclamation. And often with more than one exclamation mark. But
usually this appears only in headlines.

➢​ The three most significant features of a statement-type sentences:

1.​ SUBJECT POSITION:The position of the subject in relation to

the verb
subject position exemplified in: Said Dr Mason
 the normal SP that was ordered becomes PS. This deviation
is restricted in its occurrence in verbs to do with: speaking,
like declare,explain, or laugh

2.​ ADVERBIAL POSITION: The position of adverbials within the

clause
adverbials are extremely common in newspapers
reporting, they are needed to explicit the place and time of
activities,but their positioning is also very interesting:

​ a small group of adverbs which have a fixed or

relatively fixed position before the verb, for example
just
​ adverbial tend to come towards the end of a clause
either after the verb,
​ or at the very end when everything else has been said.

IMPORTANT! The stylistic point to put an adverbial whose normal position is post-verbal,
anywhere near the beginning of the class, is to fulfill a strongly emphatic function.In
newspaper reporting the distinction in positions seems to be made purely for the sake of
varying the emphasis within a given sentence and no more.

3.​ CLAUSE STRUCTURE Types of phrases and clauses

structure which may occur within any given sentence
The two extracts illustrate very well the kind of changes in the
basic theme of SPC by introducing various types of
coordination, subordination and parentheses.

Clause Structure text I text II

he's much more complex

than extract one

Coordination ●​ hardly any ●​ have substantial

coordination at coordination:
clause level ➔​ between main
clauses,
➔​ between various
He can scan… and come up types of dependent
with… clauses and
➔​ very frequently
●​ but there is more at between groups.
group level:
●​ There is complex
coordination of
He requires an operating
adverbials and
staff and another 50 … coordination using
 ●​ and the adverbial such linking devices
linkage (51) “ as not only… but”
and the comparative.
●​ There are other
It's entirely absent from this coordinating devices
extract such as:
➔​ apposition,
➔​ parallelism and
➔​ the use of
punctuation to make
a graphological
coordination
(frequent use of
colon and dash)

Subordination ●​ dependent clauses ●​ shows a greater use

of any kind tend to of features of
be less frequent grammatical
subordination,
●​ adverbial clauses are
●​ there is as much NOT much used,
subordination with ●​ but there are cases
the nominal group of noun clauses
structure, tend to ●​ and a great deal of
rely more on subordination within
non-finite clauses the nominal group.
using ing

weather poring over…

hanging over…
flashing…

and relative clauses:

, who took over a month
ago.
, who has a memory…

Parenthesis very common in II, it

/pəˈren.θə.sɪs/ (line 18) provides a useful alternative
-- a $500.000 computer to more lengthy and possibly
another way frequently used more awkwards kinds of
in newspaper reporting: coordination
introducing parenthetical
phrase, clause or group into (lines 98,142,151)
a larger structure.

GLOSSARY FROM THE WEB

Clauses are made by combining phrases into an organised, grammatically complete

structure. Each complete basic clause minimally contains a subject and a predicate.
Clauses can be distinguished by their structure into a number of different types
depending on their transitivity, form, and polarity.

This distinction between the subject and the predicate is based on the function of the parts of the
clause. It is of long standing and works well for English. This distinction is also reflected in the
structure of a basic clause. This is shown in the following diagram where the first branching in a
structure tree shows the split between subject and predicate.

In English, the terms predicate and verb phrase are equivalent, but they reflect different
perspectives on the clause:

'Predicate' describes a semantic function while 'verb phrase' refers to a unit of structure.

The 5 major elements of clause structure:

1.​ subject (s),
2.​ verb (v),
3.​ object (o)
4.​ complement (c).
5.​ adjuncts (a) are sometimes called adverbials. An adjunct is a phrase which
is not necessary to the structure of the clause, but which adds some extra
meaning to it.

In the sentence:
They waited outside for ages.

the phrases outside and for ages add extra meaning to waited. They tell us
where, and for how long, the people waited.
They are adjuncts:
Adjuncts and complements
Adjuncts and complements are different.

