ȽɈɍȼɉɈ©Ⱦɨɧɟɰɤɢɣɧɚɰɢɨɧɚɥɶɧɵɣ

ɭɧɢɜɟɪɫɢɬɟɬª
Ʉɚɮɟɞɪɚɚɧɝɥɢɣɫɤɨɣɮɢɥɨɥɨɝɢɢ
ȻɟɫɫɨɧɨɜɚɈɅɌɪɨɮɢɦɨɜɚȿȼ

LANGUAGE OF MEDIA

Ⱦɨɧɟɰɤ
 МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ
ДОНЕЦКОЙ НАРОДНОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ
ГОУ ВПО «Донецкий национальный университет»
Факультет иностранных языков
Кафедра английской филологии

Бессонова О. Л., Трофимова Е. В.

LANGUAGE OF MEDIA

УЧЕБНОЕ ПОСОБИЕ
для студентов направлений подготовки
45.04.01 Филология
45.04.02 Лингвистика

Донецк 2019
УДК 81’42(075.8)
ББК Ш12=432.1*9*515я73
Б536

Рекомендовано к изданию Ученым советом факультета иностранных языков

(протокол № 4 от 17.04.2019 г.)

Бессонова О. Л., Трофимова Е. В. Language of Media: учебное пособие.

– 2-е изд. доп. – Донецк, 2019. – 112 с.

Рецензенты:

Каверина О.Г., проф., д. пед. наук, заведующая кафедрой английского

языка ГОУ ВПО «Донецкий национальный технический университет»

Лычко Л.Я., доц., к. пед. наук, заведующая кафедрой иностранных языков

ГОУ ВПО «Донецкая академия управления и государственной службы при
Главе Донецкой Народной Республики»

Учебное пособие имеет целью ознакомить студентов с теоретическими и

практическими основами медиалингвистики, дает представление об особенностях
английского языка в печатных и электронных СМИ, а также знакомит с основами анализа
английского газетного текста. Предложенная система заданий и упражнений направлена на
овладение и развитие профессиональных умений и навыков студентов в работе с
медиатекстами, а также на формирование умений анализировать газетный текст с точки
зрения лингвостилистических особенностей и текстлингвистических категорий.
Предназначено для аудиторной и самостоятельной работы студентов направлений
подготовки 45.04.01 Филология, профиль «Западноевропейская филология (английский
язык). Сопоставительное и типологическое языкознание», 45.04.02 Лингвистика, профиль
«Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация (английский язык)».

УДК 81’42(075.8)
ББК Ш12=432.1*9*515я73

© Бессонова О. Л., Трофимова Е. В., 2019

© ГОУ ВПО «Донецкий национальный
университет», 2019
 CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 5

Part I WORLD OF MEDIALINGUISTICS………………………………… 6

Unit 1. Basic concepts of medialinguistics…………………………………… 6

1.1 The subject of medialinguistics…………………………………………….. 6
1.2 Concept of media text, its types……………………………………………... 7
1.3 News production…………………………………………………………….. 10
1.3.1 News production is an undecided power struggle……………………... 10
1.3.2 News production involves interaction and negotiation………………… 11
Comprehension questions……………………………………………………….. 14
Unit 2. Print media……………………………………………………………... 14
2.1 Newspaper structure…………………………………………………………. 14
2.2 Genres of media texts………………………………………………………... 17
2.2.1 News……………………………………………………………………. 17
2.2.2 Analytic genres…………………………………………………………. 19
2.2.3 Feature articles………………………………………………………….. 21
2.2.4 Advertisements…………………………………………………………. 26
2.3 Quality press vs. popular press……………………………………………… 27
2.4 Press release…………………………………………………………………. 29
Comprehension questions……………………………………………………….. 32
Unit 3. Online media…………………………………………………………… 32
3.1 Peculiarities of online media………………………………………………… 35
3.2 Hypertext…………………………………………………………………….. 37
Comprehension questions……………………………………………………….. 38

Part II PRACTISING MEDIA ENGLISH…………………………………… 39

Unit 1. Press review…………………………………………………………….. 39

Unit 2. Analysing print media…………………………………………………. 45

2.1 The British press…………………………………………………………….. 45
2.2 The appearance of the newspapers…………………………………………... 46
Unit 3. The language of newspapers…………………………………………... 51
3.1 Rules for journalists…………………………………………………………. 51
3.2 Headlines…………………………………………………………………… 54
3.3 Tips on working with articles……………………………………………….. 58

3
Part III ENGLISH NEWSPAPER STYLE…………………………………... 63

Unit 1. General notes…………………………………………………………... 63

1.1 Formation of the British Press and the influence of its specific conditions on
the newspaper English………………………………………………………. 63
1.2 An outline of the analysis of a newspaper writing…………………………... 64
Assignments for self-control…………………………………………………….. 65
Unit 2. News reporting…………………………………………………………. 66
2.1 Demands and constrains of the newspaper English…………………………. 66
2.2 Linguostylistic characteristics of a news report……………………………... 67
2.2.1 Lexical peculiarities…………………………………………………….. 67
2.2.2 Grammatical peculiarities………………………………………………. 69
2.3 Linguistic peculiarities of a headline………………………………………... 71
2.4. Language practice ………………………………………………………….. 74
2.4.1 Text ‘Blaze at Charity Bonfire Damages Warehouses’…………………… 74
2.4.2 Text comprehension questions………………………………..…………… 75
2.4.3 Analysis of genre peculiarities of a newspaper publication………..……… 76
2.4.4 Assignments for text analysis in terms of textlinguistic categories…..…… 78
Unit 3. A feature article………………………………………………………... 79
3.1 General Notes………………………………………………………………... 79
3.1.1 General peculiarities of a feature article………………………………... 79
3.1.2 Linguostylistic peculiarities of a feature article…….…………………... 79
Assignments for self-control…………………………………………………….. 81
3.2 Language practice ………………………………………………..…….…… 83
3.2.1 Text ‘Linguistic Gaps in English Vocabulary’……………….…………… 83
3.2.2 Text comprehension questions…………………………………..………… 84
3.2.3 Analysis of genre peculiarities of a newspaper publication…………..…… 85
3.2.4 Assignments for text analysis in terms of textlinguistic categories…..…… 86
Unit 4. Focusing on practice ……………………………………..……………. 88
4.1 Text ‘Gang Arrested Over Plot to Kidnap Victoria Beckham’....…………… 88
4.1.1 Text Comprehension Questions…………………………………………. 90
4.1.2 Analysis of genres peculiarities of a newspaper publication……………… 90
4.1.3 Assignments for text analysis in terms of textlinguistic categories………… 91
4.2 Text ‘Pacific Warming Kills Thousands of Mammal Pups’…..…………….. 93
4.2.1 Text comprehension questions…………………………………………… 94
4.2.2 Analysis of genres peculiarities of a newspaper publication…………… 95
4.2.3 Assignments for text analysis in terms of textlinguistic categories……… 96
Supplement I. Glossary of speech patterns and clichés to be used in the 97
course of a newspaper text analysis………………………………………….
Supplement II. Sample analysis of a feature article ………………………… 102
References………………………………………………………………………... 111

4
 INTRODUCTION
Due to the rapid development of mass media and new communication
technologies media texts have become one of the most widespread forms of the
language functioning.

This textbook gives an overview of medialinguistics, which is one of the newest

branches of linguistics concerned with functioning of media texts and peculiarities of
journalistic style and genres. The above information is provided in the present book,
as well as the distinctive features of quality and popular press and those of print and
online media.

The textbook is divided into three parts. The first part deals with theoretical
basis of medialinguistics (Unit 1), with print media (Unit 2), particularly their style
and genre characteristics, and online media (Unit 3). Additionally, there are
comprehension questions at the end of every unit in order to check understanding of
the material, glossary of speech patterns and clichés to be used in the course of a
newspaper text analysis and a sample analysis.

The second part contains exercises which correlate with the theoretical
information in Part 1. The exercises will enable students to learn the topic better and
put their knowledge into practice. The part offers some tips of analysing media texts.
It also deals with the development of the British press and the language of
newspapers with a special emphasis on the headlines.

The textbook contains samples of authentic English media texts, which equips
students with tools necessary for understanding the main parameters and peculiarities
of the modern English media language.

The third part provides the theoretical information concerning the English
newspaper style, it focuses on the general and linguostylistic peculiarities of news
reports and feature articles. It also contains texts for analysis in terms of
linguostylistic and textlinguistic peculiarities.

The textbook can be used by students who study English as their first and
second major.

5
 PART I
WORLD OF MEDIALINGUISTICS

Unit 1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF MEDIALINGUISTICS

1.1 The subject of medialinguistics

Under the conditions of an emerging information society, the study of mass

media language has become particularly important. Until recently, the research of
language functioning in mass media has been conducted by representatives of
practically all branches of linguistics: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive
linguistics, etc. Nowadays the situation is such that there are all necessary
preconditions for uniting all these different approaches under one academic
discipline – medialinguistics.
The term “medialinguistics” has been formed by analogy with the whole set of
similar terms, used to denote new academic disciplines formed at the junction of
several fields of research such as sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, media
psychology, media economics etc. The term ‘medialinguistics’ was introduced
relatively recently to Russian academic discourse (in the year 2000), when it was
used for the first time in Tatiana Dobrosklonskaya's doctoral thesis, “Theory and
Methods of Medialinguistics” (Dobrosklonskaya 2000a). Two years before the
English variant of the term ‘medialinguistics’ could be found in the work by some
British scholars, for example, in the article “The Scope of Medialinguistics”, by John
Corner, presented as a talk at the British Association of Applied Linguistics
Conference in 1998 (Corner 1998).
As it proceeds from the term itself, based on the combination of two key
components ‘media’ and ‘linguistics’, the subject of this new discipline is the study
of language functioning in the sphere of mass communication. In other words,
medialinguistics deals with the overall complex research of a particular social field of
language usage – the production of speech in mass media.
Rapid development of print as well as electronic media, quick growth of virtual
communications and the Internet have changed people's lives enormously, giving
stimuli for the development of a whole range of information society theories.
Nowadays the biggest part of everyday speech practices is implemented in the sphere
of mass communication – in newspapers, radio, television and the Internet.
Objective preconditions for the emerging of medialinguistics shaped in the
1970s, when various publications specifically dealing with language functioning in
mass communication began to appear on a regular basis. In these papers media texts

6
were analyzed within the framework of various academic traditions, including
sociolinguistics, functional stylistics and pragmatics, discourse theory, content
analysis, cognitive linguistics and rhetorical criticism. The attention was focused on a
wide range of issues: from defining the status of media language in terms of
functional stylistics and methods of describing different types of media texts to the
impact of sociocultural factors and language techniques of media influence on mass
and individual consciousness.
A considerable contribution to forming the basis of medialinguistics was made
by the following scholars: A. Bell, S. Bernstein, T. van Dejk, N. Fairclough,
R. Fowler, V. Kostomarov, B. Krivenko, I. P. Lysakova, M. Montgomery,
J. Rozhdestvenskiy, D. Shmelyev, G. J. Solganik, S. Treskova, A. Vasilyeva and
others. The study of these scholars’ works enables us to conclude that by the end of
the 20th century, all necessary preconditions for transforming the existing knowledge
and experience into a fullfledged separate academic discipline ‘medialinguistics’ had
been formed. In other words, the total volume of research in media language
functioning had reached its ‘critical mass’, which made it possible to transfer the
studies of the given sphere onto a new level of the separate discipline
‘medialinguistics’, offering a systematic overall approach to the analysis of mass
media language practices.

1.2 Concept of media text, its types

Undoubtedly the most important theoretical component of medialinguistics is

comprised by the concept of media text, which is actually mentioned in all studies
devoted to speech production in mass communication. The essence of this concept
could be summed up as follows: a traditional for linguistics definition of a text as a
“coherent and integral stretch of language either spoken or written” (Carter 1993),
when taken to the sphere of mass communication, considerably expands its meaning.
In mass media the concept of a text goes beyond the formal boundaries of a verbal
sign system, and approaches its semiotic interpretation, when a ‘text’ refers to a
stretch of any type of signs, not necessarily verbal. Most researchers agree that the
level of mass communication adds new aspects of meaning to the text concept,
determined by media qualities and characteristics of the respective mass
communication channel. Thus, media texts on television are not restricted to verbal
manifestation only, they incorporate several functional levels: verbal text proper,
video (in journalistic terms ‘footing’) and audio, which includes all possible effects
perceived by ear, from voice qualities to music. Texts on the radio and in print media
are also characterized by a certain combination of a verbal level with a set of special
media qualities, determined by technological peculiarities of the respective media
7
channel, like sound effects on the radio or a newspaper layout and colorful
illustrations in press. So we may assume that media texts can be regarded as multi-
level and poly-dimensional phenomena.
As Alan Bell puts it, definitions of media texts have moved far away from the
traditional view of text as words printed in ink on pieces of paper to take on a far
broader definition to include speech, music and sound effects, image and so on [...]
Media texts, then, reflect the technology that is available for producing them [...].
(Bell 1998, p. 3)
A significant component of medialinguistics' theory is comprised by a set of
parameters specially designed for a thorough and coherent description of all possible
types of medial texts. So the central concept of a media text is supported by a stable
system of parameters, which allow us to describe and classify all texts functioning in
mass media in terms of their production, distribution, verbal, and media characteristics.
This system includes the following parameters (Dobrosklonskaya 2000a):
1) authorship (the text could be produced either by an individual or a collective
author);
2) type of production (oral – written);
3) type of presentation (oral – written);
4) media channel used for transmitting: both print and electronic media, Internet;
5) functional type or text genre: news, comment and analysis, features, advertising;
6) topical affiliation (politics, business, culture, education, sport, and other universal
media topics forming the content structure of everyday information flow).
Let us dwell on each of the parameters in some detail. The first parameter
‘authorship’ allows one to describe any media text in terms of its authorship as either
individual or collective, depending on whether it was created by an individual or by a
group. In media language practices the category of authorship acquires a particular
importance: the use of by-lines, identifying the journalist who has produced the text,
often becomes the trademark of style and quality of the relevant publication.
Collective authorship is mainly associated with news texts and materials prepared by
information and news agencies operating worldwide, such as Reuters, BBC,
ITAR-TASS, etc. Such short news texts can be easily found in the “News in brief”
section present in practically every newspaper or magazine, and comprise the
skeleton of the world information flow.
As it transpires from the adduced list of parameters, the second and third ones,
‘type of production’ and ‘type of presentation’, are based on the same dichotomy:
oral vs. written text. This reflects the salience of speech production in mass media as
the sphere of human activity, characterized by increasingly blurred boundaries

8
between oral and written forms of a language. The matter is that in mass
communication many texts which are initially produced in the oral form reach their
audience in the print version, and the other way round, the texts first produced in
writing then are presented orally. Take, for example, interviews, which emerge as a
result of a conversation between a journalist and the interviewee and are then
published in newspapers and magazines, thus acquiring a written form. A similar
transformation takes place when a news anchor reads texts with news items
addressing mass audience or a TV commentator reads the text from the screen,
imitating unprepared spontaneous speech.
No less significant is the next parameter – the media channel that carries the text
to mass audience. Each media channel – the press, radio, television, and the Internet,
is characterized by a certain set of media qualities, determined by the technology
used and the nature of the respective media itself. These media qualities play a crucial
role in shaping concrete media texts, which by definition, are based on an integral
unity of verbal and media components. In addition, the perception of media texts
depends to a great extent on how the verbal and the media parts are integrated. Thus,
in newspapers and magazines a verbal text is often supported by artwork and
illustrations, which could add special meaning and expressiveness. Texts on the radio
extensively use voice qualities and qualifications, such as timbre, intonation, pace,
different accents, and a whole range of sound effects and music. Television gives a
greater extension to a verbal content, adding visual dimension with bright colours,
moving image, and video footage. Technical characteristics of the Internet have made
it possible to enjoy multimedia texts, combining media qualities of all traditional
means of mass communication: the World Wide Web provides access to online
versions of practically all print and electronic media, and also offers unlimited
opportunities for downloading required content.
The fifth parameter ‘functional type and genre of the media text’ comprises a
significant element of the typological description of an unceasing flow of media
messages. Typological description, based on stylistic and genre classification, has
always presented a challenge for the study of language functioning in mass
communication. This is determined by the following two factors: content of the genre
concept itself and the increasingly dynamic language usage in the given sphere.
Scholars note that the traditional definition of genre as “the recognized paradigmatic
set into which the total output of the given medium (film, television, writing) is
classified” (O'Sullivan / Montgomery / Fiske (eds.) 1994, p. 127) does not allow to
adequately classify constantly growing media flow.
The theoretical framework of medialinguistics helps to solve this problem by
offering a universal typological classification, encompassing the whole variety of

9
media texts and overcoming the challenge of the constant speech flexibility factor.
This classification is based on the functional stylistic classification formulated by
V. Vinogradov (Vinogradov 1963), and allows us to single out the following four
types of media texts: 1) news, 2) comment and analysis, 3) features, 4) advertising.
The advantages of this classification proceed from the fact that it allows us to
adequately reflect the actual combination of two language functions – the function of
information and the function of impact. If we try to describe the four above types in
terms of the implementation of these functions, then news texts realize the
information function to the highest degree, the materials that belong to the category
‘comment and analysis’ combine information function with impact due to the
increasing use of evaluative components.
The definition of a feature as “a special article in a newspaper or magazine about
a particular subject; or a part of a television or radio broadcast that deals with a
particular subject” (Cambridge International Dictionary of English) makes it possible
to include in this category a wide spectrum of media texts, devoted to diverse topics
regularly covered by the media: from technology and education to culture and sport.
And finally, the fourth category ‘advertising’ combines the implementation of the
impact function on language level, with extensive use of different means of stylistic
expression (metaphors, tropes, similes, etc.), and its realization on mass media level
involving the whole arsenal of concrete media effects and technologies.
So it may be concluded that the descriptive potential of ‘the four text types’
classification, offered by medialinguistics, is optimal, hence it allows us to analyze
the whole diversity of media texts both in terms of its format characteristics, and in
terms of implementation of language and media functions.

