The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: A cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse
By Emma Dafouz-Milne. 2008
374 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract This paper seeks to explore the role that metadiscourse markers play in the construction and attainment of persuasion. In a cross-linguistic perspective, two elite newspapers, the British The Times and the Spanish El Pais have been chosen, both because of their status and because of the political and rhetorical influence they exert in their respective national cultures. Based on the analysis of the textual and interpersonal markers found in a corpus of 40 opinion columns, 20 written in English and 20 in Spanish, this study aims to identify which metadiscourse categories predominate in this type of newspaper discourse and how they are distributed according to cross-cultural or cross-linguistic preferences. In addition, using a group of informants, this research has attempted to discover how metadiscourse operates as a persuasive mechanism in texts. Findings suggest that both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers are present in English and Spanish newspaper columns, but that there are variations as to the distribution and composition of such markers, specifically in the case of certain textual categories (i.e. logical markers and code glosses). Regarding the persuasive effect of metadiscourse, informants were in agreement that a balanced number of both textual and interpersonal markers was necessary to render the text persuasive and reader-oriented.
Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Literature and Literary Theory, Human-Computer Interaction
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7d7524509f023e846af53450ac667df6a3cc589a
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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
In Literature and Literary Theory
- Ken Hyland
- Raffaella Negretti
- Douglas Biber
- A. Molino
- Jim McKinley
- Shih-Chieh Chien
- Paul Thompson
- R. Ruegg
In Human-Computer Interaction
Citations in the corpus
- Metadiscourse: What is it and where is it going? (2017, background): “Thus Dafouz-Milne (2008) explored howmetadiscourse helped construct persuasive discourse in opinion columns in The Times and El Paiswhile Yao (2012) studied the similarities and differences in metadiscourse between 30 Chinese and 30 English news commentaries.”