●​ An adjunct is not necessary, and adds extra information.

●​ A complement is necessary in order to complete the meaning:

Adjuncts and postmodifiers in noun phrases

Adjuncts are different from postmodifiers in noun phrases.

●​ An adjunct adds extra information to a clause.

●​ A postmodifier tells us more about the noun (n):

CLAUSE TYPES

Three major clause types are:

1.​ DECLARATIVE :for example, Bridget will be home at five.

2.​ INTERROGATIVE: for example, Will Bridget be home at five?
3.​ IMPERATIVE: for example, Be home at five.
 Basic clauses are always declarative.

The kind of changes in the basic theme of SPC by introducing various types of coordination
and subordination (ways of combining sentences)

❖​ Coordination of clauses involves two (or more) clauses joined with a

coordinator; and, or or but ,for example,

Trent thought the movie was great but Quentin didn't like it.

We could go to the movies or see a show.

➔​ In some cases clauses can be strung together without an intervening

coordinator; this is known as apposition,for example:

Emilia saw the emus, Nadine saw the pelicans, Georgia saw the snakes.

We had a wonderful meal, we danced until dawn, we slept all day

The clauses which are joined by coordination have the same status; they are each
independent (main) clauses.

A sentence which has conjoined two independent clauses with a coordination conjunction is
called a compound sentence. It can be represented in a diagram as follows:

Coordination may also be used to link constituents within the clause provided they have
the same status as each other.

➔​ This applies to individual words (such as the nouns and the adverbs in the clause Juice
and water can be drunk together or apart)
➔​ and to phrases (for example the prepositional phrases in the clause We like to swim in
the pool and at the beach).

Here are some examples of coordinators. You may find it helpful to remember the
acronym FANBOYS.
 1.​ For (effect/cause): Jasmine is afraid of dogs, for she was bitten by a dog
when she was young.
2.​ And (addition): Isaiah lives in Livermore, and his parents live nearby in
Pleasanton.
3.​ Nor (addition of negatives): Mary doesn’t want to go to college, nor does she
want to find a job.
4.​ But (contrast): Abdul likes to read, but he prefers to watch television.
5.​ Or (alternative): Jose thinks he wants to study math, or he might be
interested in fire fighting.
6.​ Yet (contrast): Justin really likes to run in the morning, yet he hates getting up
early.
7.​ So (cause/effect): Maria loves dogs, so she went to the animal shelter to
adopt one.

Joining Sentences With Coordinators

When a coordinator connects to sentences, place a comma before the coordinator.

Transition Words or Conjunctive Adverbs

You can also use transition words (also known as conjunctive adverbs) to coordinate
sentences, although they require different punctuation. If you are joining two sentences
with a conjunctive adverb, you need to have a semi-colon before the word and a comma
after it.

1.​ however (contrast): Cycling class is a tough workout; however, I still attend
three times a week.
2.​ therefore (cause/effect): Erin takes regular pilates classes; therefore, she is
very strong.
3.​ for example (general to specific): There are many fun exercises; for example,
I take kickboxing and weight lifting.
4.​ in fact (emphasis): Phat is obsessed with running; in fact, he is out running
right now.

❖​ Subordination is the insertion of a subordinate (dependent) clause into a main

clause. In the following example, the subordinate clause is in bold typeface:

We won the match even though Frances couldn't play.

Subordinate clauses express additional information about some element of the main clause,
and can function as modifiers, adjuncts or complements.
Subordinate clauses often (but not always) have a different structure to main clauses and may
not be grammatical as independent utterances. For example, *to go to the beach this weekend is
not a complete sentence.

Sentences that contain a subordinate clause are called complex sentences. The structure of a
complex sentence is given in the diagram below. The subordinate clause is internal to the main
clause:

One way of distinguishing among subordinate clauses is to identify the type of verb they contain.
Verbs in subordinate clauses are either finite or non-finite. Clauses with verbs of each type are
associated with different kinds of subordination.