1.3 News production

1.3.1 News production is an undecided power struggle

It is unanimously accepted that the news has a substantial impact on people’s
lives and that the various parties involved in newsmaking should be seen as
stakeholders who have all sorts of interests in actively determining what the media’s
impact on people’s lives will be. Walter Lippman’s quote illustrates this: “the news
media are so powerful that they can set a whole nation’s agenda, focusing people’s
attention on one or more key issues and ignoring others as well as influencing
personal behavior” (Lippmann 1955).
In complete contrast, it has been claimed that in today’s free market the media
have no power whatsoever; they are utterly defenseless against the carefully
rehearsed press conferences and photo opportunities led by omnipotent spin doctors,
10
on the one hand, and the demands of the general public backed up by the billions of
advertising dollars, on the other hand (for a review, see scheme 1).
Scheme 1
News Production is an undecided power struggle (Jacobs, Geert 1999)

Indeed, it could be argued that it is the news managers and news consumers who
are now setting the newsmakers’ agenda. Boorstin’s notion of pseudo-events, whose
“occurrence is arranged for the convenience of the reporting or reproducing media”
(1999: 16) should be mentioned here: At best, the journalists are turned into
‘gatekeepers’ (Shoemaker 1991); far worse, they are manufacturing consent for
dominant special interest groups, “simply because they depend on information
provided by them” (Herman & Chomsky 1988: 298).
With respect to business news, the impact of institutional powerhouses such as
PR agencies and press relations offices of large corporations has been well
documented. Apart from theories of news media manipulation (Blyskal & Blyskal
1985), strategic power (Davis 2000a; Davis 2000b) and elite media access (Erjavec
2005) these studies emphasize a strong corporate influence over news production and
hence also public opinion.
Finally, there is a great impact of technology on the news. It is believed, that the
rise of the Internet fundamentally changed the traditional distribution of power in the
media, namely, it caused the transition from powerless mass audiences to powerful
and interactive media users.

1.3.2 News production involves interaction and negotiation

The above goes to show that institutional and textual power are key concerns in
the sociology of news production and that there is theoretical debate about who is
dominating who. If the various parties involved in the news have an interest in
determining the media’s impact on people’s lives, then this implies that there must be
11
a fair share of interaction or dialogue between them. The kind of interaction that is
taking place here can be situated on a continuum ranging from struggle and conflict
on the one hand to co-operation and partnership on the other hand.
The concept of news management is seen as the triumvirate of news access
(source-media interaction), news selection (editorial decision-making) and news
production (entextualization). News access refers to the processes of source
intervention. News selection is essentially composed of determining the availability
of news and relating journalists to the sources. And the third constituent of news
production process is a journalist. Crucially, we look at journalists as interpretive
agents and newswriting as a form of reproductive writing which transforms news
discourses such as press agency copy, press releases and interview notes into a single
narrative. In this sense, journalists become interpretive agents and news production
becomes a process of entextualization, i.e. the extraction of source material and its
subsequent insertion into a new news discourse.
As the process of entextualization is based on rewriting from different resources,
it is of paramount importance to disclose information about them on the example of
AMT (The Association for Manufacturing Technology). The case study reported on
here was selected because it provides a rich context for analyzing the situated
practices of AMT, a senior business reporter (Jacobs, Geert 1999). In AMT’s
newspaper article, all intertextual links to news sources are rendered implicit. This is
a common practice in news journalism; by concealing news sources – referencing at
best to the source text in the form of a trope like “according to a statement issued by
the company” – as well as their own actions for obtaining the information reported
on, reporters assume authorship and thus establish journalistic authority (Jacobs,
Geert 1999). Our process data allow us to foreground these intertextual links by
looking at the writing process in detail and seeing where and how AMT draws on
source material (for a review, see figure 1). Two software applications were installed
on the journalists’ computers with their permission to record, reconstruct and analyze
writing processes. The first one is Inputlog, which records keyboard strokes and
mouse movements and generates datafiles for statistical, text and pause analyses, and
the second one is Camtasia Studio (an online screen registration tool) (Jacobs, Geert
1999). The software was activated for the entire duration of the writing process: from
the moment the journalists signaled that they were ready to start writing until they
filed their finished story (Jacobs, Geert 1999).

12
 Figure 1
Activity graph of VIB writing process (Jacobs, Geert 1999)

Thus, Figure 1 graphically represents AMT’s writing process by plotting

temporal data (in absolute time) against process data, i.e. keyboard strokes (the
number of revisions) and mouse commands (movement and clicks). The graphic
shows 4 distinct phases in AMT’s writing process: a preparatory phase (0’00”–
7’00”), two text construction phases (7’00”–16’01” and 17’02”–24’03”) and a
revision phase (Jacobs, Geert 1999). The preparatory phase consists of mouse
movements (scrolling through emails and opening attachments), while the text
construction phases show a high number of keyboard movements (text insertion and
deletion) as well as mouse movements (cursor movement, switching and resizing
computer windows, looking for online information). During the revision phase AMT
revises and edits his text, switching back and forth between the preview pane and the
editing window (Jacobs, Geert 1999).
With regards to AMT’s sourcing practices, the process data show that AMT’s use
of sources largely overlaps with the two main text construction phases: information
from the press release was used to write the headline and lead during the first text
construction phase, while the powerpoint slides were used to write the body of the
article and concluding paragraph during the second text construction phase.
Apparently, preformulated texts allow journalists to write quickly, and thus save time.
In such a way, computer-assisted writing process analysis offered a behind-the-
scenes look at the situated practices of news production.

13
 COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What is medialinguistics?
2. What does medialinguistics study?
3. By representatives of what branches of linguistics has the research of
language functioning in mass communication been conducted?
4. In what way can the subject matter of the concept of media text be
formulated?
5. Why is it possible to admit that media texts can be considered as multi-level
and poly-dimensional phenomena?
6. According to what parameters can media texts be classified? Name the
essence of each of them.
7. From what types of media texts is a universal typological classification
formulated by V. Vinogradov consisted? Provide brief characteristics of each
type.
8. What does the term “entextualization” mean?
9. How many phases does the process of writing of the article consist of?
Suggest the description of each phase.

Unit 2 PRINT MEDIA

Print media refers to paper publications circulated in the form of physical

editions of newspapers, books, magazines, journals and newsletters.

2.1 Newspaper structure

A newspaper is a publication containing news and information and advertising,

usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special
interest, most often published daily or weekly. The first printed newspaper was
published in 1605. Paid circulation is declining in most countries, and advertising
revenue, which makes up the bulk of a newspaper's income, is shifting from print to
online; some commentators, nevertheless, point out that historically new media such
as radio and television did not entirely supplant existing.
As it is known, the language of mass media, and of a newspaper in particular,
has the own peculiarities and presents interests for linguists nowadays. The structure
of different types of mass media, their language has become the object of a separate
sphere of the science, namely medialinguistics.

14
 According to the common accepted classification, the structure of a newspaper
page includes headline, subheadline, lead (providing an introduction to the article),
the first paragraph (including wh-questions and giving the basic information about
the event), and main body (revealing the topic in details).
The headline is a part of the article that is paid a particular attention to as it
attracts the reader’s attention and serves for clarifying the topic of the article.
E. Lazareva singles out such types of headlines as unidirectional and complex
headline [Добросклонская, 2008].
Unidirectional headline draws the
reader’s attention to the content of the text. Its
main objective is to give the recipient the
main part of information of the text.
Complex headline denotes the problem (the theme) of the text, and the recipient
acquires the full information from the text
and analyzes it.
Headlines are also classified according to the completeness of information in
them. Fully informative complex headline reflects separate elements of the
conceptual structure of the text or its main idea or the thesis developing this thought.
Not fully informative headline intrigues the recipient by its conceptual
incompleteness.
Here are some titles for news articles – but the sentences are too long to be
headlines. Can you shorten them?
– A victim of a car crash has learned to walk again.
– A new drug will cure flu this winter.
– The police
p q
questioned p in a robbery
a suspect y yyesterday.
y

There are a lot of different types of materials and genres of publication singled
out in modern medialinguistics.
Issue components Groups of newspaper genres
9 publicistic materials;
9 documental and official materials; 9 news information;
9 statistical data; 9 dialogue genres;
9 scientific and technical 9 analytic;
publications; 9 epistolary;
9 literary and artistic publications; 9 artistic publicist genres;
9 informal material; 9 satirical.
9 entertaining (recreational)
materials; advertisements;
15
Examples of a newspaper make-up

16
 2.2 Genres of media text

This classification distinguishes the following four basic types of the media texts:
News;
Information and analyst comment;
Sketch (in other words, any case materials, conveniently designated by
the English term “features”);
Advertising.

2.2.1 News

In the print media news stories represent a wide range of texts published on the
newspaper pages and pages of magazines under the common heading “news”: this
and news bulletin, and brief reports from information agencies (news in brief),
and the reports of correspondents on the domestic and foreign events, organized
in a specific thematic sequence (home news, international news, business news).

17
18
 As far as the structure of the news report is concerned – the order of the
inverted pyramid is used. It begins with the most important information, succeeding
paragraphs contain details that are less and less important. Editing can be done by
cutting from the bottom of the story, but if time permits a story should be edited line
by line.

2.2.2 Analytic genres

Analytic genres are the genres requiring the journalist’s analysis of different
situations, events. Among them such genres are distinguished: comment (it aims at
the primary analysis of the situation), article (the deepest analysis), review (of a
literary or scientific or another work).
The most clear attempt to distinguish between the information and comment,
between the information and opinion, information and evaluation is seen in the print
media. The British newspapers news and information-analytical texts are usually
separated into different lines: news on the “news”, information and analysis on the
“analysis, opinion, comment”. In this connection the same event may be covered in the
section “news”, and in sections “opinion, comment, analysis” [Добросклонская, 2008].

19
 At the level of language informational and analytical texts show the entire
spectrum of linguistic methods of evaluating the expression: from the expressive and
evaluative words and phrases to metaphors and comparative word-combinations.
An example of a dance review

At the level of language another example of the comment article is rather

illustrative.

20
 2.2.3 Feature articles
An important characteristic feature of printing “feature materials” is their
thematic correlation with one of the stable media topic, such as travel, sports,
education, culture, social affairs, theatre, cinema, fashion, etc.
Printed feature materials are characterized by a fairly loose structure different
from fixed news text structure, built on the principle of “the inverted pyramid”,
which assumes that all the most important needs to be reported at the beginning of the
text [Добросклонская, 2008].
The structure of the feature materials more resembles a regular pyramid,
since the end of the article, is possibly even more important than its beginning.
At the level of the language feature articles show the entire spectrum of
syntactical-stylistic means of expression. The language of feature materials in general
is much more expressive and full of emotional and evaluative components than the
news language.
The following articles illustrate the genre of feature articles:

21
Text 1
(The New York Times, 2019)

22
 Text 2
Another example in terms of the thematic variation is rather eye-catchy:

Text 3
'Twaddle': librarians respond to suggestion Amazon should replace libraries
Piece in Forbes magazine said libraries ‘don’t have the same value they
used to’ and cost taxpayers too much

Kate Lyons
The Guardian
Mon 23 Jul 2018
Librarians have leapt to the defence of libraries, saying they offer services that a
private company could not match.
Librarians are in uproar after an article in Forbes magazine proposed replacing
all public libraries in the US with Amazon bookstores.

23
 Panos Mourdoukoutas, a professor of economics at LIU Post in New
York, wrote for Forbes that libraries “don’t have the same value they used to” and
should be replaced permanently by Amazon book shops.
“At the core, Amazon has provided something better than a local library without
the tax fees. This is why Amazon should replace local libraries,” wrote
Mourdoukouta. “The move would save taxpayers money and enhance the stockholder
value of Amazon all in one fell swoop.”
Librarians and library users have responded furiously, arguing that libraries
provide services that could never be matched by a private company, that they are key
places for those who are disenfranchised to use services, and represent value for
money for the taxpayer.
“No offense to y’all at Forbes, but a little research would prevent you from
publishing this kind of twaddle,” wrote the Harris County Public Library in Texas in
a response to the article on Facebook.
“Perhaps, in the future, you could ask a librarian for help. Study after study has
shown that public libraries more than pay for themselves. In Texas, for example, for
every $1 of taxpayer money spent on public libraries, public libraries return $4.64 to
the economy.”

Text 4
Loneliness is a health risk, so replacing doctors with chatbots
is hardly going to help
Rather than replacing doctors, perhaps we could teach doctors to use these bots
as a supplementary resource to enhance their own diagnostic capabilities
The Independent
Kate Leaver
Saturday 30 June 2018
It feels a bit dystopian, especially to anyone born before the millennial
generation, to consider that a machine might replace our local GP.
Apparently, a chatbot could diagnose medical conditions better than a human GP.
The AI company that produces Babylon, a diagnostic bot that will only get smarter,
claims it outperforms real people in diagnostic medical tests. We are now having that

24
bizarre, futuristic conversation: Could doctors be replaced by bots? Could we be getting
our primary medical care from our smartphones? Who to trust: human or bot?
There are so many fascinating, prickly issues that pop up here. It feels a bit
dystopian, especially to anyone born before the millennial generation, to consider that
a machine might replace our local GP – but it is also exciting that we may have
developed sophisticated enough software to improve the accuracy of diagnoses.
There are myriad ethical considerations here, all of them interesting and worthy of
investigation. I would, however, like to sweep them aside for a moment and talk
about the social implications of this technology becoming more present in our lives.
We are currently grappling with a very real loneliness epidemic. It is possibly
our next great modern public health crisis, with loneliness affecting our physical and
mental health more adversely than obesity, smoking and lack of physical exercise.
Social isolation is a symptom of our modern society; a by-product of our culture of
individuality that we have not yet properly learned to enact. It is taking and
shortening lives, spreading illness and encouraging poor habits when it comes to self-
care and compassion. Technology is not solely to blame for this rise in isolation,
though it is of course tempting to reduce the issue to that.
It is potentially problematic to eliminate the social interaction involved with a
doctor’s appointment, where we are forced to talk candidly about our ailments with
another human being. In the course of research for my book on this very subject, The
Friendship Cure, I spoke to people who said the highlight of their week used to be
going to the supermarket because they’d have someone to talk to i.e. the cashier.
With any luck, they’d get in a little banter with a fellow customer, too, or a bus driver
on the way. Now that we have self-checkout stations, that little old-fashioned
interaction at the checkout has all but disappeared, taking with it that vital sense of
community it gave some people. Some supermarkets run special days now where
they shut down the self-service counters and encourage people to talk to each other as
they buy their eggs and milk: a simple but powerful gesture to reduce isolation.
We now live in a country where a staggering number of people cite the
television as their main source of company. Going to the doctor, particularly
for elderly people who are prone to loneliness, is a social activity as much as it is a
medical necessity. Not every medical appointment is a perfect moment of
compassion and vulnerability, I get that. Believe me, I know what it feels like to be
rushed through an impersonal appointment on the NHS, where the doctor may as well
have a stopwatch to time your session and refer to you as a number rather than a
name. But even the briefest of encounters with a medical professional is more
enriching, potentially, than a Facetime call or a swipe-and-click session with a bot.

25
 Perhaps the solution is to introduce this kind of technology carefully,
thoughtfully and with compromise. Rather than replacing doctors, perhaps we could
teach doctors to use these bots as a supplementary resource to enhance their own
diagnostic capabilities. Maybe people could still physically go into their local
medical centre to use the bot under the supervision of a real person.
Loneliness is a health risk. Babylon promises to accurately diagnose medical
conditions and that’s excellent. But they cannot provide human-to-human, face-to-
face contact; they cannot provide the empathy and respect that should occur between
doctor and patient. It is vital that we think about this, and it’s vital we keep asking
ourselves: How can we bring people back together, rather than pushing them further
into their own loneliness?

2.2.4 Advertisement
Advertising is communicated through various mass media, including
newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new
media such as search results, blogs, websites or text messages. The actual
presentation of the message in a medium is referred to as an advertisement or "ad"
[Добросклонская, 2008].
To influence the audience more, the
print ads use a combination of linguistic
methods and expressive techniques with
graphics, visuals, which are inherent in the
press as a kind of media.
The special arrangement of the
material on the newspaper page or magazine
page, various fonts, color contrasts, and
memorable original visual images – all this combined with successful advertising
text multiplies the effect.
In print advertising value of the verbal text is even greater, since it is the
word that carries the meaning, whether it is a short ad headline like "Blow your mind.
Not your budget" or a detailed ad text.
General characteristics of advertising texts as a whole at the level of language –
it’s a use of variety of syntactic and stylistic means of expression: repetition,
anaphora, epiphora, metaphors, similes, allusions etc. For many advertising texts
characterized by the presence of a large number of phrases with expressive emotional
evaluative connotations.

26
 2.3 Quality press vs. popular press

Quality press is a category of British newspapers in national circulation

distinguished by their seriousness. The category used to be called “broadsheet” until
several papers adopted a tabloid format. Both The Times and The Independent
adopted a tabloid format in 2004. The Guardian adopted a Berliner format in 2005.
The term popular press (or “tabloid”) refers to an emphasis on such topics as
sensational crime stories, astrology, celebrity gossip and television. Larger
newspapers, traditionally associated with higher-quality journalism, are
called broadsheets, even if the newspaper is now printed on smaller pages. In
common usage, tabloid and broadsheet are frequently more descriptive of a
newspaper's market position than physical format (see Table 1).

27
 Table 1
Characteristic features of quality and popular press
Serious/Quality newspaper Tabloid
(so-called broadsheet)
layout Long headline Eye-catching
Often long paragraphs Big letters to catch attention
Not many pictures A lot of pictures
Pictures are relatively objective, Large pictures
don’t aim at evoking an opinion Banner headline and subheading
Few pictures Different types of print
subdivision/photo
composition Structured Short sense units or paragraphs are
Long sentences made regardless of sense units
Lots of information per paragraph Paragraphs are often only one or
two sentences
Language style Serious and formal language Less subclauses
& syntax Fairly complex sentence structure, More simple sentences, also
(syntax=sentence subclauses because of number of quotations
structure) Can contain interview Simple structure
Sometimes slang
Low standard
Choice of words Language number of difficult Words that attract the readers
words interests
Mainly standard English, technical Signal words (e.g. gay, fat)
terms, difficult words Standard and colloquial English,
Neutral/formal language few difficult words
Usually no informal language, Emotive style, large number of
factual & neutral style qualifiers
headline Fairy long Grammatical omissions
Informative, neutral apart from Many eye-catching elements:
occasional colloquialism (e.g. “yobs”) Alliteration, emotive
Already answers a few of the 5 W- verbs/adjectives, capital letters,
questions (what, who, when, where, subheadings
how)
Formal, no grammatical omissions
Not too big print
Target group Attracts reader through topicality Written for less demanding reader,
& appeal Written for a demanding reader who is not interested in detailed news
So-called “middle/upper class” reports
p
reader (sophisticated, informative So-called “human interests” reader
articles) who wants to know about personal
Appeal depends in part on the aspects of people
topic, often includes home and
international news, financial reports,
book reviews etc.
Orientation Largely objective or various points One-sided
(for example: of view Opinion and person-oriented
objective/ one- Problem-oriented
sided; problem-
oriented;
person/opinion
oriented, etc.)

