Vol. 3:2 (2021) ► pp.247–273
Alignment, persuasiveness and the putative reader in opinion writing
This paper explores a new line of analysis for comparing opinion writing by reference to differences in the relationships being indicated between author and addressee. It draws on recent work within the appraisal framework literature to offer proposals for linguistics-based analyses of what has variously been termed the ‘intended’, ‘imagined’, ‘ideal’, ‘virtual’, ‘model’, ‘implied’ and ‘putative’ reader (the ‘reader written into the text’). A discussion is provided of those means by which beliefs, attitudes and expectations are projected onto this ‘reader in the text’, formulations which signal anticipations that the reader either shares the attitude or belief currently being advanced by the author, potentially finds it novel or otherwise problematic, or may reject it outright. The discussion is conducted with respect to written, persuasive texts, and specifically with respect to news journalism’s commentary pieces. It is proposed that such texts can usefully be characterised and compared by reference to tendencies in such ‘construals’ or ‘positionings’ of the putative reader – tendencies in terms of whether the signalled anticipation is of the reader being aligned or, conversely, potentially unaligned or dis-aligned with the author. The terms ‘flag waving’ and ‘advocacy’ are proposed as characterisations which can be applied to texts, with ‘flag waving’ applicable to texts which construe the reader as largely sharing the author’s beliefs and attitudes, while ‘advocacy’ is applicable to texts where the reader is construed as actually or potentially not sharing the author’s beliefs and attitudes and thereby needing to be won over. This line of analysis is demonstrated through a comparison of two journalistic opinion pieces written in response to visits by Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, one published in the English-language version of the mainland China newspaper, China Daily and one in the English-language version of the Japanese Asahi Shimbun. It is shown that one piece can usefully be characterised as oriented towards ‘flag waving’ and the other towards ‘advocacy’.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical orientation
- 3.The texts – two journalistic opinion pieces
- 4.Preview of analysis and key findings
- 5.The attitudinal orientation of the two commentaries
- 5.1 China Daily – attitudinal orientation
- 5.2The Asahi Shimbun – attitudinal orientation
- 6.Positioning of the putative addressee and ‘flag waving’ versus ‘advocacy’
- 6.1Levels of analysis – text-global and text-local positioning
- 6.2Positioning of the putative reader in the Asahi Shimbun piece
- 6.2.1Text-global positioning
- 6.2.2Text-local/micro positionings
- 6.2.2.1A point of possible reader unlikemindedness
- 6.2.2.2A point of possible reader uncommittedness
- 6.2.2.3Categorical assertion and the putative reader positioned as ‘likeminded’
- 6.2.2.4Presupposition and putative-reader likemindedness
- 6.2.3Conclusion to the discussion of putative reader construal/positioning in the Asahi Shimbun piece
- 6.3Positioning of the putative reader in the China Daily piece
- 7.Conclusion
- Notes
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References
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.21001.whi