1. Content clauses are a type of finite subordinate clause. Their subordinate status may be
marked by the subordinator that in some environments.

2. Non-finite subordinate clauses, like to go to the beach this weekend or the bolded clause in
Nadine prefers playing tennis are typically complements to the main clause. There are four
kinds of non-finite clauses. All of them are headed by non-finite verbs of different kinds:

●​ to-infinitival: Sandy hates to wash the cat.

●​ bare infinitival: Sandy helped wash the cat.
●​ gerund-infinitival: Sandy avoids washing the cat.
●​ past-participle: Washed cats are rarely happy cats.

A RELATIVE CLAUSE is a finite clause that modifies a noun and is a constituent of the noun
phrase which has the noun as its head ,for example,

The umbrella that I borrowed.

Relative clauses can begin with:

➔​ a relative pronoun (such as which, that or who),

➔​ a preposition and a relative pronoun (for example: to whom, for which)
➔​ no subordinator (for example, the umbrella I borrowed).

To identify a relative clause without a subordinator, we can insert a relative pronoun to see if the
sentence still makes sense, for example, the umbrella (that) I borrowed.

Restrictive versus non-restrictive relative clauses

 ●​ restrictive relative clauses provide central information necessary for correct
understanding of the clause. There is no special punctuation associated with this type of
relative clause and it is not associated with special prosody.

Friends who offer cats for pets are making some pretty big assumptions.

●​ non-restrictive relative clauses contain parenthetical information not necessary for

understanding the clause. Non-restrictive relative clauses are often marked by commas
(or alternately by dashes or brackets) and are given distinctive prosody. T

Close friends, who have a lot in common, sometimes still surprise each other,

Comparative clauses are finite subordinate clauses that are used to compare two different
situations. One is encoded in the main clause and the other appears as the subordinate clause.

Comparative clauses typically modify an adverb or an adjective, and are introduced by as or than
(for example, The cricket match was longer than we anticipated or Peter played as well as he
has ever played).

Comparative clauses introduced by as can also function to modify verb phrases (for example,
Rabbit is running as fast as he can).

https://languagetools.info/grammarpedia/subordination.htm

Subordinators/Subordinating Conjunctions
To subordinate one sentence to another, use a connecting word called a "subordinator."
The following words are examples of subordinators.

a.​ although (contrast): Michelle loves coffee although it upsets her

stomach.
b.​ because (cause/effect): Marty drinks tea because it is filled with healthy
antioxidants.
c.​ when (time): When Kisha gets up in the morning, she drinks a glass of
water with lemon.
d.​ if (condition): If Angelo doesn't have his morning coffee, he feels grumpy
all day.
Readability and sentence linkage

TEXT 1 TEXT 2

There is a greater diversity of structural types the more complex sentences do not follow
each other in a string, they tend to be
distributed among the shorter sentences,
which aids both with the ability and
comprehension

in both I and II the more complex sentences tend to be avoided at the beginning of the articles.
So there is an overall clarity of both these extracts because the connectedness of the
discourse is well organized and clearly defined. There is no disjointedness.

It's very important the type of sentence there is less story and more discussion,
language that occurs frequently in I, for consequently the conjunction type of
example: language of linkage is rarer and this extract
relies on other techniques of reference
to begin a sentence with the conjunction of between sentences.For example:
some kind which then acts as a bridge
between the sentence and following and the ●​ the use of the definite article,
one preceding. There is a paragraphing ●​ demonstrative and personal finance,
technique used by I. ●​ lexical repetition, prop words such as
one
●​ certain kinds of adverbials.

Stylistic devices

Occasionally in the language of newspaper reporting, a special stylistic effects can be

gained by using them abnormally. ordinarily there has to be something for such features
to refer back to, otherwise we get near nonsense. We may find the use of a word at the
beginning of an utterance as a deliberate stylistic device.
For example a sequence of opening sentences using the demonstrative:

That big black cloud,

Those yeah hahaha,
That continuing dry forecast

consequently we put ourselves as reader in an intimate relationship with the writer. this
account for the tone of familiarity which we feel in this opening sentences. devices of this
kind are very common in the more informal styles of newspapers reporting English.