28
 Newspapers of different categories:

2.4 Press Release

– What associations do you have when you hear

the term “press release”?
– Anyway, this is something like a news report
and an advertisement rolled into one. Thus, it’s no
wonder, because this notion is known as a hybrid
genre.
Press / news releases are short pieces of writing issued by companies or
institutions to communicate newsworthy information to the journalist community, on
the one hand, and to the general public, on the other.
Trying to define the communicative purpose of the press release on a very
general level, it is possible to admit that press releases can be said to aim at
conveying to the press and, through the press, to the general public, newsworthy,
positively connotated, corporate information.
More than that, press releases can be said to aim at being persuasive on two
accounts:

29
 On the one hand, they must persuade journalists that they are newsworthy; on
the other, they must persuade the general public that the company is profitable. Its
language must be promotional, or at least positively connotated.
In order to specify the cognitive moves and linguistic strategies typical of the
press release, it’s necessary to remember the main points of the structure concerning
news article and advertising.
Starting with the structure of the news articles, one of the typical features of
the news reports is their “inverted pyramid” structure, thus, a concise version of the
issue at hand is provided in the headline and lead, and the main points are then
picked up again, re-worded and expanded at different points in the article, with
supporting information (such as background, follow-up, evaluation) also being
provided in a flexible order.
As for textual features of advertising, let’s examine its structure consisting of:
1) headline (to attract the reader’s attention)
2) targeting the market
3) justifying the product or service
• by indicating the importance or need of the product or service and/or
• by establishing a niche
4) detailing the product or service
• by identifying the product or service
• by describing the product or service
• by indicating the value of the product or service

Actually speaking in terms of the interplay of promotional and informative in

press release, the move structure of the press release can be illustrated by way of
example provided below (Scheme 1). In this way, the present press release deals with
the information about the American transnational company under the name Cisco
providing Groundhog Job Shadow Day (the day dedicated to the planning of a future
career of the upper-form pupils).
Press release has many points in common with the advertisement. In particular,
both the advertisement and the press release provide justifications of the value of
product. Other points in common are the use of endorsements, the detailing of
products or services, their positive evaluation, the identification of customer needs,
the establishing of credentials. Then the use of quotes follows. In both cases, the
lexico-grammatical features are the same (expressive language, interpersonal
involvement, audience-directedness).
Differently from advertisements, however, press releases do not use pressure
tactics, and can be seen as soliciting response only indirectly.

30
 Scheme 1
Composition of a news report

31
 COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:
1. What types of mass-media sources can be regarded as print ones?
2. Give a description of a newspaper. What are its basic structural divisions?
3. How many types of the headlines exist? Briefly describe each of them.
4. Enumerate four basic types of the media texts.
5. What is the most important principle in the structure of the news reports?
6. How does the language of the analyst/feature/comment articles differ from
that of the news reports?
7. Bring out the difference between quality and popular press. What newspapers
can be called quality and popular ones?
8. What is a press-release? Comment on its structure.

Unit 3 ONLINE MEDIA

Medialinguistics focuses not only on the study of traditional media but also
investigates new ones, particularly the so-called online, or Internet media. The latter
is defined as the main means of mass communication available on the Internet.
Online media incorporates e-versions of print newspapers and magazines,
Internet publications and blogs. Notably, this type of media contributes greatly to the
increase in the media speech corpus and is regarded by experts as a special sphere of
speech which has some distinctive features and peculiarities.
In general, news texts on the Internet combine all characteristics of any
‘network’ text with those of a print media text in terms of its form and content. It is
accounted for by the proximity of Internet texts to primary source texts in print (most
news texts on the Internet are press digest) and by the same orientation toward
convenience of visual perception. That is why the majority of online news texts are
characterized by format signs peculiar to printed news texts, such as the presentation
of a message in a concise and expanded form, a clear message distribution according
to thematic categories and subject groups, along with catchy headlines
[Добросклонская, 2008].
As a rule, a settled list of media themes is on the left side of a page for the user`s
convenience, a summary of the most interesting and topical events is placed in the
middle, while headlines (sometimes with illustrations) of other news about current
events of the day are on the right. As seen in the screened pages of ‘The Daily
Express’ and ‘The Guardian’, the layout may vary.

32
 In most cases, a news text on the Internet like the one in a newspaper is based on
the principle of "an inverted pyramid" when short news reports constitute an

33
information-intensive part of the pyramid, the so-called ‘lead’, which is the first
phrase that contains all the main information in a concise form.
One more common feature of both print and online media is the division into
quality and popular press; it especially concerns e-versions of print newspapers.
Notably, both British tabloids and broadsheets have their own Internet sites (see the
table below). As for Internet editions, the line between popular and quality press is
blurred sometimes, if any.
Table 2
A Brief Overview of British Newspapers and Links to Them
The TIMES and SUND It contains Britain’s oldest national
AY TIMES daily newspaper, The Times, and its
http://www.times sister paper, The Sunday Times. Both
online.co.uk papers are renowned for the high quality of their news and current
affairs reporting and authoritative comment on a wide range of issues.
Letters to the Editor are included with effect from April 1991. News
agency items, extract from books, articles by specific authors,
entertainments listings, tabular information, and articles from The
Sunday Times Magazine , are not included. The Times is a respected
source of news and comment on UK and international issues, business,
finance, law and current affairs. It was founded in 1785.
The INDEPENDENT It gives clear and accurate reporting of
http://www.indepen home and foreign news, accompanied
dent.co.uk/ by in-depth features on the major
issues of the day. In addition there is comprehensive coverage of
business and finance, the arts, health, education, sport and the media.
The HERALD Formely known as the Glasgow Herald, it is
http://www.theherald. Scotland’s biggest selling quality daily
co.uk/ newspaper. Launched in 1783, The Herald is the oldest national
newspaper in the English-speaking world. Three editions of The
Herald are published six days a week.
The DAILY MAIL Together with its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday , it covers a broad
http://www.dailymail. base of national and international news, financial, consumer and specific
co.uk/ interest topics. Both papers have regular weekly sections, such asMoney
Mail.
The Europe’s leading business newspaper, the Financial Times is produced
FINANCIAL TIMES six days a week by some 350 editorial staff and foreign correspondents.
www.ft.com Primarly a paper of record, it aims to cover everything of interest to the
international businessman. It carries news, features, special surveys and
editiorial comment, and has a name for authoritative, apolitical
reporting. Its worldwide readership is estimated at one million. FT
Profile carries the UK final edition of the newspaper, plus extra articles
from the International Edition published in Frankfurt. Exclued are the
largely-tagular sections on Currency, Money and Capital Markets,
World Stock Markets and the London Stock Exchange.
The GUARDIAN It aims to give good coverage of social issues as well as politics and
http://www.guardian. economics. It is published six days a week, with a circulation of
co.uk 423,000. The Guardian Europe supplement is included from January

34
 1991. The Guardian is a very useful source of news and comment on a
very wide range of topics. The Guardian covers a broad range of UK
and international news. Its UK coverage is particularly strong on social
services, education, health, local government, and local and national
politics. In addition to the above, the Guardian file is also a key source
of information on the Third World and development economics, civil
liberties and human rights, women’s rights and minorities.
The ECONOMIST It is one of the world’s most distinguished periodicals, offering in-depth
http://www.economist. coverage and analysis of politics, economics, business, finance, science
com/ and technology. It is produced in London, printed in England, Singapore
and the USA, and has a worldwide circulation of more than 250,000
copies a week. The file contains the full text of each weekly edition,
with the exception of letters to the editor.
The SUN One of the leadings papers is The Sun. It tells its 4.2 million readers a
http://www.thesun. day almost nothing about international and national affairs.It gives news
co.uk about Princess Di's clothes, dogs rescued from burning buildings and the
divorces of Hollywood stars.

The MIRROR The Daily Mirror sells 3.2 million copies a day and it is considered to
http://www.mirror. be pro-Labour. It infact encourages its readers tovote Labour in general
co.uk elections. The other three popular papers are The Daily Express, selling
The DAILY 1.6 million copies a day, The Daily Mail with 1.8 million and the Daily
EXPRESS Star.
The DAILY STAR

3.1. Peculiarities of online media

The following distinctive features of online media should be pointed out:

1. High speed of information transmission,
2. Unlimited volume of information,
3. More transparency,
4. High interactivity,
5. Possibility to estimate popularity of an article and a newspaper,
6. Application of audio and video material,
7. Hypertext.
In contrast to printed media, online ones are characterized by high speed of
information transmission. The very online publication format is less bound and
conservative than its off-line analogue. This is due to the fact that it takes a lot of
time to publish a newspaper: an issue model is created, composed and printed.
Besides, it is edited and sometimes censored that is conditioned by a number factors,
namely economic (payback of a newspaper), political and partly social ones.
However, many of these restrictions disappear in the Internet space. A site can be
constantly filled with information, 24 hours a day that is illustrated by the screened
page of ‘The Telegraph’ where important events are broadcast live.

35
 Until recently, there was no censorship in the global network: all sorts of articles
could be published. Independent online media should be also mentioned in this
connection since their functioning is considerably facilitated, as compared to the off-
line space. The same holds true for blogs that are controlled even less.
Difference between print and online media lies in their volume, too. That of
traditional print editions is determined by thickness and weight, whereas sites are not
measured in physical units and have a lot of virtual memory. Consequently, there is
no such concept as ‘an issue’ for Internet media: in the course of time all articles of
the site form an archive, available for any user via a search engine. Yet, it is possible
in case all material is sorted out according to dates and topics, and contains hashtags.
Thereby, work of journalists is becoming more transparent: the reader can trace what
an online edition wrote a month or a year ago [Синдюков, 2014].
It should be noted that interactivity is one of the main advantages of online
media. It presupposes exchange of information between journalists and readers. The
principle of interactivity manifests itself in the following way: readers send letters

36
and comments, while editors listen to their opinion and somehow adjust their work.
However, interactivity in online media does not come to this only. If a person
witnesses some important event and then posts information (a message, photo or
video) about it on social media or sends it to editorial board and this material is
published, he/ she becomes a part of the news making process. There are also other
ways of interaction between ordinary people and journalists of Internet media, such
as online surveys, video conferencing and etc.
Crucially, topicality and popularity of an article can be estimated by the number
of page views, comments, `likes` and reposts for often there are links to social media
below an article so that users could share it with their subscribers and hence increase
the readership.
In addition, online media can use not only text material and photos in their
articles, but also audio and video files, as well as animation; and this significantly
broadens experience users receive [Синдюков, 2014].

3.2 Hypertext

Such notion as ‘hypertext’ is of special value for online media. It is defined as ‘a

software system allowing extensive cross-referencing between related sections of text
and associated graphic material’ [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary].
‘Hyperlink’ is closely related to the latter and denotes ‘a link from a hypertext
document to another location, activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image’
[Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary]. Combined with computer technology, a
highly organized system of intertextual relations creates great opportunities for
instant information search that can be based almost on any formal or subject
component of a text, whether a single word or thematically related news item.
As a rule, a news message is unfolded according to a deductive scheme ‘from
the general to the particular’. Although computer technologies of information search
enable us to move in the opposite direction, too. Taking a person or an event as a
starting point of interest, the user can trace the range of texts, in which this person or
event are highlighted [Добросклонская, 2008].

37
 The article from ‘The New York
Times’. The underlined words in
the body of the article are the
hypertext.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:
1. What are online media?
2. What do print and online media have in common?
3. Enumerate peculiarities of online media. Comment on each of them.
4. Is there censorship on the Internet today? Are print media censored?
5. What does interactivity of online media consist in?
6. How can popularity of an e-newspaper or article be assessed?
7. Dwell on all distinctive features of online media on the basis of the screened
e-pages from the text.

38
 Part II
PRACTISING MEDIA ENGLISH

Unit 1 PRESS REVIEW

Ex. 1. Basic vocabulary list on press review.

mass media, pl. средства массовой информации

newspaper, paper газета
a national paper газета, циркулирующая по всей стране
a local paper местная газета
a daily paper (a daily) ежедневная газета
a weekly paper (a weekly) еженедельная газета
magazine журнал
a weekly еженедельник
a monthly ежемесячный журнал
periodical периодическое издание
copy, n экземпляр (газеты, журнала)
issue, n выпуск
today’s issue сегодняшний выпуск
yesterday’s issue вчерашний выпуск
issue, v выходить, издаваться
print, v печатать
circulation тираж
subscription подписка
to subscribe to подписываться
article on статья (о, об)
editorial, leader передовая статья, редакционная статья
run-over статья с продолжением на другой
странице
feature article статья, очерк
review обзор, рецензия
commentary (comment) on комментарий
comment on, v комментировать
headline, n газетный заголовок
a splash (banner) крупный заголовок
headline, v озаглавливать
column, n колонка
an editor’s column колонка редактора
a regular column регулярная колонка
column heading название колонки
entertainment column колонка развлечений
item новость, сообщение в газете
brief news items, news-in-brief новости короткой строкой
page страница
39
 sports page спортивная страница
news page страница новостей
books page книжная страница
woman’s page, etc страница для женщин и т. д.
front page первая страница
frontpage, v публиковать на первой странице
section раздел
sports section спортивный раздел
arts section раздел «Искусство»
home and overseas news section раздел международных событий и
событий внутри страны
political section раздел политических новостей
spread (centre-spread), a double page центральный разворот
spread
cover, n обложка
cover, v освещать
coverage, n освещение в печати
to give a full (wide) coverage of (to) широко освещать в печати события
an event
editor редактор
to edit редактировать, подготавливать к
печати
editorial box редакционный подвал
event событие
syn. development, n., pl. событие
the latest events (developments) последние события
current events текущие события
to follow the events следить за событиями
news новости, известия
home news внутренние события
foreign (world, international) news события за рубежом
the news about… известие о
dominates the frontpage занимает самое видное место на 1
странице
gets the biggest headline дается под крупным заголовком
gets wide coverage широко освещается в газете
is given in splash headline дается под крупным заголовком
is given much comment широко комментируется
is given prominence занимает видное место
supplement приложение
advertisement (coll. ad) реклама
job advertisement Объявление о работе
advertise, v 1) помещать объявления
2) рекламировать
cartoon карикатура

40
TV programme программа ТВ передач
weather report прогноз погоды
weather chart (map) карта погода
death notice объявление о смерти
title, n заглавие, название
The article is entitled… статья озаглавлена…
space место занятое статьей
key-note (n) основная мысль, идея
syn. the main idea
question, problem, issue вопрос, проблема
a disputable question спорный вопрос
a vital question насущный вопрос
an urgent problem
a burning issue
a key question основной вопрос
to deal (with) рассматривать (вопрос)
e. g. The article deals with the latest
developments in Africa
to touch upon касаться, затрагивать
to devote (to) посвящать, уделять внимание
to be addressed (to) быть предназначенным (для)
The paper publishes the article about…. Газета публикует статью о…
carries a lot of comment on помещает многочисленные
комментарии по поводу…
takes a critical view of критически оценивает…
covers освещает
gives much comment to… широко комментирует
reports сообщает
frontpages помещает на первой странице
The author of the article points out that… Автор статьи указывает, что
stresses that… подчеркивает, что
gives much comment to комментирует
criticizes критикует
makes it clear that… дает понять, что
expresses the view that… высказывает точку зрения, что
condemns осуждает
comes out against (opposes) выступает против
calls for (demands) требует
calls upon предлагает, чтобы
suggest that… предлагает, чтобы
comes to the conclusion приходит к выводу
draws a conclusion that делает вывод о том, что
to be in the news быть в центре внимания
e. g. The visit of the U. S. President Визит президента США – в центре
is very much in the news внимания прессы

41
 Ex. 2. Bring out the meaning of the term.

A daily paper (a daily), a local paper, a monthly magazine, a national paper, a

regular column, a splash (banner), a weekly paper (a weekly), advertisement (coll.
ad), an editor’s column, article on, arts section, books page, brief news items (news-
in-brief), burning issue, cartoon, circulation, column heading, column, commentary
(comment) on, copy, cover, coverage, current events, death notice, disputable
question, editor, editorial (leader), editorial box, entertainment column, event, feature
article, foreign (world, international) news, front page, headline, home and overseas
news section, home news, issue, item, job advertisement, key question, key-note,
mass media, news page, news, newspaper, periodical, political section, review, space,
sports page, sports section, spread (centre-spread, a double page spread),
subscription, supplement, the latest events (developments), title, to advertise, to be
addressed (to), to comment on, to cover, to deal (with), to devote (to), to edit, to
follow the events, to frontpage, to give a full (wide) coverage of (to) an event, to
headline, to print, to touch upon, TV programme, urgent problem, vital question,
weather chart (map), weather report, woman’s page.

Ex. 3. Match the definition with the word.

1. A paper that comes out every day.

2. A magazine that is issued once a month.
3. A paper that circulates all over the country.
4. A magazine or a paper that is published at regular intervals.
5. A printed notice about things to be sold or things that are needed.
6. A caricature, often satirical, representing important events in politics of
important public figures.
7. The writing, publishing or broadcasting of news.
8. A man who is responsible for publishing a newspaper or a magazine.
9. A man who comments on some events.
10. One who contributes to a newspaper, especially one employed to report
news regularly from a distant place.
11. One who reports, a member of a newspaper staff whose duty is to give an
account of public events.
Words: a) reporter, b) editor, c) cartoon, d) a daily, e) a periodical, f) coverage,
g) a monthly, h) advertisement, j) correspondent, k) a national paper, l) commentator.

42
 Ex. 4. Translate the following sentences:

1. Usually the first page gives the major news story, which covers the main topic
of the day and has a banner headline.
2. The material, a newspaper publishes can be divided into reading matter
(articles and news items), advertisements, pictures (that can be illustrative and
advertising) and cartoons.
3. In order to attract the reader the editor is aware of the use of different prints,
the arrangement of the reading matter, the abundance of pictures.
4. Newspapers use run-overs in order to save space and to make the reader look
through the paper.
5. Very often newspapers and magazines give their columns to a popular writer
without limiting him to any particular subject.
6. Some papers have a centre spread. It makes the appearance pages more
attractive. The spread might also carry a photographic coverage of a subject, or an event.
7. The editorial or the leader expresses the official view on significant political and
social questions. It is never signed by the author. It is always a statement of opinion,
often a critical review of a problem and usually calls for some particular action.
8. It is absolutely essential that the leader is up-to-date, so that although the
general lines of the article may be worked out before, the actual writing is left to the
last minute to allow the writer to deal with the very latest developments.
9. Feature articles are very diverse in the subject matter. The term ‘features’ covers
a wide range of subjects. It generally covers reviews of books, criticisms on the theater,
on music, art, film and television, articles on science, travel, sport events, etc.
10. The lest-hand part is taken by the photo. The right-hand corner carries a
small box with the motto of a current political campaign.

Ex. 5. Bring a newspaper or a magazine to class and get ready to answer the
following questions:
1. Is it a daily or a weekly (a monthly)?
2. How large is the circulation?
3. Who is the editor-on-chief?
4. What page is devoted to international/home news (to sports, education, etc.)?
5. Find what page carries ads. Specify of what kind.
6. On what page is the editorial? What is it about?
7. Who is the paper addressed to?
8. Why did you choose it?
9. What other periodicals do you prefer reading? Why?
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 Ex. 6. Make the review of the front page of your newspaper using the
following structures:

– I’m going to give a review of the front page of… dated … .

