Subjectivity Of Reported Speech In Political News:a Cognitive Linguistic Approach

Though news report seems to be objective, it implies the ideological structure and power relationship of interest groups. This study tries to construe reported speeches in news reports from the perspective of cognitive subjectivity, and aims to answer the following question:How do readers interpret the reporter’s attitude to the reported events through the construal framework of reported speeches with shift of perspective, shift of viewing stage and different viewing arrangement (optimal viewing arrangement and egocentric viewing arrangement)?This study, by taking the utterance, the speaker and the reporter into consideration, modifies Langacker’s subjectivity which confines to the sentence, and analyzes shift of perspective from the utterance to the speaker, and to the reporter, shift of viewing stage between onstage and offstage, and two different viewing arrangement(optimal viewing arrangement and egocentric viewing arrangement).The research finds that the construal of the reporter has an influence on the attitude construal. The construal of direct speech, when the identity of reporters being different from participants of the reported event, shows that shift of perspective leads to shift of viewing stage which makes objectively construed utterance onstage, subjectively construed the speaker and the reporter offstage, forming the optimal viewing arrangement. The disapproval attitude of the reporter is therefore shown because the reporter believes that the speaker gives his subjective claim of utterance. However, in the construal of indirect speech, though the perspective and viewing stage also shift, objectively construed utterance and speaker are both onstage leading to the approval attitude of the reporter because he holds that the speaker gives his objective understanding of utterance. The construal of reported speech, when the identity of the reporter being identified with participants, reveals that whether in that of direct speech or that of indirect speech, perspective and viewing stage do not shift, leading to the egocentric viewing arrangement, in which objectively construed reporter and reported speech are both onstage. The approval attitude of the reporter is demonstrated because he thinks that the speaker gives his objective understanding of utterance.