Living in the 21st century is difficult. We have so much “stuff” and information around us. In our readings a couple of weeks ago, Lanham mentioned how today we live in an economy of attention. There is so much information surrounding us. So, the question becomes what do we give our attention to?
Lynda Felder, in Writing for the Web, describes how the audience on the Internet is looking for quick solutions or quick answers, hence the rise of sites like Yahoo! Answers or Ask.com. Whether we are using Google or Wikipedia, the question is what convinces a user to click on a certain link over another. No one wants to read plain or dry text. Svenja Adolphs explains this point in her book, Introducing Electronic Text Analysis. Adolphs holds a PhD and is a professor of English language and linguistics. Her areas of expertise include applied linguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, genre analysis, and corpus linguistics. Her main research interests are both corpus linguistics and discourse.
While introducing electronic text analysis in chapter one through three, Adolphs goes on to teach the basic techniques in chapter four through six. She shows the general techniques of analyzing words or phrases at a concordance level. First of all, a “concordance programme arranges all instances of a particular search item in a way that makes the search item appear in the centre of the page” (52). Concordance analysis also can be used to both create as well as test a hypothesis. Not only that but due to concordance output, the overall connotation of words in relation to its co-text has also become possible.
Concordance analysis also describes the individual units of meaning, consisting of four categories including collocation, colligation, semantic preference, and semantic prosody. Collocation refers to the consistent co-occurrence of certain words while the semantic preference is “the semantic grouping of the words that co-occur on either side of the node” (56). Semantic prosodies, on the other hand, can be seen as positive or negative polarity. These categories are the rudiments for the describing words and phrases at a concordance level.
Adolphs also goes into depth about the principles on which languages is based upon. The first is the “idiom principle”. This is working when the speaker uses lexical or semi-lexical phrases because they are brought back as single items yet they are stored as long-term memories. In contrast to this is the “open choice principle”. This is the language that is based on the grammatical rules.
Adolphs illustrates how the skills developed in corpus linguistics can also be applied to literary texts. Most of the corpus stylists are made to interpret a collection of the literary texts. The interpretations, which exist, are based on analytical concepts that have come from outside the realms of electronic text analysis. Hence, while preparing an electronic text, it is influenced by earlier discussions of the literary text or by an approach, which already exists. There mainly are two approaches. One relies on intra-textual analysis while the other is based on the comparison of texts to other collections.
Intra-textual analysis manipulates the text to get more information about the data, thus aiding in the entire interpretation process. This approach works while dealing with longer texts. The other approach, the comparison of texts to other collections, for example, includes analyzing collocations and semantic prosodies. Regardless of the differences, both approaches are helpful in further revealing the text.
While there are many other factors that need to be taken into account, Adolphs puts great emphasis on grammatical structure in Introducing Electronic Text Analysis. After all, “the grammatical structure which an author chooses to represent the speech and thoughts of characters in a piece of writing thus affect the meaning and point of view” (Chapter 5, Adolphs).
The idea of grammatical structure playing a role on the point of view is taken further by Simpson. He separates three categories of point of views, including positive, negative, and neutral.
Positive shading is achieved through deontic or boulomaic modality, which denote the degree of obligation, commitment or desire in a proposition. This can be expressed through the use of modal auxillaries, such as will, must, can, should, may, or would, as in ‘She must go’, and modal adverbs, such as possibly, probably, or definitely, as in ‘She will definitely go.’ Evaluative adjectives and adverbs, such as beautiful or happy, are further indications of positive modality shading. Negative shading is achieved by epistemic and perception modality, which convey the speaker’s confidence in the truth of a proposition, as in the sentence ‘I think she has left’. The last type of polarity, neutral modality is minimal and in which the narration is maybe at its most ‘objective’.(Chapter 5, Adolphs)
Contrary to using terms like possibly or probably, terms like definitely, tend to leave a greater impact. They can either enhance or counteract one’s point of view. The take-away message that the audience receives may be totally different than what the author may have wanted a certain word to denote. Therefore, linguistics is very important as it is key to have tight syntax and precise diction. While reading this, I was constantly thinking of different inaugural speeches given by the presidents of our nation. Each speech was different, yet, they all had similar themes such as the unification of the nation.
In every speech, the president promises to uptake new responsibilities to make the nation a better place. The president does not say that I will possibly fix the nation or I will probably fix the nation. In Bill Clinton’s inaugural speech, he say, “To that work I now turn with all the authority of my office.” Clinton assures the audience he is willing to take on this responsibility, and he will fix the problems the nation faces.
Whether it be America, China, or any other nation in the world, a citizen always looks for a confident leader who is willing to overcome any obstacles he or she may face while in office. By using terms like maybe, citizens are not left with the most reassuring feeling from their respective leaders. Thus, as Adolphs mentions, it is important to use positive shading while writing or speaking. Positive modality shading depicts the author’s confidence, which is important when you are leading a nation of millions, or even, billions of people.
As I was reading this, I thought about the different presidential inaugurations I had witnessed on television in my lifetime. I was also thinking about my eligibility to vote. At the age of 18, by law, every citizen is given the right to vote which gives them the authority to choose the most viable candidate. As citizens of the United States, there are certain characteristics we hunt for in our leaders. We want a leader who we can have faith in. We want a leader we know will make the right choices for the nation. We want a leader who will promise to overcome obstacles even in times of the worst state of emergencies. So, the right to vote should essentially be thought of as a privilege. I was unable to vote in this past election. Nevertheless, after unscrambling my thoughts, I realized how important it is to vote and never take this right for granted.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SWjIPwm954
Your article shows a great deal of research on this topic and on the authors you mention. Your mention of differing grammatical styles and the importance of word choice are interesting and informative. I appreciated your example of analyzing Presidential Inaugural Addresses for word choice, looking especially for words that assert confidence and certainty.