– The editorial deals with … .
– The paper goes on to say that … .
– The paper also reports … and gives opinions on … .
– In another item the paper comments editorially on … .
– Under the splash headline … the front page carries a detailed report of … .
– A picture of … is given on … .
– Right below the picture there is … featuring … .
– The front page carries a report … .
– There is also a short item from … outlining … .
– The lower part of the page deals with … .
– There are several items reporting … .
– At the bottom of the page there is a short item concerning … .
– the right–hand columns of the page are taken by … .
– These columns also contain brief news items reporting … .

Ex. 7. Imagine that you are the reporter (or editor) of some popular foreign
or home paper or a magazine. Put down its name on a sheet of paper (do not
show it to the group). Let the students ask all possible questions about your
newspaper (their questions should require yes or no answer) to elicit the name of
the paper from you.

Ex. 8. Make a news review, using the suggested introductory phrases from
the vocabulary list.

44
 Unit 2 ANALYSING PRINT MEDIA

2.1 The British press

Ex. 1. Look through the text (2min) and single out the definitions of quality
and popular papers.

Ex. 2. Read the text taking note of essential facts.

The national press of Britain falls into two categories known as the ‘popular’
press and the ‘serious’ or ‘quality’ press.
The so-called ‘popular’ newspapers, or the ‘newspapers for the masses’ (the
Mirror, the Daily Express) are mass-sale sensational publications with huge
circulations; they provide ‘entertainment’ which they claim the average reader wants:
sensational news, scandalous gossip, accounts of crimes, etc. News in ‘popular’
journals is twisted and sensationalized: items of minor importance are often played
up, serious news is given in compressed form or suppressed altogether. ‘Popular’
newspapers use gigantic headlines, give much space to full-page sensational pictures,
heavily illustrated advertisements, etc. the swaggering style and the shouted phrase
are characteristic features of their language, especially of their leaders, and headlines.
The so-called ‘quality’ papers are more serious journals, such as The Times, The
Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Observer, etc.; they are successful on much
smaller circulations than the ‘popular’ papers, since they can obtain advertising in
view of their appeal to the richer readers. The ‘quality’ Press represents the interests
of the Government and of major political parties of Britain, being their official (or
unofficial) organs. Unlike the ‘popular’ Press the ‘quality’ journals are more
restrained both in their news presentation and in their typographical design. They
provide more serious news matter, editorial comment, etc., their informative
statements, and not editorial yells as in ‘popular’ papers.
However, it should be borne in mind that basically the ‘popular’ and the
‘quality’ Press are very closely related to each other.

Ex. 3. Make up a list of useful words and expressions. Try to use them when
answering the questions.

Ex. 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What ‘popular’ newspapers do you know?

2. Sum up the features of ‘popular’ press.
3. What can you say about the make-up of the ‘popular’ papers?
4. What’s the difference between ‘popular’ and ‘quality’ press?
5. Name ‘quality’ papers that you know. Speak of their design.
45
 Ex. 5. Study the following table and comment on it.

Name of Data of the first Political viewpoint

newspaper publication
‘Quality’ or The Times 1785 Independent
‘serious’ papers The Guardian 1821 Left of centre
(broadsheet sheet (Liberal/SDP)
size) The Daily 1855 Conservative
Telegraph
The Financial 1888 Conservative
Times

‘Popular’ papers The Morning Star 1966 Communist

(tabloid size) The Daily Express 1900 Conservative
The Daily Mail 1896 Conservative
The Daily Mirror 1903 Labour
The Sun 1969 Right of centre
The Daily Star 1978 Right of centre

2.2 The appearance of the newspapers

Ex. 1. Read the text making an outline in the form of questions.

The Sun
The newspapers are peculiar, but the Sun is more peculiar than others. It actually
prides itself on being a sensational tabloid. The word ‘tabloid’ was originally and still
is used as a trademark in the drug business, and was apparently first applied to news
presented in concentrated or compressed form. The word has got away from its
copyright owners, and now generally refers to newspapers smaller than the usual size.
The Sun’s page measures 14 2/3 x 11 ¾ inches, about half the size of the
‘standard’ newspaper. Each page theoretically contains seven narrow columns, but
the actual make-up of every page runs riot over these boundaries in a jig-saw of
headlines, cartoons, pictures, advertisements and editorial ‘boxes’ (rectangular blocks
of type bordered by heavy black lines). At first sign, and until the reader is used to it,
the effect is one of tightly packed confusion. But the Sun readers soon get used to it,
and learn to find their way around in the smeary jungle of the paper’s 24 – 28 pages.
The first page is a show-window, to catch the eye. It always has a big black
headline, often in letters two inches high, and almost always an arresting photograph,
taking up half the page or more. Occasionally, when the Sun has something
particularly emphatic to say, it drops the picture and spreads an editorial, in heavy
type, all over the front page. The other most important pages, by the Sun formula, are
the two in the centre (the ‘centre spread’), where the Sun usually puts on its act for
46
the day the exposure of a scandal, pictures of a royal tour, a striking news photograph
of disaster, a sentimental story or picture of an animal or a baby. Each of the Sun’s
regular features – the leader, the strip cartoons, etc. – has its regular position in the
paper, which the readers soon learn. News stories of ‘human interests’ are played up:
other news is compressed to a paragraph of two. The Sun avoids run-overs (stories
that run over into a following page). World news is usually tucked in, in small type
on the back page.

Notes
1. The word has got away from its copyright owner – the word has come into
common use, copyright owners – here those who first used it.
2. ‘Yellow journals’ are sensational publications which cater for the most
backward sections of readership, for the most depraved and vulgar tastes. They
supply sensational news and report to their readers and specialize in scandalous
gossip overemphasis, flagrant distortion and fabrication of news.
The ‘yellow Press’ first appeared in the USA late in the 19 th century; it was
founded by big newspaper proprietors Pulitzer and Hearst. The term ‘yellow Press’
had its origin in the yellow ink with which the rival papers of Hearst and Pulitzer
decorated their comic series (comic strips) called The Yellow Kid.
In Britain the first yellow journals were started by Northcliff Rotermere and
some other newspaper tycoons.
3. The actual make-up of every page runs riot over these boundaries in a jig-
saw of headlines, cartoons, pictures, advertisements and editorial ‘boxes’ – the
headlines, cartoons, pictures, advertisements and editorial ‘boxes’ are arranged in
such a way that all the traditional boundaries of the seven columns the Sun page
contains are destroyed and the page looks like a jig-saw puzzle (a jig-saw puzzle is a
kind of puzzle made by sawing or cutting a picture into small pieces which may by
fitted together)
4. Smeary – covered with paint
5. … where the Sun usually puts on its act for the day – where the Sun puts the
material which is considered the most important one and wants to give special
prominence to.
6. new stories of ‘human interest’ – news stories that are of minor significance
as news, yet are entertaining, they relate to humorous or pathetic aspects of life or to
the picturesque, they are about such subjects as children, animals, a happening on the
bus, or an incident at a railway station.

47
 Ex. 2. Check your understanding by answering the following questions:

1. What is tabloid? What’s the origin of the word?

2. Why is the Sun more peculiar than others?
3. What can you say about the Sun’s make-up? What is so confusing about?
4. What is considered a show-window of the paper? Why?
5. What are the other most important pages?
6. What is a news story of human interest?
7. Why does the Sun avoid run-overs?

Ex. 3. Discuss the text according to your outline, making use of active
vocabulary.

Ex.4. Give the summary of the text.

Ex. 5. Read the following passage and say what you think of it:

The Times is read by the people who run the country.

The Mirror is read by the people who think they run the country.
The Guardian is read by the people who think about running the country.
The Morning Star is read by people who think they ought to run the country.
The Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country.
The Telegraph is read by the people who think the country ought to be run as it
used to be.
The Express is read by the people who think it still is run as it used to be.
The Sun is read by the people who don’t care who runs the country as long as
the girl on page three is attractive.

Ex. 6. Study the list of periodicals and definitions given below. Match the
titles to the definitions.

The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian,
The Daily Express, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Star, The Daily Mail, Punch, Private
Eye, The Economist, The Golden Magazine, The Sun, The Sunday Times Magazine,
New Society, The Listener.

48
 1. A quality paper, contains a comprehensive coverage of industry, commerce
and public affairs and is read mainly by professional and business people.
2. The only quality paper with liberal/left of centre politics. As well as a wide
coverage of news events, it also reports on social issues, the arts, education, etc.
3. Right-of-centre in its views and contains reports on national and
international news as well as covering sports and other topics: quality.
4. A quality paper; it takes a middle-of-the-road view, claiming to present the
views of the establishment and is especially well known for its correspondence
column.
5. Popular papers; take a right-of-centre viewpoint on most issues.
6. Popular paper, usually supports the Labour Party.
7. Popular papers, tending to sensationalism and know for their pin-ups; have a
larger circulation than any other national paper.
8. A weekly colour supplement; looks at things of general interest.
9. A weekly journal with social and political satire for its scope.
10. A weekly political journal with left-of-centre views.
11. A general interest weekly discussing current issues in education, media, as
well as carrying literary reviews.
12. A monthly carrying features on remarkable sights and festivals of Britain.
13. An educational U. S. monthly for children.
14. A malicious weekly of social and political satire with a touch of scandal.
15. A weekly covering industry, commerce and public affairs.
You are to choose which periodicals you find well-informed, fair, objective,
unbiased, educational, instructive, sensitive, well-meaning, accurate, professional,
stimulating, thought-provoking, etc., and exclude all the uninformed, prejudiced,
sensational, confusing, malicious, inaccurate, rude, cynical stuff.

Ex. 7. Let us take one more look at the character of some British
newspapers each covering the same story. Let us imagine that Princess Anne
married a coloured man, say an African goat-herder. Which of the accounts
given below could appear in the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The
Morning Star, The Times, The Daily Mail?

1) MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE: CUNNING MOVE BY TORY

GOVERNMENT TO PLACATE BLACK MAJORITY
2) SOUND FINANCIAL MOVE BY ROYAL FAMILY
The forthcoming marriage of Princess Anne to a native commoner will entitle
her to 100 000 pounds from the privy purse as a married woman. Her husband’s goat
49
herd will be put in her name. The goats will go public next year as Royal Goat Herd
(Holdings) Limited.
3) COLOURFUL ROYAL WEDDING
It was announced from the Palace today that Her Highness is to marry Mr.
N'galuN'Goolie, a foreign gentleman with farming connections in Africa, his dark
skin no doubt the result of long hours in the tropical sun supervising his herds.
4) ITS HATS OFF TO ANOTHER ROYAL FIRST
Our sporting Princess is to marry a dashing dusky African goat-herder. During
her recent trip, our sporting Princess fell in love with dashing 6ft 3 in. NasaiN’Goolie
Esq. A spokesman at the Palace said: ‘They met by accident. She ran over him in a
Land Rover’.
5) Reports are coming in from our foreign correspondent that Her Royal
Highness Princess Anne is unwell. Reuter.

Ex. 8. Now you will do the same. Take some news and make up brief news
items around it, rending the style of different papers or magazines.

Ex. 9. You are attending the press presentation meeting. Introduce your
newspaper or magazine. Speak about its addressee, structure. Don’t forget to
mention the details of its make-up.

Ex. 10. Work in groups to assemble a class newspaper.

Ex. 11. Study the following extracts and decide which of them are from
‘quality’ or ‘popular’ paper.
a) TRUMP WOOS ASIAN POWERS WITH GOLF AND TAIWAN PROMISE
President Trump has moved to patch up relations with China and Japan as the
White House hinted that it would prioritise the building of links with Asian powers
over European alliances. During a call with President Xi of China Mr Trump ruled
out diplomatic recognition for Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway
province.
b) BEDRIDDEN FOR 25 YEARS
Eman Ahmed, 36, who tips the scales at 78 stone, was flown from her home in
Alexandria on a specially modified cargo plane to India to undergo a series of
operations to help her lose weight.
c) BRITISH TEENAGERS TO BE TAUGHT 'CYBER CURRICULUM' TO
DEFEND UK AGAINST THREAT OF HACKING ATTACKS
Thousands of British teenagers are to be given training in cyber security to boost
the UK’s defences against the rising threat of online attacks.

50
 The new Cyber Schools Programme aims to teach pupils some of the skills they
would need to help defend Britain’s businesses and institutions against online threats.
d) MADONNA'S TWINS CAN LIVE OUT DREAMS
The sisters of the twins adopted by Madonna in Malawi say they are delighted
the four-year-olds have been lifted out of poverty.
e) FORMER STUDENT FROM BLACKBURN BECOMES FIRST BRITISH
WOMAN TO FIGHT ISIS IN SYRIA
A former student from Blackburn is believed to have become the first British
woman to fight Isis alongside Kurdish forces in Syria.
Kimberley Taylor, 27, is currently embedded with the Women’s Protection
Units in northern Syria, where the group is being supported by international air
strikes to drive jihadis out of territory surrounding their de-facto capital in Raqqa.
f) HIDDEN WONDER
Homeowner Greg Smith has created the ultimate secret jungle within his
property, and it is so incredible it is now open to the public.

Unit 3 THE LANGUAGE OF NEWSPAPERS

3.1 Rules for journalists

Use specific words (red and blue) not general ones (brightly coloured).
Use concrete words (rain, fog) rather than abstract ones (bad weather).
Use positive words (he was poor) not negative ones (he was not rich – the
reader at once wants to know, how not rich was he?).
Use the active voice (Police took no action) not the passive voice (No action
was taken).
Don’t overstate (fell is starker than plunged).
Don’t lard the story with emotive or ‘dramatic’ words (astonishing, staggering,
sensational, shock).
Avoid non-working words that cluster together like derelicts (but for the fact
that, the question as to whether, there is no doubt that).
Don’t use words thoughtlessly. (Waiting ambulances don’t rush victims to
hospital. Waiting ambulances don’t rush victims to hospitals. Waiting ambulances
wait. Meteors fall, so there can be no meteoric rise).
Don’t use auxiliaries or conditionals (was, might, would, should, may, etc)
unless you have to. (Mrs. Thatcher is a political Florence Nightingale, not Mrs.
Thatcher might be termed a political Florence Nightingale).
Don’t use unknown quantities (very, really, truly, quite. How much is very?).
Never quality absolutes (a thing cannot be quite impossible, glaringly obvious or
most essential, any more than it can be absolutely absolute).

51
 Don’t use wrong prepositions. Check them for sense (we may agree on this
point; you may agree with this opinion; he may agree to this proposal).
Don’t use jargon, clichés, puns, elegant or inelegant variations, or inexact
synonyms (‘BRAVE WIFE DIED SAVING HER SON’ is wrong: wife is not a
synonym for mother).
Use short sentences, but not all or the same length. A succession of one-clause
sentences is monotonous and wearying.
Avoid elaborate construction. Take the sentence to piece and recast it – probably
as two sentences.
If a sentence as if it has something wrong with it, it has something wrong with it.
(Whether you are motoring to see Mum, play trains in a railway museums or in a
stately home, this long Spring weekend can bring agony and death is technically
correct but ugly).
Don’t vary your rhythms for the sake of it. (He was not ill, and neither was he
poor is unnecessary variation. But there is a dramatic unity in. He was not ill. He was
not poor).
Even in a chronological narrative, the story should not start before it begins.
(John Smith was really looking forward to his dinner starts too early; the reader
wants the dinner. Compare this with the opening of a short story by O’Henry: So I
went to the doctor. A whole paragraph has happened offstage, and the reader is
plunged straight into the action).

Ex. 1. Scan the text above and state the problem (1 min).

Ex. 2. Single out the most important of the rules to your mind.
Ex. 3. Make a key-word list (5 min).
Ex. 4. Discuss the newspaper language peculiarities with the help of your
key-word list.
Ex. 5. Read the following example of good, popular newspaper reporting
and analyze it taking into account the rules mentioned above.
Bachelor Stephen Howe really has his hands full running his own home. He
even turned down a free trip to the Continent because it would interfere with his
housework.
The refusal angered his bosses, who had asked him to represent them at a
scientific conference in Brussels.
Stephen, 29, said: ‘Spending time away from home creates a backlog of
housework, gardening and laundry’.
His bosses at Stone Platt Fluid Fire, Dudley, West Midlands were amazed.
Company chairman Nathan Myers pointed out that Stephen was the only man
capable of telling the conference about research he had been doing. And Mr. Myers
went out of his way to eliminate any fears Stephen might have about the trip.

52
 – Frightened of flying? he asked Stephen. – No problem. We’ll send you by
sea.
– Reluctant to spend two days away from home?
– No problem. We’ll make it a one-day trip.
But Stephen was adamant, and came up with a string of other reasons for not
going. Such as…
– I don’t possess a decent suit.
– Foreign food upsets me.
– I haven’t got a passport.
– I would have to buy a suitcase.
Eventually Mr. Myers got tough. Either you go to Brussels, he said – or you’re
fired.
Stephen who owns a terraced house on a luxury estate in Wolverhampton,
stucks to his guns.
He took Mr. Myers to a Birmingham industrial tribunal alleging wrongful
dismissal.
And the judgment went against Stephen – the houseproud bachelor who
polished off his job.

Assignments:
a) There are several expressions used in the story. Many of these appear in
newspaper regularly. Try and match the expressions in column A with the
explanations in column B.
Column A Column B
He turned down a… He decided to act more strongly…
He stucks to his guns… He tried very hard (harder than he
needed to)
It creates a backlog… It means that work builds up…
He went out of his way to… He refused to change his mind…
He got tough… He’s completely occupied…
He has his hands full… He refused an offer of…

b) Make up the summary of the article.

c) You are a journalist. You have to report Stephen Howe’s story, but you
have only half the amount of space. Decide which points are more important.
Summarize the story in 120 words.

