A Comparative Study Of Metadiscourse Markers In English Political And Economic Newspaper Reports

Metadiscourse markers function at textual and interpersonal levels in text interpretation.Moreover,metadiscourse markers tie texts or utterances in pragmatics and discourse which result in intertextuality.They can also be utilized by writers as tools to help readers understand news reports and distinguish their differences.Furthermore,metadiscourse markers include linguistic elements which shed light on the writer’s mastery to organize texts and engage readers in their intended communication.Previously,a host of studies have investigated metadiscourse across different languages(Jalilifar,2011),genres(Crismore,1989),and disciplines(Backlund,1998),and the basic assumption in metadiscourse studies is that we should consider different contexts in using them.The present research compares the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers in American English political and economic newspapers and investigates the features by which these markers are communicated in English via Hyland’s interpersonal model of metadiscourse(Hyland,2005).There are also four questions in this study to be considered:types of metadiscourse markers,possible similarities or differences between these metadiscourse markers,factors contributing to metadiscourse preferences,and the extent to which metadiscourse preferences shape textual ity.Therefore,100 political and 100 economic news reports written by English native speakers published in 2017 onwards were randomly selected.Then,a number of word counts were run in the text to specify the length and ensure the comparability of the corpora which each includes one hundred news reports,ranging from one to five thousand words each.All the news reports were analyzed in their entirety,i.e.all sections of news reports such as headlines,sub-headings,summary leads,and fact-based paragraphs.On the other hand,some parts such as references,tables,figures,appendices,author’s name,and dates of submissions were excluded.In this analysis,the metadiscourse markers presented in these news reports were collected and marked according to their interactive and interactional orientation.Following that,ten major functional categories were developed considering the micro corpus analysis viewpoint.Besides,the study employed a quantitative approach and all the corpus data were annotated via the AntConc software to identify the metadiscourse markers.Finally,the frequency,percentage,and density of each metadiscourse marker were calculated,and the Chi-square test was applied to manifest whether the differences in the two corpora were significant.Consequently,the results of the quantitative analysis reveales that there were some similarities in the frequency and type of these metadiscourse markers.However,there were statistically significant differences in the frequency and type of these metadiscourse markers across the English political and economic news reports,which can be attributed to the nature of these fields.There are also a number of other factors such as genre,social,contextual,and linguistic backgrounds which affect these similarities and differences.Moreover,readers’ comprehension of a discourse can be impacted by the writers’ preconceptions of linguistic elements that have potential effects on the use of metadiscourse markers because writers shape their ideas based on their schemata.Correspondingly,similar rhetorical thought patterns could be as a result of similar social norms which share a standard and acceptable behavior by groups.Likewise,the context affects the ways metadiscourse markers are fashioned across different genres and helps writers and speakers to be part of this contextual language.At the end,this study proves that both types of metadiscourse markers were utilized by American news reporters with nearly the same frequency while statistical discrepancies were found in the type and frequent use of these markers-more similarities in comparison to differences.Furthermore,the chi-square analysis(0.0)shows a significant difference in both corpora,i.e.the analysis of these presented data illustrates that in the English political and economic news reports,the interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers applied by American writers have been given approximately similar priorities in both political and economic markers.Prominently,the analysis clarifies that metadiscourse markers are employed to heighten persuasive writing since they are a manifestation of personal and informational choices.The results also show the writers’ use of different genres and styles of writing between political and economic news reports in formal contexts and their relations with assumed readers although they have similar linguistic backgrounds.News reporters regard their readers’ needs,understanding,and facilitation in the transfer of knowledge and ideas via extensive use of interactive language choices while the importance of interactional devices uncover the writers’direct focus on the targeted readers.This extensive employment of interactional elements in these texts is due to the writer-reader interaction in making a shared evaluative atmosphere in which the writer’s viewpoint is grasped by the reader.Consequently,this study can contribute to a better understanding of the use of metadiscourse markers in journalistic writing,especially newspapers.What is more,the findings of this study may render some pedagogical implications for ESP(English for Specific Purposes)or EAP(English for Academic Purposes)learners and teachers,and especially authors of news reports.