Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
ASSIGNMENT
ANALYSIS OF DISCOURSE MARKERS IN A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
LANGUAGE, DISCOURSE AND SOCIETY INSTRUCTOR: MS. AYESHA BUTT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Topic of the Article: This newspaper article is about the recent cricket match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Sri Lanka has got victory against Pakistan and won Asia Cup. The writer in this article has given the background information about the two countries that how well they have played and what are the weaknesses of the loosing team.
Discourse markers have been used for many purposes in the above article. A list of the discourse markers is given below, in the order which they occur: Yet again, to give them credit, on the other hand, in the final analysis, with the exception of, indeed, as for the, too, however. These discourse markers can be sorted by their different purposes in to several categories, as shown in the following table: Purpose Making what you say stronger [Reinforcement of Ideas] Instances Yet again Explanation It refers to the earlier phrases won for the fifth time and remain unbeaten throughout; reinforces the idea of the strength of Sri Lankan team and their string of wins.
This refers to the examination of the poor performance of the Pakistani team, including the individual evaluation of its players, reaching to a final conclusion which reinforces the analysis that the Pakistani team performed poorly. This reinforces the final analysis of the Pakistani teams performance further, by recounting the players by name and mention them as being thrashed.
Indeed
Too
Makes a cataphoric reference to the poor bowling and fielding of the Pakistani team.
This marks the concession given to the intelligence and great performance of the Sri Lankan captain and his team, which resulted in their win.
The article thrashes the bowling of the Pakistani cricket team, but this markers, makes a contrast to the performance of Saeed Ajmal and makes a concession for him.
This contrasts the performances of the Pakistani team with the Sri Lankans and shows how they are the complete opposite.
However
This targets the team management of Pakistan who are also responsible for their poor performance. The focus is shifted from the team
to the managers.
As for the
This refers to one of the reasons for the poor performance of the Pakistanis, their fielding. It is named as the Achilles Heel of the National team.
Conclusion:
From the above tabulated analysis, it can easily be seen that the use of strategically placed discourse markers helps knit the entire text into one coherent whole. The discourse markers serve multiple purposes, which help define the point of view of the writer and tells the positive and negative attributes of the main subjects of the article; in this instance, the Pakistani and Sri Lankan teams and their performance in Asia Cup 2014.
Bibliography: The following sites were visited and availed to find out relevant materials for this paper: Dawn Newspaper, March 10 , 2014: http://epaper.dawn.com/DetailNews.php?StoryText=10_03_2014_008_003]