53
 Ex. 6. Explain the unintentional humour in the following extracts from
newspapers.
a) His gait was unsteady and his speech was allured and smell of drink (Dundee
Courier)
b) There are details of a great holiday offer in this week’s paper. So if you fancy a
breakdown in glorious Devon, turn to page 12. (Wallington and Carshalton Advertiser)
c) Moorish engineers are responsible for the irritation systems which have
turned the gardens into the Garden of Eden. (The Guardian)
d) Police last night refused a time bomb planted in a 16-storey office building
(Evening Mail)
e) In 20 appearances in the international championship, he has been on the
sinning side no fewer than 17 times. (South Wales Echo)
f) Mrs. S. M., once a teacher with the Royal Ballet, left with her son
Michael, 31, a lead danger with a touring ballet company. (Birmingham post)

3.2 Headlines

A headline must prepare the reader for the article. It must be to the point. It must
be short. There are some peculiarities about the headlines:
1) Special vocabulary is used. Most of these words are commonly used in
everyday English, but at the same time they are especially useful to reporters; some
of them are more descriptive, others – more economical. Example: ‘deal’ – is more
economical than ‘agreement’; ‘aid’ – is more economical than ‘assistance’; ‘boom’ –
is more descriptive, emotional than ‘increase’.
2) Simplified grammar is used:
a) words are omitted (articles, parts of the verb ‘to be’). Example: ‘Woman New
Head of Bank of England’ = A woman is the new head of the Bank of England.
b) words are shortened: abbreviations are often used when it is possible.
Example: ‘FA Angry’ = The Football Associations is angry.
c) prepositions are avoided where it is possible. Example: ‘Edinburg Man’ =
A man from Edinburg.
d) only certain forms of the verb are used:
– if the verb is used in the Present Simple that means that the situation took
place recently. Example: ‘Famous Actress Dies’ – means that she died recently,
probably yesterday.
– the Past Simple Tense is used for reports in some court cases.
– the Future is expressed by an infinitive form with ‘to’. Example: ‘MP to Open
Health Centre’ – means that a Member of Parliament is going to open a health centre.

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 e) grammar peculiarities of headlines: strings of three, four or more nouns.
Example: ‘Furniture Factory Pay Cut Riot’. Always follow this rule: begin with the
head and read backward. The above headline refers to a Riot about a cut in Pay for
the workers in a Factory that makes Furniture.
3) Different styles of language used by the reporter.
neutral Descriptive emotional
ate Munched
death tragedy

a) formal (Mr. Smith became interested in)

b) conversational (John took a fancy to)
4) Headlines make wide use of various kinds of references: quotations,
allusions, paraphrased idioms, pop-songs, etc. Puns and alliteration are also popular.
Example: And ‘This Little Kidney Went to Market’ – it’s debate on selling human
organs for transplants, parody on the nursery rhyme ‘And this little piggy went to
market’.
The list of most commonly used headline words

to back to support
to bar to prohibit
aid, boost Help
to boost to encourage, increase
clash dispute
to curb to restrain
cut reduction
hot stock
go ahead approval
jobless unemployed
man representative
move step towards a particular result
net total
pit coalmine
claim demand
to split to divide
squeeze shortage
walk out strike
plea request for help
pact agreement, treaty
to quit to resign
vow (to) promise

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 Ex. 1. Read the brief news items and write the appropriate headline at the
top of each one.

a) A report after a 3-year survey at Shipham. Somerset, where the soil and
locally grown vegetables are contaminated with cadmium, has concluded that there is
no evidence of a health risk.
b) Experts are examining in incendiary device found early yesterday at an arson
blaze at a student hotel in Bayswater Road, West London.
c) A Coroner criticized the condition of kitchens as Lancaster Noor Hospital
yesterday during the inquest on fire elderly patients who died from salmonella
poisoning Verdicts: Misadventure
d) Police are investigating allegations that a patient at Ely mental hospital in
Cardiff was ill treated. A male nurse, alleged by hospital staff to be responsible, has
been suspended.

Ex. 2. Paraphrase and interpret the following headlines:

1. NEW RIGHTS BILL FACES BUSH VETO

2. WORST-EVER YEAR FOR US CAR FIRMS
3. LOW RISK PROVED TOO HIGH
4. NON-STOP GERMAN POLLING PROMPTS CALL FOR REFORM
5. BELL TOLLS FOR BANK TELLERS
6. BRITAIN’S TRADE GAP WIDENS AS EUROPE SLOWS DOWN
7. CAMBODIAN FACTIONS SIGN FOR PEACE
8. COMPLACENCY OPENS DOOR TO FAST-MOVING EPIDEMIC
9. MILLIONS IN AIDS CASH UNSPENT OR DIVERTED
10. WAR CRIMES BILL THREATENS NOW THE GOVERNMENT
11. CALLS FOR TWO-TIER SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS
12. LABOUR LOOKING TO STREAMLINE BUDGET PROCESS

Ex. 3. Read the article below and then complete the headline with a noun.

‘Jobs _____________ for New Town’.

A major oil-related company is to set up in Cumbernauld New town,
Strathclyde, which could eventually lead to the creation of 15 jobs.

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 Ex. 4. Imagine the stories that might go with these headlines:

1. OLDEST SAILOR GOES ROUND THE WORLD.

2. MIRACLE CURE FOR CAR CRASH VICTIM.
3. FROM A MILLION POUNDS TO NOTHING – IN 6 MOUTHS.
4. INFLUENZA EPIDEMICS CAUSED BY UFOs?
5. ROCK STAR ARRESTED AT AIRPORT.
6. RECORD ROBBERY ROCKS ROCHESTER.

Ex. 5.

1. Read the headline and try to predict the contents of the article.
2. Now let’s play a game. Each student is given an extract from the article and
the group is supposed to reconstruct the article.

The night the heavy mob came to call

B. The claim for public liability against their owner is currently being
negotiated.
D. The cattle backed away from this hazard and tried for the store/freezer room,
pulling an electric plug off the wall as they want. In the storeroom they munched
(жевать, чавкать) their way through some bags of potatoes and them took a fancy to
the vacuum cleaner. A large chest (коробка) freezer was hustled around the floor,
and its lid was torn (от tear - разорвать) to shreds (кусочки).
F. Finally, the panic-stricken animals made their escape by smashing (разбив
вдребезги) through a window.
H. The cattle also had a go at the water pipes, squashing one and pulling the
other so much that it broke above the ceiling, bringing down plaster (штукатурка).
C. They tried to get into the kitchen, damaging electrical equipment which they
knocked to the floor.
E. During the nigh some cattle broke through a hurdle (плетень) and got into a
nearby house. The door slammed (хлопать) behind them.
G. Their next call was a toilet and shower room. The first thing to go was the
toilet seat. Then somehow they managed to turn the shower on. It was at this point
that one of the cattle was first noticed by an early rising farmer who was passing by-
standing in the wrecked shower tray with water pouring over its head.
A. A bull in a china shop is legend. This story is fact-reported yesterday by a
major insurance company…

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 Assignments:
1. What kind of terminology does the phrase ‘the heavy mob’ come from?
2. It is quite common in conversational English to describe someone as ‘like a
bull in a china shop’. What sort of person would this refer to?
a) someone whose movement are very careful
b) a clumsy person with a tendency to break things
c) someone who buys a lot of unnecessary things.
3. Why does the reporter compare what happened in the story with the idea of a
bull in a china shop?
a) because it is similar in some ways to the idea of the bull in a china shop
b) because unlike the story of the bull in a china shop the news story
happened recently
c) because the idea of a bull in a china shop is more believable than this news
story.

3.3 Tips on working with articles

An article must be clear and economical. How to work with the content of the
article:
1. In small groups (or individually as a home assignment) the students are asked
to compile a list of headlines of different newspapers. So the students will see how
the contents of a newspaper breaks down into Foreign/Home News, Commentaries,
Features, pictures, sports, Gossip, etc. It can become more interesting if different
groups examine different newspapers and then compare and discuss the results.
2. Students are given several statements relating to an article. Students judge of
they are true or false according to the article. Students can also be asked to correct the
false statements.
3. Several articles on one and the same event are given to the students. The
students are to respite the chain of events and in conclusion reproduce the article.
4. One in every ten or twelve words is left out. The students are to insert
necessary missing words. A multiple-choice exercise should be presented here.
5. Logical games:
a) a number of sentences are divided into two parts. Students are to
reproduce the original sentences.
b) a text is divided into several sections (on the basis of paragraph division,
for example). The parts of the text are listed in the wrong order. The students are to
put them into the right order and then retell the article (see ex. 2c, 3b).
c) the teacher may take away the last paragraph of the article. The students
are to give their suggestions about the possible ending of the article.

58
 d) the teacher may take away the first paragraph of the article. The students
are to reconstruct the beginning.
e) the teacher may also take away the middle part of the article. The
students are to guess the events that take place in this part and reconstruct this part of
the article.
6. Compiling a news programme: the students are given newspapers or
selections of about 15 – 20 articles, shorten and adapt them for oral presentation,
arrange them in order of importance and then read them producing a news broadcast.

Ex. 1. Look at the articles below. They both concern the same news
incident, but differ in style. Answer the following questions:

1. Which is ‘the first report’ of the incident?

2. In what article is the language more descriptive or emotional or more or less
formal?
3. What makes you think so?
a) ‘TOURISTS DIE IN CABLE-CAR PLUNGE’.
Singapore: A floating oil rig struck two cable-cars over Singapore harbor on
Saturday, throwing seven tourists to their deaths and trapping 13 others in cars
swinging 100 feet above the water.
b) ‘JOKES IN THE CABLE CAR TRAP’.
Singapore – The 13 survivors of the Singapore cable car tragedy told jokes to
keep from panicing as they waited all night to be rescued, it was revealed yesterday.
Ex. 2. Scan the article below and give the gist (2 min).

Visitor sets bird-watchers a flutter

Hundreds of ornithologists crept on to mudflats on Seal Sands at the mouth of
the river Tees yesterday for a glimpse of one of Britain’s rarest feathered visitors.
The bird is ’98 per cent certain’ to be a long-toed stint, a member of the
sandpiper family according to the Royal Society for the protection of Birds.
Normally, it nests in Siberia and winters in southeast Asia, sometimes reaching
Australia.
The last confirmed sighting west of Siberia was in Sweden five years ago. A
reported sighting in Cornwall 12 years ago has still not been officially accepted. But
now the 6-inch chestnut and white wader with distinctive white eye brows and
abnormally long feet has somehow joined the thousands of birds on the Tees estuary
bird sanctuary – with timing which has delighted conservationists. It was first sighted
by Mr. John Dunnett, of Thornaby, on Saturday – the day after Stockton Council had
discussed in secret a plan by Phillips Petroleum to dump oil waste from the Edofisk
field in the North Sea at five one-acre sites adjoining the estuary reserve. Stockton
council has decided to seek more evidence on the ornithological importance of Seal
Sands before making any final decision on Phillips’s application.

59
 Assignments:

1. Look at the headline of the article. ‘To set someone a flutter’ is a more
conversational way of saying to ‘excite’ them. Why is ‘sets… a flutter’ particularly
effective in this context?
2. Why is ‘bird - watchers’ more suitable than ornithologists for this particular
headline?
3. Which of the following means the same as ‘crept’?
a) moved quickly and noisily
b) moved quickly but quietly
c) moved slowly and quietly
4. What do you expect ‘mudflats’ to be?
a) a kind of boat
b) a kind of house
c) a kind of land
5. Which sense do you expect ‘glimpse’ to be connected with?
a) sight
b) sound
c) touch
6. The reporter uses inverted commas around ’98 per cent certain’. In what cases
are inverted commas most commonly used?
7. The article is about a bird, but the word ‘bird’ is only once used. Underline
the other way the bird is referred to in the article.
8. Fine the description of the bird (lines 10 – 14) in separate sentences. Describe
the bird as if the reporter didn’t have to use the economical style.
9. Pick out the key-words from the sentence (line 10 – 14) and write a headline.
Make it as short as possible.
10. The words ‘ornithologists’ and ‘bird-watchers’ both refer to the same group
of people, but ‘ornithologist’ is a more formal, technical term. The list below contains
pairs of words like this. Complete the table by matching the pairs with the same
meanings and then deciding which of the two is more technical in each case:
astronaut, cartographer, eye specialist, map-maker, meteorologist, space-man,
ophthalmologist, weather-man
conversational technical, formal ornithologist
bird-watcher ornithologist

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 Ex. 3. The following extracts concern different stages of a single news story.
Reconstruct the whole story and tell the group what has happened.

A. David Martin, the fugitive (беглец) recaptured by armed police on Friday

night after a dramatic chase along the London Underground, was last night charged
with two fresh offences alleged to involve property worth more than 26000.
B. A police officer was charged with attempted murder (покушение на
убийство) last night in the ‘wrong-man’ shooting of Stephen Waldorf.
C. The two London detectives charged (обвинение) as a result of the shooting
of Stephen Waldorf last week were released on unconditional hail on the advice of
the Director of Public Prosecutions (обвинение) yesterday.
D. The five-week hunt for David Martin ended last night when the 35-year-old
fugitive was arrested by armed Flying Squad detectives after being chased for nearly
a mile through a tunnel in the London Underground.
E. In a frightening and alien scene to Britain, a squad of police gummen ambushed
a car in the London rush hour last night and pumped seven bullets into the driver. They
thought he was David Martin, a dangerous escaped prisoner. But they had the wrong
man. A completely innocent man, 26-year-old film editor Stephen Waldorf.
F. Wrong man shooting victim Stephen Waldorf was allowed to dress and take a
short walk in hospital yesterday as his recovery continued. Steven, 25, gunned
(обстрелянный) down in a car in London's Earls Court after being mistaken for
Britain's most wanted (разыскиваемый) man, David Martin, also read about himself
in the newspapers for the first time since the accident 11 days ago.
G. Three detectives involved in the Kensington ambush (засада) were
suspended from duty last night. One is a constable from D. District and the others, are
constables from the Yard’s criminal intelligence branch. A spokesman said: ‘They
have been suspended pending the result of the inquiry or until further notice’.

Ex. 4. The following headlines and extracts are from two different
newspaper stories. Study them and decide which paragraphs belong to which
story and put them in order.
A. NEAR MISS FOR TRAINEE PILOT
1. ………………. 3. ……………….. 5. …………………..
2. ………………. 4. ………………. 6. …………………...
B. CLOSE ENCOUNTER IN GEORGE’S CHESTNUT TREE
1. ………………. 3. ……………….. 5. …………………..
2. ………………. 4. ………………. 6. …………………...
a) The pilot of the jet plane, Mr. Jack Kenvon, also spoke to our reporter. His
radio was not working so he had no time to warn anyone.
b) After recovering from the shock, George was very relieved.
c) When the police arrived, George was on his kitchen, looking out at the tree. It
61
was nearly dark by then, but the strange hanging shape was till visible.
d) When Malcolm looked round, he saw a small private jet plane flying in close
behind him, and preparing to land on the same runway. Black smoke was pouring out
of one of its engines, and he heard the ‘coughing’. He got out of the way and landed
the Chipmunk on another runway nearby.
e) Seventy-six-year old George Ball, of Ogton, Berks, will not forget last
Saturday evening in a hurry. Shortly before sunset George had the shock of his life.
He though there was an extra-terrestrial visitor at the bottom of his garden.
f) As Malcolm was concentrating on getting the plane into position for a correct
landing he saw three parachutists pass by, one after the other. The last of the three
almost touched the plane, and Malcolm heard the parachutist shout to him.
g) PC Geoff Thomson decided to investigate. He approached the three very
quietly, and shone his torch towards the figure. Then he realized that the figure was
English, not Martian.
h) Malcolm’s instructor, Pilot Officer Mike Granger, had the last word on his
narrow escape. He watched the parachutists fall past him, but turned away when he
saw the smoking plane approaching.
i) George was coming out of his greenhouse when he saw a strange figure
hanging in the chestnut three. According to his next door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs.
Harold Plunkett. George shouted and ran into his house. They then heard him
telephoning the police.
j) Nineteen-year-old RAF trainee pilot Malcolm Cameron, a student at Merton
College, Oxford, will not forget his first solo flight last Saturday afternoon in a hurry.
As he was coming into land in a Chipmunk training plane, he ran into two
emergencies, one after the other.
k) ‘We never intended to fall on the airfield’ said Tim Shaw, the parachutist who
shouted to Malcolm.
l) It was Paul Atkins, 19, of the Ogton Parachute Club, dressed in a flying suit and
handing upside down, P. C. Thomson got him down from the tree, and Paul explains:
‘The wind blew me off course and I knocked myself out when I feel into the tree’.

62
 PART III
ENGLISH NEWSPAPER STYLE

Unit 1 GENERAL NOTES

1.1. Formation of the British Press and the influence of its specific
conditions on the newspaper English

Newspaper style was the last of all the functional varieties of written literary
English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms.
English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. At the close of the 16th
century short news pamphlets began to appear. Any such publication either presented
news from only one source or dealt with one specific subject. News pamphlets
appeared only from time to time and can not be classed as newspapers, though they
were unquestionably the immediate forerunners of the British press.

The first of any regular series of English newspapers was the Weekly Newes
which first appeared on May 23, 1622. It lasted for some twenty years till in 1641 it
ceased publication. The 17th century saw the rise of a number of other news sheets
which, with varying success, struggled on in the teeth of discouragement and
restrictions imposed by the Crown. With the introduction of a strict licensing system
many such sheets were suppressed, and the Government, in its turn, set before public
a paper of its own – The London Gazzette, first published on February 5, 1666. The
paper was a semi-weekly and carried official information, royal decrees, news from
abroad and advertisements.

The first English daily newspaper – the Daily Courant – was brought out on
March 11, 1702. The paper carried news, largely foreign, and no comment, the latter
being against the principles of the publisher, as was stated in the first issue of his
paper. Thus the early English newspaper was principally a vehicle of information.
Commentary as a regular feature found its way into the newspaper later. But as far
back as the middle of the 18th century the British newspaper was very much like
what it is today, carrying on its pages news, both foreign and domestic,
advertisements, announcements and articles containing comments.

The rise of American newspaper, which was brought onto American soil by
British settlers, dates back to the late 17th, early 18th centuries.

It took the English newspaper more than a century to establish a style and a
standard of its own. And it is only by the 19th century that newspaper English may be

63
said to have developed into a system of language media, forming a separate
functional style.

The specific conditions of newspaper publication, the restrictions of time and

space, left an indelible mark on newspaper English. For more than a century writers
and linguists had been vigorously attacking “the slipshod construction and the vulgar
vocabulary” of newspaper English. The term newspaper English carried a shade of
disparagement. Yet, for all the defect of newspaper English, serious though they may
be, this form of the English literary language cannot be reduced – as some purists
have claimed – merely to careless slovenly writing or to a distorted literary English.
This is one of the forms of the English literary language characterized – as any other
style – by a definite communicative aim and its own system of language means.

Thus, English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated

lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the speaking
community as a separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and
instructing the reader.

1.2. An outline of the analysis of a newspaper writing

1.2.1. To fully understand the linguo-stylistic peculiarities of English newspaper

style it will be sufficient to analyse the two basic newspaper genres, namely, a news
report as best illustrating a purely objective, matter-of-fact way of presenting
information, on the one hand, and a feature article as a vehicle of subjective
interpretation and appraisal, on the other.
The first step in the analysis of a newspaper writing is to distinguish between the
above two newspaper genres and to justify your choice. It is recommended that you
should do it in accordance with the following plan:

1. to characterize the type of information a newspaper item conveys and the

author’s attitude towards it;
2. to analyse the arrangement (layout) of the information conveyed (the division
into physical and conceptual paragraphs, the presence of the so-called ‘lead’);
3. to highlight the most salient linguo-stylistic features of a newspaper writing in
question, including lexical and certain grammatical ones.
4. to comment upon linguo-stylistic peculiarities of a headline and subheadings
(if any);
5. to make a conclusion concerning the genre of a newspaper writing under
analysis.

