Abstract
The present study scrutinizes four editorial letters from four selected English newspapers. In the previous studies. editorial letters have been examined from stylistic, comparative and discourse analysis points of view. However, investigating English editorials from a pragmalinguistic perspective has not been conducted yet. Thus, this thesis attempts to bridge this gap by analyzing editorials as linguistic structures and as speech acts. The study aims at identifying the linguistic strategies and analyzing the speech acts that are used in the selected editorial letters to achieve their functions.
In collaboration with the aims, the study sets out seven hypotheses: (1) On the linguistic level, Biber’s (1988, 1989) linguistic strategies are useful devices for the analysis of linguistic structures of the editorials from the selected English newspapers. (2) On the pragmatic level, Searle’s (1979) Taxonomy of Speech Acts is an appropriate instrument for the analysis of the selected editorials, in terms of their illocutionary acts recognition, interpretation and understanding. (3) In newspaper editorials, the editor uses certain linguistic and pragmatic patterns to influence the target readers. (4) The most frequent linguistic pattern used in the selected editorials is the ‘Repetition and Intensifiers’ (R&Is), whereas the least frequent one is the Necessity Modals (NMs). (5) The most frequent class of speech acts used in the selected editorials is ‘Representatives’, whereas the least frequent one is ‘Commisivess’. (6) The most frequent illocutionary act used by the writers in the selected editorials is ‘Asserting’, whereas, the least frequent one is ‘Characterizing’. (7) The selected editorial texts contain linguistic patterns more than pragmatic ones.
To achieve the aims and verify these hypotheses, the study adopts a pragmalinguistic model consisting of two layers for the analysis. The first layer is composed of Biber’s linguistic strategies (1988, 1989). The second layer is based on Searle’s taxonomy of speech acts (1979), which is composed of the devices that manifest pragmatic strategies in press discourse. On the other hand, a statistical information is used after the data analysis to check the frequency distribution of these strategies for the sake of guaranteeing scientific findings of the study.
Based on these findings, the study encompasses certain conclusions: (1) Biber’s (1988, 1989) linguistic strategies and Searle’s (1979) Taxonomy of Speech Acts are useful devices for the analysis of the linguistic structures and the pragmatic patterns of the selected English editorials. (2) All linguistic patterns are used except Rhetorical Questions (RQs), whereas all pragmatic patterns in one way or another are employed in this study. (3) The most frequent linguistic pattern is the Repetition and Intensifiers (R&Is), whereas the least frequent linguistic pattern is the Suasive Verbs (SVs). (4) The pragmatic analysis shows that the most frequent type of speech acts is the ‘Representatives’, whereas the least frequent type of speech acts is the ‘Declarations’. However, All the hypotheses of the study are verified and proved except that the fourth, fifth and sixth are partially valid. The thesis ends with some recommendations and suggestions for further studies.