2. GROUP STRUCTURE

There are distinctive characteristics operating within the nominal and verbal group

The nominal group: the presence of much more complex pre and post modification
that we normally hear or write. It is noticeable especially in 1, how nouns function
on their own without some form of adjective or other modification. There is a
particularly strong tendency to introduce adjectives whatever possible, to add detail
and color to the story.

Eg: continuing dry, hoped for, faster arriving, computer made

In 2 , the emphasis on nominal modification is still there, but it takes different forms:

●​ Vivid description is replaced by more technical terms as adjectives.

Adjectives- plus- noun- groups function almost as compound nouns:

e.g. protein procedure, electronic computer, forecast chart, pressure distribution.

●​ also there are a fairly large number of unmodified nouns: abstract terms,
grammatically uncomfortable, such as

weather, assessment, calculation.

The verbal group:

there is an expected bias towards the use of certain tense forms:

●​ The simple past tense is usually the dominant form, but there is an above
average proportion of present tense forms, due to that scientific nature of 2.
●​ Modal verbs are frequently used.
●​ The tendency in the popular press is to use the active voice rather than the
passive, II gives a false impression containing me at least 30 passives as
opposed to three in I.
●​ Contracted forms also occur in the more informal passages, for example at
the beginning of I.

Vocabulary: the most striking feature is clearly the word formation in I, where there
is a greater inventiveness in compounding than is normally seen in English. In II,
there's dominant lexical feature is the technical terminology, most of which is taken
for granted as not requiring explanation. These are noticeably lacking in I, where
simpler words are used.

The very important differences of a status between I and II:

There is a certain amount of informality in II but in I this is the tone throughout. we

notice colloquialisms such as wound, Weathers, haha and idioms such as “join the
ranks of”, come up with too much.
In II, on the other hand, the tone is much more formal and restrained, as the use of
such “careful” terms, like contributed, persisted coma attained. Or phrases like “up
to the present time, assessment and judgment. The formality is marked in the
grammar by such careful phraseology , like for the rest, to select, has been, and
remains.
The absence of vivid, dramatic vocabulary in II is consistent with the writer's purpose.

SEMANTICS
 the study of meanings in a language: Syntax describes the rules by which words
can be combined into sentences, while semantics describes what they mean.

The basic aim of the two extracts: to report the facts, maybe the same, but their
interpretations are very different. The two papers take very different lines as to what
are the relevant facts, that is, the facts which their audiences would find interesting.
Not only is different language necessary to suit the different temperament of their
respective audiences, but a different type of information is also given.

If we compare the actual information given in the two extracts, we can see how the
same basic story is interpreted very differently. There is little else semantically in
common.
●​ Both extract try to commence, in their respective ways, with the Lively
introduction:
●​ In 1 and 2 there are sharps switch in a styles between some sentences
●​ In 1 the introductory sections contain shorter and less complex sentences,
and relatively more Vivid and dramatic information. the routine details are left
till later
●​ 1 gets down to factual detail
●​ In 2 the thought progression is not necessarily better organized than 1, but it
is more complex and involves a greater and more explicit degree of control.
Points to be discussed: summaries are given, there are clear topic sentences
in paragraph-usually at the beginning
●​ in 2 the thought progresses in jumps, with very little development of it in the
individual points being made

Conclusion

There are certain linguistic features which tend to occur only in a journalistic context, but it is
unlikely that all or the majority of this would occur in any given newspaper report. It is better
to consider journalist as a range of usage which may be tapped when necessary, to a
greater or lesser extent.
It is not a question of calling one of these articles linguistically better or worse than the
other. The issue which every reader is faith with is first and foremost to decide how the
information he has been presented with this to be interpreted. These may be not important
in the case of the above extracts, but in other matters, such as politics or religion, we can
see that, using similar techniques, a topic can be presented to the public in very different
light, and it is up to us to judge to what extent this coloring is a obscuring the true of a
situation