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 1.2.2. Further analysis of a newspaper text presupposes the implementation of a
textlinguistic approach to it. Like any text, a newspaper text, no matter what genre it
belongs to, is characterized by functional-communicative, structural and semantic
wholeness which, first and foremost, manifests itself in the unity of its compositional
structure and the logico-semantic integrity of its content. So, it is expedient to focus
on the analysis of a newspaper text in terms of such important text categories as
informativity and cohesion turning, first of all, to various lexical means of cohesion
which contribute to the logico-semantic wholeness of a text.

ASSIGNEMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

Make sure you can answer these questions.

1. What kind of publications can be regarded as immediate forerunners of the

British press?
2. What were the first, more or less, regular series of English newspapers and
why did they cease publication or were suppressed?
3. What was the first British newspaper supported by the Government and what
kind of information did it carry?
4. What were the requirements of the publishers imposed on the first English
daily newspaper?
5. When did the British newspaper come to be very much like what it is today?
6. What factors left an indelible mark on newspaper English and what was it
vigorously criticized for by purists in the field of language use?
7. When did the newspaper English develop into a separate functional style and
what features is it characterized by?
8. What are the two main functions of modern English newspaper and what
newspaper genres serve as main vehicles of these functions?
9. Characterize the main streams in the British press and the kind of
newspapers they are represented by?
10. Dwell on the differences between tabloids and broadsheets.

65
 Unit 2 NEWS REPORTING

2.1 Demands and constrains of the newspaper English

The reporting of news reflects one of the most difficult and constraining
situations to be found in the area of language use. The chief constraint is the
perpetual battle against the pressures of time and space. Only those who have tried to
write something for a newspaper know just how crippling these pressures can be.
They are absolutes. To fit a column, 20 words may need to be cut. There is no
argument. If the writer of the original material does not meet the demand, someone
else higher up the editorial chain of command will do it instead. Nothing is
sacrosanct. Even a letter to the editor can be chopped in half. And there is no
comeback. The editor’s decision is final.
There is also the constraint imposed by a favoured conception of audience – an
awareness of what ‘the readership’ wants. This applies to everything, from the initial
judgment about what should be reported to the final decisions about exactly how
much should be said about it, where in the medium it should appear, and how it
should be written. The finished product can differ greatly from what is first
submitted. Very famous reporters may see their piece appear more or less as they
wrote it. But an average news report is the product of many hands, hence the so-
called shared authorship style of news reports, which suggests their reliance on
preferred forms of expression, their lack of stylistic idiosyncrasy (even in the reports
of named journalists), and their consistency of style over long periods of time. Once a
newspaper has opted for a particular style, it tends to stay with it, and imposes it
vigorously on its material. It is not difficult to identify certain features which
characterize certain newspapers. That is why it is possible to parody them so easily.
A kind of information conveyed. The main function of a news report is to
provide a matter-of-fact, objective information about an event which has recently
taken place (here a student is expected to specify which event it is).
As for the author’s attitude to the event described, it is that of a detached,
unbiased observer who informs the reader without giving his/her assessment,
appraisal of the facts described and without commenting upon them.
The arrangement (layout) of the information conveyed. A news report has to
convey a good deal of information in the most readable and readily interesting way,
so one of the consequences is a clear and attractive topography, i.e. layout of the
reading matter usually adopted, with careful arrangement into narrow columns, and
the use of different sizes of type, for the main headlines, the subheadings, and

66
sometimes even in the body of the news item itself. Usually a major news story
covers the main topic of the day and has a splash (banner) headline, and almost
always an arresting photograph. All this helps to attract the casual reader’s attention
and guide it rapidly through the matter on the page.
The matter itself tends to be split up – especially at the beginning – into a large
number of crisp, short paragraphs, frequently consisting of only a single sentence (a
complex or a compound or a complex-compound one).
The connection between paragraphs is made as smooth as possible due to
various adverbial connectives (conjunctions, connective words, parentheses etc.), so
that the reader, when attracted, is led quickly and easily into the rest of the report.
One of the characteristic features of a news report composition is the presence of
the so-called lead which coincides with the first one-sentence physical paragraph
comprising answers to the five w-and-h-questions (who-what-why-how-where-when)
worked out by journalistic practice, e.g. Dereck Heath, 43, left Falmouth for the third
time in his attempt to cross the Atlantic in a 12 ft dinghy yesterday. (Daily Worker)

2.2 Linguostylistic characteristics of a news report

2.2.1 Lexical peculiarities. Since the principle function of a news report is an

informative one and since a great deal of news reporting has to be written very hastily
and packed into a limited amount of space, reporters have little opportunity to indulge
in their own stylistic preferences, and come to rely upon a well-tried range of
stereotyped, clichéd forms of expression. This accounts for the fact that the bulk of
the vocabulary used in a news report is stylistically neutral and common literary. But
apart from this, news reporting has its specific vocabulary features and is
characterized by an extensive use of:
• special political and economic terms, e.g. constitution, president, apartheid,
by-election, General Assembly, gross output, per capita production etc.
• non-term political vocabulary, e.g. public, people, progressive, nation-wide,
unity, peace. A characteristic feature of political vocabulary is that the borderline
between terms and non-terms is less distinct than in the vocabulary of other special
fields. The semantic structure of some words comprises both terms and non-terms,
e.g. nation, crisis, agreement, member, representative, leader.
• newspaper clichés, i.e. stereotyped expressions, commonplace phrases
familiar to the reader, phraseological units, e.g. vital issue, pressing problem, well-
informed sources, danger of war, to escalate a war, war hysteria, overwhelming
majority, amid stormy applause etc. Clichés more than anything else reflect the
67
traditional manner of expression in newspaper writing. They are commonly looked
upon as a defect of style. Indeed, some clichés, especially those based on trite images
(e.g. captains of industry, pillars of society, bulwark of civilization) are pompous and
hackneyed, others, such as welfare state, affluent society, are false and misleading.
But nevertheless, clichés are indispensable in newspaper style: they prompt the
necessary associations and prevent ambiguity and misunderstanding.
• abbreviations. News items, press reports and headlines abound in abbreviations
of various kinds. Among them abbreviated terms – names of organizations, public and
state bodies, political associations, industrial and other companies, various offices,
etc. known by their initials are very common, e.g. UNO (United Nations
Organization), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), EEC (European
Economic Community), FO (Foreign Office), EU (European Union), CIS
(Commonwealth of Independent States), OSCE (Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe), ICPO INTERPOL (International Criminal Police
Organization), MP (Member of Parliament (or Military Police)), COE (Council of
Europe), IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), IMF (International Monetary
Fund), UNSC (United Nations Security Council), WPC (World Peace Council),
WHO (World Health Organization) etc. The widespread use of initials in newspaper
language has been expanded to the names of persons constantly in the public eye and
we find references to LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson), JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy).
neologisms are very common in newspaper vocabulary. The newspaper is very
quick to react to any new development in the life of society, in science and
technology. Hence, neologisms make their way into the language of the newspaper
very easily and often even spring up on newspaper pages, e.g., sputnik, to outsputnik,
lunik, a splash-down (the act of bringing a spacecraft to a water surface), a teach-in (a
form of campaigning through heated political discussion), backlash, or white backlash
(a violent reaction of American racists to the Negroes' struggle for civil rights),
frontlash (a vigorous anti-racist movement), stop-go policies (contradictory,
indecisive and inefficient policies), teledish (a dish-shaped aerial for receiving
satellite TV transmissions), graphene (an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-
atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a
honeycomb crystal lattice), Geiger counter (a device for detecting radioactivity),
hybrid car (a car with a gasoline engine and an electric motor, each of which can
propel it), bioterrorism (the use of infectious agents or other harmful biological or
biochemical substances as weapons of terrirism).
As has already been said above the vocabulary of a news report is for the most
part devoid of emotional colouring. Some papers, however, tend to introduce

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emotionally coloured lexical units instead of their neutral synonyms, presumably
because they are more expressive and more vividly descriptive, e.g. ‘boom’ instead of
‘increase’ and words in their figurative meaning, e.g. ‘boost’ in the meaning
‘help’, ‘clash’ in the meaning ‘dispute’.
2.2.2 Grammatical peculiarities. As the reporter has to be brief and to cram as
much material as possible into the space allotted, a news report is characterized by a
peculiar composition and by a certain syntactic structure of sentences.
The initial physical paragraph usually consisting of a single sentence the so-
called ‘lead’ which both summarizes and begins to tell the story has a more or less
fixed word-order. Journalistic practice has developed what is called the ‘five-w-and-
h-pattern rule’ (who-what-why-how-where-when). In terms of grammar this fixed
sentence structure may be expressed in the following manner: Subject – Predicate
(+ Object) – Adverbial Modifier of Place – Adverbial Modifier of Time, e.g.
‘A neighbour’s peep through a letter box lead to the finding of a woman dead from
gas and two others semiconscious in a block of council flats in Eccles New Road,
Salford, Lancs., yesterday’. (The Guardian)
The size of a news report varies from one sentence to several, rather short
paragraphs. Generally, the shorter the news item, the more complex its syntactic
structure is. The following grammatical parameters are typical of a news report:
complex sentences with a developed system of clauses, e.g. ‘A Tory MP last
night hit out at a Commons report which suggested there may be serious social unrest
in Wales because of heavy unemployment’. (News of the World)
verbal constructions (infinitive, participial, gerundial) and verbal noun
constructions, e.g. ‘Unions representing engineering and technical workers at British
Leyland yesterday threatened industrial action to halt the planned axing of over 4,000
white collar jobs’. (Morning Star)
syntactical complexes, especially the Nominative-with-the Infinitive. These
predicative constructions are largely used to avoid mentioning the source of
information or to shun responsibility for the facts reported, e.g. ‘A large chunk of ice,
believed to have fallen from an aircraft, crashed through the roof, then through the
bedroom ceiling of a house in Leamington, Warwickshire, yesterday’. (Daily
Express)
attributive noun groups are another powerful means of effecting brevity in
news items, e.g. ‘heart swap patient’ (Morning Star), ‘the national income and
expenditure figures’ (The Times), ‘Labour backbench decision’. (Morning Star)

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 There are some other salient tendencies in news reporting:
a wide use of dashes which seem to have a sharper effect of separating words
and phrases from neighbouring text than do commas. Dashes have different functions
in a news report: they may add on an afterthought or enclose a parenthetic phrase,
e.g. ‘The committee – which was investigating the working of the 1969 Children and
Young Persons Act – said that some school children …’ (Morning Star)
a habit of news reporters to include a lot of information about the
participants of the events described. They are categorized, their names are usually
preceded and modified by such general terms, as owner, chief, businessman,
prisoner, official, e.g. Mr. Carpenter, Chief Secretary to the Treasury; and adjectives,
e.g. handsome French singer Bruno; twice-divorced, blue-eyed, blond actress Sally
Smith;
the age of a person is often given in a characteristic way, where the numeral
which modifies the proper noun, follows it, e.g. Mr. Green, 43;
an extensive use of quotations which are introduced both quite directly,
explicitly, e.g. N. said that or indirectly without quotation marks or somehow else.
a characteristic trick of reporters is to begin a sentence with an adverbial
phrase comprising Participle II, followed by some kind of complement, e.g.
interviewed at the scene last night; asked about…; when told of…;
explicitly expressed time and place adverbials, e.g. in Paris yesterday, facts
and figures, e.g. 66 people were killed in a bomb blast…;
news reporting has developed some new sentence patterns not typical of
other styles, firstly, it refers to the position of the adverbial modifier of definite
time, e.g. ‘Mystery last night surrounded the whereabouts of a girl who may never
know how rich she could be.’ (Sunday Mirror);
occasional violation of the Sequence of Tenses rule, e.g. ‘It was announced
in Cairo yesterday that elections will be held … (Daily Worker)’;
the use of the predicate verb of saying before the subject, i.e. the inverted
word-order, e.g. said Mr. Green.
What is ordinarily looked upon as a violation of grammar rules in any other kind
of writing appears to be a functional peculiarity of newspaper style.

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 2.3 Linguistic peculiarities of a headline

2.3.1. The headline (a title given to a news item or an article) is a dependent

form of newspaper writing. It is, in fact, a part of a larger whole. The main function
of the headline is to inform the reader briefly of what the text that follows is about.
But apart from this, headlines often contain elements of appraisal, i.e. they show the
reporter’s or the paper’s attitude to the facts reported.
As the headline in British and American newspapers is an important carrier of
both information and appraisal, editors give it special attention, admitting that few
people read beyond the headline, or at best the lead. To lure the reader into going
through the whole of the item or at least a greater pert of it, takes a lot of skill and
ingenuity on the part of the headline writer.
English headlines are short and catching, they ‘compact’ the gist of news stories
into a few eye-snaring words. A skillfully turned headline tells a story, or enough of
it, to arouse or satisfy the reader’s curiosity. Its telegraphic style is probably the best
known distinctive feature. The practices of headline writing are different with
different newspapers. In many papers there is, as a rule, but one headline to a news
item, whereas such papers as The Times, the Guardian, The New York Times often
carry a news item or an article with two or three headlines, and sometimes as many as
four. Such group headlines are almost a summary of the information contained in the
news item.
2.3.2. The functions and the peculiar nature of English headlines predetermine
the choice of the language means used.
The vocabulary peculiarities typical of brief news items and news reports are
commonly found in headlines. But headlines also abound in emotionally coloured
words, which are more descriptive as the italicized words in the following:
End this Bloodbath (Morning Star),
Crazy Waste of Youth (Reynolds News)
No Wonder Housewives are Pleading: ‘HELP’ (Daily Mirror).
Some words used in headlines are more economical as they are shorter, e.g.
‘aid’ and ‘deal’ are more economical than ‘assistance’ and ‘agreement’, respectively.
Here are some other most commonly used headline words:
to back to support
to bar to prohibit
cut reduction
jobless unemployed

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 blaze fire
claim demand
to split to divide
squeeze shortage
walk out strike
plea request for help
pact agreement
to quit to resign
to vow to promise

To attract the reader’s attention, headline writers often resort to a deliberate

breaking-up of set-expressions, in particular, fused set-expressions, and
deformation of special terms, a stylistic device capable of producing a strong
emotional effect, e. g. Cakes and Bitter Ale (The Sunday Times), Conspirator-in-chief
Still at Large (The Guardian). Compare respectively the allusive set-expression cakes
and ale, and the term commander-in-chief.
Other stylistic devices, as for example, the pun (e.g. ‘And what about Watt’ –
The Observer), alliteration (e.g. Miller in Maniac Mood – The Observer), etc. are
also popular.
2.3.3 Grammatically headlines are characterized by the tendency to eliminate
all elements that can be done without. It results in the so-called ‘abbreviated
grammar’ style and elliptical sentence structure. This peculiar brevity of
expression may take a variety of forms, e.g.:
the form of an elliptical sentence:
a. with an auxiliary verb omitted, e.g. ‘Initial report not expected until June!’
(The Guardian), ‘Yachtsman spotted’ (Morning Star);
b. with subject omitted, e.g. ‘Will win’ (Morning Star);
c. with the subject and part of the predicate omitted, e.g. ‘Off to the sun’
(Morning Star), ‘Still in danger’ (The Guardian)
the form of a simple sentence with articles omitted, e.g. ‘Frogman finds girl
in river’ (Daily Worker), ‘Blaze kills 15 at Party’ (Morning Star). Articles are very
frequently omitted in all types of headlines.
Syntactically headlines are characterized by different patterns of sentences and
phrases:
full declarative sentences, e.g. ‘They Threw Bombs on Gipsy Sites’ (Morning
Star), ‘Allies Now Look to London’ (The Times)

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 interrogative sentences, e.g. ‘Do you love war?’ (Daily World), ‘Who has
never had it so good?’ (Morning Star)
nominative sentences, e. g. ‘Gloomy Sunday’ (The Guardian), ‘Atlantic sea
traffic’ (The Times), ‘Union peace plan for girling stewards’ (Morning Star)
phrases with verbals – infinitive, participial and gerundial, e.g. ‘To get US
aid’ (Morning Star), ‘Keeping prices down’ (The Times), ‘Preparing reply on cold
war’ (Morning Star), ‘Speaking parts’ (The Sunday Times)
strings of three, four or more nouns in the attributive function before the
head noun, the so-called ‘heavy premodification’ structures, e.g. Furniture
Factory Pay Cut Riot.
questions in the form of statements, e.g. ‘The worse the better?’ (Daily
World), ‘Growl now, smile later?’ (The Observer)
complex sentences, e.g. ‘Senate Panel Hears Board of Military Experts Who
Favoured Losing Bidder’ (The New York Times), ‘Army Says It Gave LSD to
Unknown Gls’ (The International Herald Tribune)
headlines including Direct Speech
a. introduced by a full sentence, e.g. Prince Charles says, ‘I was not in trouble’
(The Guardian),
b. introduced elliptically, e.g. ‘The Queen: “My deep distress”’ (The Times).
the use of the Present tense form to denote an action which actually
happened in the past.
the use of an infinitive form with ‘to’ to express a future action, e.g. ‘MP to
Open Health Center’ – means that a member of Parliament is going to open a Health
Center.
the use of the Past Simple for reports in some court cases.
Though the above-listed patterns are the most typical ones they do not cover all
the variety in headline structure.

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2.4. Language practice

2.4.1 Text ‘Blaze at Charity Bonfire Damages Warehouses’

Two firemen were overcome by fumes and several bystanders slightly injured in
a fire last night at York 1), North Yorkshire.
The blaze was caused when flames from a Guy Fawkes Night bonfire 2)
organized in support of local charities 3) spread to nearby warehouses.
Firemen battled against the flames for several hours before getting them under
control, and at one time there were ten fire-engines in attendance at the blaze − the
largest in this part of North Yorkshire for more than five years.
Strong winds hampered operations, and at first there were fears that showers of
sparks might reach other warehouses some distance away, one of which − a paint-
store − could have exploded.
But firemen succeeded in confining the outbreak to warehouses containing less
inflammable materials.
The injured were allowed home after treatment at the local hospital, but one of
the firemen was detained for observation.
Early this morning a dense pall of smoke hung over the warehouses while
firemen continued to damp down the still smouldering debris.

Damage
According to the owner of the warehouses, local builder's merchant Mr. Arthur
Peel, damage was difficult to estimate at this stage.
“The warehouses worst affected contained a large quantity of timber and building
materials”, said Mr. Peel. “It seems unlikely that much of this can have escaped damage,
in which case the cost is likely to run into several thousand pounds”.
Interviewed at the scene last night, the Chief of the York fire-brigade, 42-year
old Mr. Fred Banks, who is responsible for bonfire-night safety measures in the
district, said that he thought the fire was “very unfortunate”.
The organizers had consulted him about the safety of the site, and he had
approved it, “provided the bonfire itself was kept in the centre of the site, and that
only wood was burnt on it”.
It seemed, however, that someone had thrown paper on to the fire, and the strong
wind had carried some of this to the warehouses.

