An Analysis Of Commercial Editorials From A Functional Perspective

Commercial editorials are widely used in commerce or business. They indicate the attitude and stand of the mass media (newspapers, magazines, etc). Writers of commercial editorials attempt to persuade readers to accept their attitude and stand. On the other hand, they have to present readers convincing evidences to support their argument. This poses a contradiction: subjective expression of viewpoints and objective presentation of facts. It leaves writers in a difficult situation: how to strike a balance between these two needs.Based upon the theory of Functional Grammar by Halliday as well as Hasan' GSP theory (Generic Structural Potential) and some knowledge of stylistics, this thesis deals with the analysis of commercial editorials. A case study offers some preliminary findings; the Mood elements and Modal Adjuncts are mainly discussed to illustrate the interpersonal meaning and impersonality in a commercial editorial. Later these preliminary findings are modified according to the results based upon the statistical treatment, description and analysis of thirty commercial editorials. Writers of commercial editorials are between two ends of a balance: subjectivity and objectivity.One end is the substantial use of the third person form, the present tense and the past tense; through frequent use of the third person form as the Subject, the writers of commercial editorials are at a position of an impartial third party describing the facts in an apparently neutral manner; the past tense and the present tense are also considerably employed to further help to enhance the objectivity of the writers' presentation, for they reflect the facts and events which did take place and do stay there now. The other is the moderate employment of modal operators and Modal Adjuncts. Those of low value group and median value group form the main body of all the modal operators; instead modal operators of high value group occur least frequently, which imply writers' strong attitude. Similarly among Modal Adjuncts Mood Adjuncts prevail over Comment Adjuncts; the former are less outstanding in expressing personal opinion. Writers' mission is to strike a good balance: influencing readers by airing their viewpoints and at the same time presenting facts (especially economic data) objectively.A typical commercial editorial is a mixture of the expression of subjective attitude and impersonal presentation of facts. Interpersonal meaning is appropriately expressed based upon the presentation of facts, so that persuasive effect can be acquired most effectively.