E303B - UNIT 13
Introduction
·
By our language we represent,
make sense of, and interpret the world around us. This is an obvious and key
function of language. The commonsensical view is probably that our language
simply reflects the world of experience in a relatively passive way. The world
impinges on our senses and our language simply provides a means for recording and reporting on these sense impressions.
·
There are connections between the use of certain grammatical
structures and the expression in a text of a particular value system or point
of view.
Agency and affectedness: who or what is presented as most ‘agentive’ – that is, most active, effective or dynamic – and who or what is presented as most ‘affected’ – that is, most passive, inert or acted upon.
In order to conduct such analyses, it is necessary
to be able to:
identify instances of material
processes clauses
classify these clauses as transitive
or intransitive, and as active or passive
identify any instances of ergative
verbs
classify the participants in these clauses as actors or goals
identify whether there are any significant patterns by which particular individuals or groupings are more likely to be
actors than goals, and vice versa
identify whether there are any uses of structures (for example, short passives, ergative verbs, nominalisations)
by which the text obscures or de-emphasises who
or what is responsible for a particular action or happening.
____________________________
AGENCY AND AFFECTEDNESS – REPRESENTATIONAL
AND EVALUATIVE EFFECTS
Agency and
affectedness:
Grammatical patterns by which some participants can be represented as
more active, influential or effective, as having more of an impact on the
world around them (Agency) – and, alternatively, by which other participants can be
represented as more passive or inert, as being acted upon rather than as acting
(affectedness).
Activity 1
***The choice of actor has clear
representational effects. The differences between the two texts have the
potential to result in rather different understandings or interpretations of
what took place that day. In the first instance (the Time report) it
is the protesters who are most active, who
initiate and hence who are likely to be seen as most responsible for the
violence. In the second instance (the Guardian
report) it is the police who are
presented as most active, as initiatin events and who thereby have the
potential to be seen as to blame for the day’s violence.
____________________________
***
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ما من عبد مسلم يدعو لأخيه بظهر الغيب إلا قال الملك ولك بمثل.