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 There had also been reports that rival gangs of youths had been seen throwing
fireworks 4) at each other near the warehouses, and this might also have had
something to do with the fire starting.
Asked about the advisability of allowing a fire at all so near to buildings, Mr.
Banks pointed out that there was no other open space available, and that the risk
involved was negligible − given that the safety regulations would be “strictly
observed”.
When told of the fire chief’s remarks, the bonfire’s organizer, local businessman
Mr. Ron Green, denied than anyone had put paper on the bonfire.

Explanatory Notes
1)
York – a town in North Yorkshire, England.
2)
a Guy Fawkes Night bonfire – one of the most regularly observed national
customs in Great Britain is to light bonfires on November 5th − the anniversary of a
plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators,
hence the name of the event, which is also known as bonfire-night.
3)
in support of local charities – these bonfires are usually for private entertainment,
but occasionally they are organized on a larger scale and admission fees are charged
as a means of collecting money for charity.
4)
fireworks – a regular feature of bonfire night celebrations.

2.4.2. Text comprehension questions

1. During what social event did the fire take place? What caused it?
2. For what purpose was the bonfire organized?
3. Were there any people injured in the fire? If so, what were they and how
severe were the injuries that the victims of the fire received?
4. How did the firemen assess the scale of the fire?
5. How many fire-engines were there in attendance at the fire?
6. How quickly did the fire-brigade manage to get the fire under control?
7. What factors hampered extinguishing the fire?
8. What kind of medical help did the injured get?
9. What was the situation on the site the morning after the fire like?
10. Who are the organizers of the Bonfire Night celebration and what are they
responsible for?

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11. Why is it difficult to estimate the financial damage caused by the fire,
according to the owner of the warehouses?
12. How severely were the materials kept at the stores damaged?
13. What is the Chief of the York fire-brigade’s reaction to the event?
14. How does the Chief of the fire-brigade comment on the advisability of the
bonfire near the warehouses? What is his assessment of the degree of the
risk involved?
15. What is the opinion of the fire organizer as for the possibility of the safety
measures violation?
16. What versions of the fire causes are put forward by the people interviewed?
In what way could the actions of the youth gangs have caused the fire? What
violation of the safety rules might have had something to do with the fire
starting?

2.4.3 Analysis of genre peculiarities

of a newspaper publication

A)
1. What kind of information is conveyed by the newspaper writing? Specify
what event is in the focus of the newspaper publication.
2. Can the author’s attitude to the information conveyed be characterized as that
of a detached, unbiased observer?
3. Does the reporter project himself in the publication?

B)
1. Can the initial physical paragraph be considered a lead? Is it characterized by
a fixed word-order providing answers to the five traditional w-and-h
journalistic questions?
2. Is the paragraphing of the text typical of the general arrangement of a news
report reading matter? Comment on the syntactical structure of the sentences
constituting the paragraphs.
3. How is the logical connection between the paragraphs achieved? Comment on
the role of different adverbial connectors.
4. What lexical peculiarities is the headline characterized by? Why is the noun
“blaze” preferred to its neutral equivalent “fire”?
5. Characterize the grammatical peculiarities of the headline and the subheading
commenting on their “abbreviated grammar” style. Reconstruct their full
grammatical versions.

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6. Comment on the use of tense-forms in the headline.

C)
1. What is the stylistic value of the bulk of the vocabulary used in the newspaper
writing in question?
2. Pick out special economic terms and account for their use in the publication.
3. Is the text characterized by the use of terms pertaining to other spheres of
knowledge?
4. Is the publication illustrative of non-term political vocabulary?
5. Pick out clichéd, stereotyped word-combinations typical of a current
newspaper style. Find the corresponding clichés in the Ukrainian language.
Remember that their translation must be dynamic.
6. Is the text characterized by an extensive use of abbreviations?
7. Are there any cases of neologisms?
8. Find examples of a) more expressive and more vividly descriptive lexical
units; b) vocabulary units used in their figurative meaning and comment on
the stylistic effect achieved.
9. Comment on the stylistic difference between the pairs: a) run into – amount
to; b) damp down – extinguish.
10. What types of sentences prevail in the text? Does their structure reveal the
grammatical parameters typical of a news report?
11. Is the use of dashes characteristic of the publication in question? If so, find
examples of such and say what functions they perform.
12. What characteristic feature of news reporting is observed in introducing the
participants of the events described?
13. Is the text abundant in the use of quotations? Are they introduced directly or
indirectly?
14. Is the violation of a normal word-order in the phrase said Mr. Green
characteristic of news reporting style?
15. Find instances of a characteristic trick of journalists to begin an adverbial
phrase with Participle II and comment on their structure.
16. Make a conclusion concerning the genre of the newspaper writing under
analysis.

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 2.4.4 Assignments for text analysis in terms of
textlinguistic categories

The Categories of Informativity and Presupposition

1. What type of information is the publication in question characterized by?

2. Divide the factual information of the extract into conceptual paragraphs.
Briefly summarize each of them, making up an outline, the items of which
serving as key points of each paragraph.
3. Are there any facts of socio-historic and/or cultural character relevant in terms
of the category of presupposition? Comment on the background information
underlying them, for this purpose answer the questions that follow.
4. What historical events is the city of York associated with?
5. What do you know about the tradition to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night in
Great Britain? When is the holiday held? What historical event does the
celebration stem from? What are the festive procedures and activities?

The Category of Cohesion

1. What words can be treated as the main key-word holding together the logico-
semantic wholeness of the article? Explain your choice. In what way does
their recurrence contribute to the integrity of the text?
2. What words and word-combinations are logically connected with the key-
word “fire” and form the corresponding thematic group?
3. What role do the terms of economics play in the lexical cohesion of the text?
4. Distinguish thematic groups of words and word-combinations united by the
common notion of:
people’s professions and occupations
places and locations
medical treatment
inflammable materials, and others.
5. Find lexical units pertaining to the lexico-semantic groups of a) verbs of
speaking; b) verbs of firemen’s activities connected with the fire
extinguishing.

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 6. Comment on the role synonyms proper and contextual synonyms play in the
lexical cohesion of the text.
7. How does antonymy (both antonyms proper and contextual ones) reinforce
the lexical cohesion of the newspaper writing?
8. How do word-building means, namely affixation and compounding, reinforce
the lexical cohesion of the text?
9. Through what associative-semantic strings of words and word-combinations
is the lexical cohesion of the text also achieved?
10. How do means of supraphrasal cohesion, i.e. different adverbial connectors,
contribute to the perception of the newspaper writing as a logico-semantic
whole?
Compose and write a coherent essay summing up your observations on the
linguostylistic and textlinguistic peculiarities of the newspaper text “Blaze at
charity bonfire damages warehouses”.

Unit 3. A FEATURE ARTICLE

3.1 General Notes

3.1.1 General peculiarities of a feature article. A feature article is another

newspaper genre usually found on the inside pages of a newspaper. Feature articles
(or features) are very diverse in their subject-matter and cover a wide range of topics.
Sometimes they relate to events currently in the news, but most often they
concentrate on some single topic which is of perennial interest to public at large; and
sometimes it seems that journalists actually seek to create interest in the topics they
have chosen by writing about them.
Feature articles usually carry a considerable amount of information, but the
impression one gets is that the author’s main concern is to influence the reader by
giving subjective interpretation and assessment of certain facts, commenting upon
them and thus appealing not only to the reader’s mind, but to his / her feelings, as
well. As one would expect, the balance between information and evaluation varies
widely from newspaper to newspaper, and from article to article.
3.1.2 Linguostylistic peculiarities of a feature article
Generally speaking, the language found in a feature article has much in
common with that used for news reporting and it is quite natural, since both genres
belong to the newspaper style and are written by journalists. For example, although

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feature articles do not usually contain such a large amount of quoted material as is
found in many news reports, the ways of introducing it are often very similar.
Dashes, also, are rather freely used, and for similar purposes.
There are, however, certain differences of style both on the structural-
grammatical and lexical levels.
Structurally feature articles are characterized by:
a different size of paragraphs: very short paragraphs, typical of a news
report, are unlikely in a feature article, where they are usually rather long;
rather a wide use of rhetorical questions which would be absolutely unlikely
in a news report. Rhetorical questions are usually addressed to the reader in a attempt
to make him / her feel involved in a way that would be inappropriate for a news
report;
the use of certain grammatical forms and constructions suggesting
spoken English style: e.g. contracted verb forms like it’s, I’ve, he’s etc.;
the use of a successive Object Subordinate Clause introduced by the
conjunction ‘that’ as a separate sentence which sounds more of an afterthought
and produces an impression of colloquial speech.
Since journalists can usually spend more time on writing a feature article than
they can do on news reports, and also, probably, have rather more space at their
disposal, they are able to give a freer reign to their own individual stylistic tastes.
Hence, rather an extensive use of emotionally-coloured language elements.
In addition to the vocabulary typical of news reports – newspaper clichés and
other stereotyped forms of expression – a feature article is characterized by a wide
use of:
colloquial words and word-combinations;
slangisms and professionalisms;
highly emotive and thoroughly evaluative words;
a deliberate combination of different strata of vocabulary, e.g. colloquial
and bookish words, which enhances the emotional effect;
trite stylistic devices, especially, metaphors and epithets, e.g. a price
explosion, crazy policies, international climate;
traditional periphrases, e.g. Wall Street (American financial circles),
Downing Street (The British Government), Fleet Street (the London press) etc.

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 But genuine stylistic means are also frequently used, which helps the writer
to bring his / her idea home to the reader through the associations that genuine
imagery arouses. Practically any stylistic device may be found in a feature article, and
when aptly used, such devices prove to be powerful means of appraisal, of expressing
a personal attitude to the matter in hand, of exercising the necessary emotional effect
on the reader. Note the following example:
“That this huge slice of industry should become a battleground in which public
cash is used as a whip with which to lash workers is a scandal. …Yet it is the workers
who are being served up as the lambs for sacrifice, and it is public money that is used
to stoke the fires of the sacrificial pyre”. (Morning Star) The stylistic effect of these
sustained similes is essentially satirical.
A similar effect is frequently achieved by the use of metaphor, irony, the
breaking-up of set-expressions, the stylistic use of word-building, allusions, etc.
Two types of allusions can be distinguished in newspaper article writing: a.
allusions to political and other facts of the day which are indispensable and have no
stylistic value, and b. historical, literary and biblical allusions which are often used to
create a specific stylistic effect, largely – satirical.
The emotional force of expression is often enhanced by the use of various
syntactical stylistic devices: a. parallel constructions, b. various types of
repetition, rhetorical questions and other syntactical means.
Yet, the role of expressive language means and stylistic devices in a feature article
should not be overestimated. They stand out against the essentially neutral background.
Generally speaking, tradition reigns supreme in the language of the newspaper
as a separate functional variety of the English language. Individual forms of
expression and fresh genuine stylistic means are comparatively rare even in such
‘borderline’ newspaper genres as a feature article and an editorial or a leading article,
so, whatever stylistically original lingual means one may encounter in certain
newspaper publications, they cannot compete with the essentially traditional mode of
expression characteristic of newspaper English in general.

ASSIGNEMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

Make sure you can answer these questions.

1. Comment on the chief constraints in the area of news reporting.
2. What does the so-called shared authorship style of newspapers suggest?

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3. What kind of information does a news report carry and what is the manner in
which the reporter conveys it?
4. What are the most characteristic features of the reading matter layout in a
classical news report?
5. What lexical peculiarities of a news report result from the principal
communicative function of this newspaper genre and the pressures of time,
space and the shared authorship style?
6. Enumerate the main grammatical parameters typical of a news report.
7. What lexical peculiarities of English headlines serve to attract the readers’
attention and to lure them into going through the whole of the newspaper item
or, at least, a greater part of it?
8. What manifestations of the so-called “abbreviated grammar style” is the
headline characterized by?
9. How does a feature article differ from a news report in terms of the
information conveyed and the author’s attitude towards its presentation?
10. Enumerate those structural-grammatical peculiarities of a feature article
which distinguish it from a news report.

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 3.2 Language practice
3.2.1. Text ‘Linguistic gaps in English vocabulary’
Why does English have no phrase like “Bon
Appétit”? Has it ever occurred to you that there is no
simple way of expressing your hope that someone
will enjoy what he is about to eat? If you are
entertaining, and say to your guest as you put his
dinner before him “I hope you like it”, then he will
probably think one of two things: either that there is
an element of doubt about the meal, or that there is an
element of doubt about him! – that the food is
perhaps unusual, and he will not be enough of a
gastronomic sophisticate to appreciate it. You can be
certain of one thing – he will not interpret “I hope
you like it” in the same way that the Frenchman
interprets “Bon appétit” – as a wish that focuses itself
on the eater, and not on what is to be eaten. Those
opposed to English cooking 1) will no doubt explain
the lack by pointing to the quality of food in this
country; it’s so bad, they will say, that no one ever
really believes that it could be enjoyed. Hence, no
need for a phrase that enjoins enjoyment! But surely
not even English food can be as bad as all that.
Anyway, it’s not only a matter of food. Have
you never felt the need for a simple, universal and
socially neutral expression to use when drinking with
someone? The Spaniard has his “Salud”, the German
his “Prosit”, Swedes say “Skaal”, and the
Frenchman, simply and sincerely “Avotre sante”. But
what about the unfortunate English? For most of
them, “Good health” is impossibly old-fashioned and
stuffy. It may be all right for lawyers and
stockbrokers, doctors and dons, or for crusty colonels
2)
inside the four walls of a club; but in the boozer
down the Old Kent Road 3) it just sounds out of place.
It is true that there is a whole string of vaguely
possible alternatives that range from the mildly
jocular through the awkward to the phrase-book
bizarre 4); and if you listen carefully you may just
hear people still saying “Here’s mud in your eye”,
“Here’s the skin off your nose”, “Down the hatch” or
“All the best” as they sink their pints or sip their
sherries. But mostly they take refuge nowadays in
“Cheerio” or its truncated version “Cheers”. And
even here, for some people there is a sneaking
suspicion that the term is not quite right. That it is
somehow a shade too breezy, and comes most easily
from someone addicted to tweeds and the phrase
“Old chap” 5).
83
Even when taking our leave it seems
we English are victims of some strange
deficiencies in our valedictory vocabulary.
The standard term “Goodbye” is both too
formal and too final. It may be just the job for
ushering someone out of your life altogether;
but most leave-takings – for better or worse –
are temporary affairs. Perhaps in an attempt
to escape implications of finality, many
people now say “Bye bye” instead; others try
to make this particularly nauseating bit of
baby-talk more acceptable by shortening it to
“Bye”. And in place of those many leave-
takings which so easily accommodate the
idea of another meeting – “Au revoir”, “Auf
wiedersehen”, “Arrivederci” and so on, we
have, alas, only such sad colloquialisms as
“So long” and “I’ll be seeing you”.
These examples by no means exhaust
the areas in which the English language
doesn’t exactly help social contact. They have
been called “linguistic gaps” and tend to turn
up in some way or another in most languages.
But according to Mr. Daniel Kane – a lecturer
at the University of Chester 6) – there seem to
be more of them in English than in other
languages – at least other Western European
languages. At the moment Mr. Kane is
seeking funds to finance a small research
project into the problem. He wants first of all
to question a large number of people about
their feelings on the matter. “After all, I must
be certain that the man in the street is aware
of these gaps in the same way that I think I
am”, says Mr. Kane. And then he proposes to
compare English with several other languages
in this respect, and “Look for possible
sociological reasons” for the differences he
finds.
 Explanatory Notes
1)
Those opposed to English cooking – English people have always been fond
of jokes about English food. There is also a widely-held belief, half-serious, half-
jocular that all foreigners disapprove of English food.
2)
It is being suggested that the kind of people here – all of them, incidentally,
identified by reference to their time-honoured professions – are likely to be among
the more staid, conservative sections of the community, both socially and
linguistically.
3)
the Old Kent Road – a famous London street, where lots of ordinary people
may be found drinking in ordinary pubs.
4)
the phrase-book bizarre – a reference to the fact that books of useful phrases
for foreigners have acquired a reputation for sometimes containing oddly useless bits
of language.
5)
someone addicted to tweeds and the phrase “Old chap” – i.e. a rather
“upper-class” member of society. Tweeds is a reference to the type of clothing
associated with the popular image of “the country gentleman”; and it is being
suggested here that “Old chap” is to be regarded as a similar social marker, but of a
linguistic kind. There are several greetings of this form in English, in which “old” is
used not in its normal sense, but as a term of friendliness. These include “old man”,
“old boy”, “old girl” etc., and all carry overtones of the public school and upper
middle classes, and are perhaps generally thought of as being either slightly comic, or
too bluff and hearty.
6)
the University of Chester – fictitious, as is the research project.

3.2.2. Text comprehension questions

1. What problem is brought up in the present newspaper writing?

2. Which situations of British everyday life are characterized by the absence of
simple, universal and socially neutral words and word-combinations in the
English vocabulary?
3. In what way can the phrase “I hope you like it” concerning the food you offer
to your guests be interpreted?
4. Can this expression be regarded as an equivalent of its French counterpart
“Bon appétit”? Provide your explanations.
5. What expressions are there in the English language to use when drinking with

84
 someone, and why does the author call the English people “unfortunate” in
this respect?
6. Why does the phrase “Good health” sound out of place for ordinary people in
the pubs down the Old Kent Road?
7. What alternative phrases do the majority of English people resort to and why
does the author also find them inadequate?
8. What social groups of the British society are associated with clothes made of
tweed and the phrase “Old chap”?
9. What deficiencies is the English valedictory vocabulary characterized by in
the author’s opinion?
10. Who is seeking funds to finance a research project into the problem of
“linguistic gaps” and what are the aims and purposes of the project?

