A Study Of Evidentiality In English Editorials

According to Chafe (1986), evidentiality is a semantic category which can berealized grammatically, lexically or in any other linguistic forms, which not onlyindicates the source of information but also the attitudes toward information.Evidentiality is an effective way for discourse analysis. In the previous studiesof evidentiality, the researchers mainly focus on the news report, advertisements, aswell as political speeches，but the researches of evidentiality on news commentsespecially on editorials are relatively rare. Therefore, through a combination ofquantitative and qualitative study, the present research aims to explore theevidentiality in English editorials from three aspects, which are the features ofevidentiality in English editorials, the discourse features of English editorials reflectedby the use of evidentials, and the interpersonal functions of evidentiality in Englisheditorials.Ten editorials are selected randomly from the editorial board of Washington Postand New York Times. Under the theories of evidentiality especially Hu Zhuanglin’smodel of evidentiality, the features of evidentiality in English editorials indicate thatthe general frequency of evidentials in English editorials is relatively high, and thedistribution of seven categories of evidentials can be ranked like this: hearsay,deduction, expectations, reliability, belief, induction and verbal resources. Based onthe frequency and distribution, the discourse features of English editorials reflected byusing evidentials can be concluded as follows: subjectivity, implicity and credibility.Furthermore, evidentiality is interpersonal by nature. Based on the theory ofengagement, the interpersonal functions of evidentiality in English editorials can begeneralized as showing stance, expanding dialogue space and achieving covertpersuasion.The present study can raise people’s awareness of evidentiality and also makethem realize the functions of evidentiality, especially the interpersonal function.