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Article In: English Text Construction: Online-First Articles

Appraisal and evidentiality in interlingual news reporting

The case of the Iran nuclear deal

ORCiD logo with link | Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Abstract
This paper examines evidentiality and appraisal in the presentation of interlingual news sources on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal, in the Iranian newspaper Kayhan to understand the origins of news writers’ knowledge, how they express the reliability of sources, and the rhetorical effects of these choices. The analysis uses MAXQDA to code for evidentiality ( 2004. Evidentiality. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and appraisal (sub)systems (Martin, James R. & Peter R. R. White. 2005. The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), with particular focus on how evidential choices interact with evaluative stance. The results indicate that coverage is not neutral, despite multiple sourcing. The high frequency of quotative evidentiality may contribute to the neutrality of coverage; however, the dominance of appraisal systems expressing meanings of distance and condemnation within the matrix clauses introduces and reinforces bias. Evidential choices and appraisal resources function as ‘authorisation’ and ‘rationalisation’ (. 2007. Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Communication 1(1). 91–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) that selectively endorse or discredit sources and enact ‘moral evaluation’ that delegitimises Western policies and the JCPOA. Such patterns reinforce the discourse of victimhood and produce toxic speech over time (Tirrell, Lynne. 2017. Toxic speech: Toward an epidemiology of discursive harm. Philosophical Topics 45(2). 139–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Evidentiality
    • 2.2Appraisal theory and its (sub)systems
    • 2.3Toxic speech and legitimation strategies
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data and corpus construction
    • 3.2Methods of analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Interlingual sources
    • 4.2Evidentiality in interlingual sources
    • 4.3Appraisals in interlingual coverage
      • 4.3.1Appraisal framework: Attitude >Judgement
      • 4.3.2Appraisal Framework: Attitude>Appreciation
      • 4.3.3Appraisal framework: Engagement
      • 4.3.4Interlingual translation strategies used in Khayan
  • 5.Discussion: Rhetorical effects of the linguistic choices
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Conflict of interest
  • Data availability statement
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
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