3.2.3. Analysis of genre peculiarities of a newspaper publication

A)

1. Does the information conveyed relate to events currently in the news or does
it focus on a single topic of certain social significance?
2. How does the journalist create interest in the topic chosen and make the
reader get involved in the discussion of the problem?
3. Is the balance between information and evaluation in favour of the former or
the latter? Provide your arguments and illustrate them by references from the
text.
B)

1. Comment on the arrangement of the information conveyed and the

composition of the publication.
2. How is the logical connection between different parts of the author’s
reasoning achieved so that the reader is led easily into the reading matter?
3. Does the headline deserve comment in terms of its vocabulary and grammar?
C)

1. Does the text contain a large amount of quoted material? What are the ways
of introducing it? Provide examples.
2. Is the text characterized by a wide use of dashes? What purposes do they
serve in the present text?
85
3. Which newspaper genre are the lexical peculiarities of the text in keeping
with – a news report or a feature article?
4. Does the author mainly rely on stereotyped forms of expression or give reign
to his individual stylistic preferences?
5. Find instances of deliberate combination of different stylistic strata of the text
vocabulary and comment on the stylistic effect achieved.
6. Pick out examples of highly emotive and thoroughly evaluative words and
account for their use proceeding from the author’s personal attitude to the
problem in hand.
7. Do we trace a wide use of trite stylistic imagery and/or genuine stylistic
devices?
8. What are the dominant stylistic devices the author makes use of to enhance
the emotional-expressive impact of his arguments on the reader?
9. What epithets and metaphors serve to express the author’s sympathy for his
compatriots in respect to certain deficiencies in the English vocabulary?
10. Does the use of some epithets ring the bell of certain social contradictions
and prejudices in the British society?
11. Make a conclusion about the genre of the newspaper writing under analysis.

3.2.4. Assignments for text analysis in terms of

textlinguistic categories

The Categories of Informativity and Presupposition

1. Which type of information is the newspaper publication under analysis

characterized by?
2. Into how many conceptual paragraphs does the factual information fall?
Briefly summarize each of them, making up an outline, the items of which
serving as key points of each part.
3. Find facts of socio-historical and/or cultural significance relevant in terms of
the category of presupposition and comment on the background information
underlying them. For this purpose answer the following questions.
4. Who is meant by “those opposed to English cooking”?
5. Why are English people of certain professions referred to as those who may
positively assess the phrase “Good health”?
6. What is Old Kent Road famous for?
7. Does the University of Chester belong to really existing British Universities?

86
 The Category of Cohesion

1. What words can be regarded as the main key-words of the text holding
together its logical-semantic integrity?
2. In what way does their recurrence contribute to the lexical cohesion of the
text?
3. What words and word-combinations are logically associated with the key-
words?
4. Distinguish thematic groups of words and word-combinations united by the
common notions of:
5. people speaking a certain language;
6. people of certain professions;
7. eating;
8. drinking;
9. leavetaking.
10. What lexico-semantic groups of words are conducive to the logico-semantic
integrity of the text?
11. What word-building means reinforce the lexical cohesion of the text?
12. How do various adverbial connectors make for the logico-semantic
wholeness of the writing?
13. Comment on the role synonyms proper and contextual synonyms play in the
lexical cohesion of the text.
14. How does antonymy (both antonyms proper and contextual ones) reinforce
the lexical cohesion of the newspaper writing?
15. Through what associative-semantic strings of words and word-combinations
is the lexical cohesion of the text also achieved?

Compose and write a coherent essay summing up your observations on the

linguostylistic and textlinguistic peculiarities of the newspaper text “Linguistic
Gaps in English Vocabulary”.

87
 Unit 4. Focusing on practice

4.1. Text ‘Gang arrested over plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham’

Tony Thompson
Four men and a woman were
arrested last week after an alleged
£5m plot to kidnap Victoria
Beckham 1), one-half of Britain's
highest profile couple.
The five Albanians and
Romanians were arrested by officers
from the Metropolitan Police's
Serious and Organised Crime
branch in London and Surrey 2).
They were being held in connection
with offences of theft and
conspiracy to kidnap.
Ms 3) Beckham, 28, was told of
the plot. She then watched her
husband, David 4), play for
Manchester United against
Southampton, but did not tell him
until after the game. "It's terrifying
to think that someone would want to
do that to you and your children. I'm
in absolute and total shock," she
said.
The alleged plot came to light
after two reporters from the News of
The World infiltrated the gang.
Stuart Kuttner, managing editor of
the Sunday newspaper, said. "About
six weeks ago we were alerted that a
gang of Romanian and Albanian
criminals, or people of that
persuasion, had a plan to try to
kidnap Victoria Beckham and hoped
to collect a ransom of £5m."
According to the newspaper,
the gang planned to use a spray to
sedate Ms Beckham in her car as it
pulled out of the drive of the
couple's mansion in Hertfordshire.
She would then have been held for
ransom in a house in south London,
where a room had been prepared. If
she had had her sons, Brooklyn and
Romeo, with her at the time, they
would have been held as well.
Two years ago police uncovered
a plan to kidnap Ms Beckham and
her first son Brooklyn, now three.
The Beckhams, who are known
universally as "Posh and Becks" –
Victoria rose to stardom in the Spice
Girls pop group 5) – have become
Britain's most photographed couple
since they met at a football match in
1997. The Observer

88
 Explanatory Notes

1)
Victoria Beckham – an English singer, songwriter, dancer, fashion designer,
author, businesswoman, actress and model. Mrs Beckham first came to notoriety as
Busty-Posh Spice in the UK all-girl band the Spice Girls, which has since found its
place in history as the luckiest band ever.
2)
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is the name currently used by the
territorial police force which is responsible for Greater London (the administrative
structure of Greater London includes 33 separate boroughs, 14 of which constitute
Inner London and the others Outer London), the City of London being the
responsibility of the City of London Police. It is commonly referred to as the
Metropolitan Police, and informally as "the Met" or sometimes MP. The MPS is the
largest force in the United Kingdom. The headquarters is at New Scotland Yard in
Westminster, commonly known as Scotland Yard.
3)
Ms is used as a formal title in front of the name of a woman, whether she is
married or not, when talking to her or about her. Mrs is usually only used for married
women who have the same family name as their husband. Miss is used as a title for
unmarried women, and sometimes married women who did not change their name
when they got married, but many women now consider this old-fashioned and prefer
Ms as their title.
4)
David Beckham – English football player, who gained international fame for
his onfield play as well as for his highly publicized personal life. He is an established
member of the England national team. Twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the
Year and in 2004 the world's highest-paid footballer. With such global recognition he
has become an elite advertising brand and a top fashion icon.
4)
The Spice Girls were an English girl group formed in 1994. They consisted of
Victoria Beckham (née Adams), Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm,
and Geri Halliwell. They are considered to be the most successful girl group of all
time. They have sold 65 million records worldwide with only four albums and eleven
singles, making them the most successful British band since The Beatles and the best
selling girl group of all time. They were the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s,
according to a survey carried out by Trivial Pursuit, winning by 80 percent in a poll
of 1,000 people carried out for the board game, stating that "Girl Power" defined the
decade. In June 1998, Geri Halliwell left the group in the middle of numerous
rumours. The four remaining members released the third album, but went their
separate ways in late 2000 to focus on their solo careers.

89
 4.1.1 Text comprehension questions

1. What event is in the focus of the newspaper writing?

2. Who are the organisers of the plot of kidnapping? What information about the
plot organisers is already known to the police? Who was the victim? What
was the purpose of the alleged plot?
3. What crimes are the organisers of the plot charged with?
4. Why didn’t Victoria Beckham share the news about the plot of kidnapping
with her husband shortly after she had been informed of that?
5. How did Ms Beckham comment on her emotional state when she got to know
about the plot?
6. In what way did the reporters of the News of the World facilitate uncovering
of the alleged plot?
7. What details of Victoria Beckham’s kidnapping plot were revealed by the
Sunday newspaper?
8. Was it the first attempt of kidnapping the famous couple or their children?
9. What are the Beckhamsfamous for?

4.1.2 Analysis of genre peculiarities of a newspaper publication

A)
What kind of information is conveyed by the newspaper writing? Specify the
event that is in the focus of the publication.
1. Can the author’s position be characterised as that of a detached, unbiased
observer?

B)
1. Can the initial physical paragraph be regarded as a lead? Is the ‘five-w-and-
h-pattern rule’ observed here?
2. How is the reading matter of the newspaper writing in question arranged?
Comment on the size of the paragraphs and the syntactic structure of the sentences
constituting them.
3. How is the logical connection between the paragraphs achieved to lead the
reader easily and quickly through the reading matter?
4. Can the headline be regarded as an instance of the “abbreviated grammar”
style? Reconstruct its full grammatical version.

90
C)
1. Is the text characterised by a wide use of dashes? What functions do they perform?
2. Does the text contain much quoted material? Is it introduced directly or indirectly?
3. What is the stylistic value of the bulk of the vocabulary used in the newspaper
writing in question?
4. What role does the use of the Superlative Degree play in presenting the image of the
Beckhams?
5. Pick out clichéd, stereotyped word-combinations typical of a current newspaper
style.
6. What types of sentences prevail in the text? Does their structure reveal the
grammatical parameters typical of a news report?
7. Make a conclusion concerning the genre of the newspaper writing under analysis.

4.1.3 Assignments for text analysis in terms of

textlinguistic categories

The Categories of Informativity and Presupposition

1. What type of information is the publication in question charcaterised by?

2. Divide the factual information of the extract into conceptual paragraphs.
Briefly summarize each of them, making up an outline, the items of which serving as
key points of each paragraph.
3. Find the facts of social and cultural character (if any) relevant in terms of the
category of presupposition commenting on the background information underlying
them. For this purpose answer the questions that follow.
4. What spheres of the social and cultural life of the British society are Victoria
and David Beckham involved in?
5. What administrative district of England is the Metropolitan Police Service
responsible for?

The Category of Cohesion

1. What word can be treated as the main key-word holding together the logical-
semantic wholeness of the article? Explain your choice. In what way does its
recurrence contribute to the integrity of the text?
2. What words and word-combinations are logically connected with the key-
word and form the corresponding thematic group?
3. Pick out words and word-combinations pertaining to the thematic groups

91
 united by the common notions of:
newspaper
family relations
fame and popularity
football
4. What lexico-semantic groups of words are conducive to the semantic
wholeness of the article?
5. Comment on the role synonyms proper and contextual synonyms play in the
lexical cohesion of the text.
6. How does antonymy (both antonyms proper and contextual ones) reinforce
the lexical cohesion of the newspaper writing?
7. Through what associative-semantic strings of words and word-
combinations is the lexical cohesion of the text also achieved?

Compose and write a coherent essay summing up your observations on

the linguostylistic and textlinguistic peculiarities of the newspaper text
“Gang arrested over plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham”.

92
 4.2 Text ‘Pacific warming kills thousands of mammal pups’
Giles Whittell
in Los Angeles
reports on the
wildlife toll 1)
of El Niño 2)
BABY seals and sea lions,
deprived of food by the oceanic
warming of El Niño, the weather
phenomenon, are dying by the
thousand on the islands off southern
California.
More than 6,000 pups have
starved to death this breeding season
on one tiny island alone. There, and
along the Californian coast, the death
rate is expected to rise as adult
females of both species are forced to
roam long distances for cold water and
food, returning unable to support their
young.
News of the losses came as Los
Angeles began cleaning up after the
year’s first big El Niño storm
drenched the city with up to seven
inches of rain over the weekend. The
storm flooded mobile home parks and
the artists’ enclave of Laguna Beach,
Orange County, and brought traffic
chaos to a place unused to rain.
Wildlife, however, has so far borne
the brunt of El Niño.
The worst-hit marine mammal
colonies are on the beaches of the
Channel Islands National Park, a
unique archipelago 50 miles west of
Los Angeles that is home to the largest
populations of California sea lions and
northern fur seals outside
Alaska. Scientists are
maintaining a watching brief,
forbidden by law from intervening in
what so far appears to be a process of
natural selection. Rescue efforts are
under way by conservation groups on
the mainland, however, where many
consider the current severe El Niño
pattern to be caused at least partly by
man-made global warming.
Perched on the edge of the
continental shelf, the Channel making available between $5.6
California
Islands usuallyseagive
lionsseals
can normally
and searely on vast shoals(£3.3
million of cold water fish forand
million) food
lions easy access to shoals of $7.01 million to help countries,
herring, sardine and anchovy in cold including Indonesia and Papua
ocean waters to the north and west. New Guinea, hit by El Niño.
In normal years a massive (AFP)
“cold water upwelling” also
nourishes a kelp forest and vast
blooms of krill, which in turn
support migrating blue whales.
The periodic warming of the
Eastern Pacific, known as El Niño,
has already brought freak numbers
of tropical fish to US waters. The
phenomenon has now been even
more graphically illustrated by the
emaciated sea lion pups sucking in
vain on their mothers’ teats and
lying down to die.
Of the 23,000 sea lions born
this summer, 4,500 have so far died
of malnutrition, according to Bob
DeLong of the National Marine
Fisheries Service. Their death rate is
expected to rise fourfold to match
the 75 per cent death rate among
baby seals: 1,500 of the 2,000
northern fur seals born on San
Miguel Island since June have died.
International conservation
treaties have helped both species to
thrive along America’s West Coast
since the 1950s, but experts fear that
this year’s El Niño, the worst on
record, could wipe out an entire
generation of adult females.
“They’ve used up all their
blubber on lactation,” Mr DeLong
told yesterday’s Los Angeles Times.
“They’ve got no reserve energy and
they’re just going to go back in that
same damned ocean. They’re going
to need to find cold water, and I
think that’s going to be hard.”
Manila: The International
Committee of the Red Cross is
93
 Explanatory Notes

1)
Toll – used mainly in newspaper headline language to denote the total number
of people who have been killed. Here: of wildlife.
2)
El Niño – is a warm ocean current of variable intensity that develops after late
December along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and sometimes causes catostrophic
weather conditions, e.g. flood, droughts, warming and other weather disturbances in
many regions of the world. El Niño is Spanish for “the boy” and refers to the Christ
child, because periodic warming in the Pacific near South America is usually noticed
around Christmas.

4.2.1 Text comprehension questions

1. What problem is covered in the newspaper publication under study?

2. Which species of ocean mammals fell victims to El Niño?
3. What is the reported wildlife toll of El Niño?
4. What geographical areas were worst affected by the warm current of El Niño?
5. Where and why is the death rate among baby seals and sea-lions expected to
rise?
6. What are the destructive consequences of the year’s first big El Niño storm
and who has borne the brunt of El Niño so far?
7. What is reported to be home to the largest populations of California sea lions
and northern fur seals outside Alaska?
8. What rescue measures are taken by scientists and conservation groups and
what do they consider to be the cause of the current severe El Niño pattern?
9. What usually gives mammal population easy access to cold water fish,
enumerate what kinds of fish these are?
10. Why are baby seals and sea lions dying by the thousand and how many of
them have so far died according to the National Marine Fisheries Survice?
11. What is the role of the international conservation treaties in saving both
species and what are experts apprehensive about?
12. What is the indispensable condition for wildlife’s survival?
13. What amount of money is going to be spent on the assistance to the
countries hit by El Niño?

94
 4.2.2 Analysis of genre peculiarities of a newspaper publication

A)
1. Does the information conveyed concern the event that has recently taken place
or/and does it concentrate on the problem of general human interest?
2. Does the journalist’s position seem to be that of an unbiased observer or does he
impose his assessment and emotional attitude to the facts discussed on the reader?
If it is so, what language means serve this purpose?
3. What is the correlation between pure, matter-of-fact information and elements of
appraisal and appeal to the reader in the text?

B)
1. Can the initial physical paragraph be treated as an instance of a lead?
2. What paralinguistic features of the publication serve to attract the casual reader’s
attention? Comment on the splash headline, subheading and the arresting picture.
3. Do the headlines’ grammar and vocabulary meet the requirements of the
newspaper style? Comment on them.
4. Which newspaper genre is the topographical design of the writing more
characteristic of – a news report or a feature article? Comment on the size and the
syntactic structure of the paragraphs.

C)
1. Is there a large amount of quotations in the text? How are they introduced?
2. Which grammatical forms used in the writing are suggestive of spoken English
style?
3. Which mode of expression prevails in the text – the clichéd, stereotyped
vocabulary or the author’s stylistic idiosyncratic preferences?
4. What language and paralinguistic means serve to evoke the reader’s compassion
for the dying sea animals?
5. Is the newspaper writing characterized by a wide use of scientific terminology?
Which field of knowledge does it refer to?
6. Which stylistic devices are preferred by the author: trite or genuine ones?
7. What epithets illustrate the author’s subjective handling of the information
conveyed?
8. What conclusion can be drawn in respect to the genre of the newspaper writing in
question? What ‘borderline’ genre features can be observed both on the structural
and lexical levels of the text?

95
 4.2.3 Assignments for text analysis in terms of
textlinguistic categories

The Categories of Informativity and Presupposition

1. Which type of information prevails in the newspaper writing under analysis?

2. Into how many conceptual paragraphs can the factual information be segmented?
Briefly summarize each of them, making up an outline the items of which serving
as key points of each part.
3. What facts relevant in terms of the category of presupposition are there in the text?
Comment on the background information underlying them. For this purpose
answer the following questions.
4. What is El Niño, what areas of the world ocean is it observed in and what
consequences does it cause?
5. Provide information concerning the following geographical names: California, Los
Angeles, Laguna Beach, Orange County, The Channel Islands, Alaska, San Miguel
Island, The Pacific, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea.

The Category of Cohesion

1. What words can be treated as the main key-words of the text integrating it into a
global logico-semantic whole?
2. What words and word-combinations are logically associated with the key-words?
3. Pick out words and word-combinations pertaining to the thematic groups united by
the common notions of:
sea-animals
food for sea animals
destructive consequences of El Niño for human life
destructive influence of El Niño on wildlife
4. What lexico-semantic groups of words make for the lexical cohesion of the text?
5. How does antonymous relations reinforce the lexical cohesion of the newspaper
writing in question?
6. Comment on the role synonyms proper and contextual synonyms play in the
lexical cohesion of the text.
7. How do the hyperonymic-hyponymic relations affect the logico-semantic
wholeness of the text?
8. How do numerous geographical names used in the text contribute to its integrity?

Compose and write a coherent essay summing up your observations on

the linguostylistic and textlinguistic peculiarities of the newspaper text
“Pacific warming kills thousands of mammals pups”.
96
 Supplement I
GLOSSARY OF SPEECH PATTERNS AND CLICHÉS TO BE USED IN
THE COURSE OF A NEWSPAPER TEXT ANALYSIS

I. The Presentation of a Text

The article under consideration entitled ‘…’, published in ‘…’, issued on the
… is a piece of newspaper writing, which is, to my mind/my point of view/ can be
regarded as a feature/newspaper report due to the following factors. …
First of all, the kind of information conveyed is of a purely mater-of-fact and
objective character concerning the event, which has recently taken place, namely,
(Who, Where, How, etc).
As for the author’s attitude to the event described, it is that of a detached
observer who informs the reader without giving his/her assessment of the facts
described and without commenting upon them.
One more argument in favour of this writing to be a newspaper is the layout
of the information provided in the text in order to present a good deal of information
in the most readable and interesting way.
The reading matter of the given writing is strictly paragraphed and characterised
by a careful arrangement into 2-3 columns that split into 10 crisp physical paragraphs,
consisting of compound/complex/simple sentences, for example: …
More than that, the connection between paragraphs is made as smooth as
possible due to various adverbial connectives (conj., connective words, parentheses,
etc.).
Besides the newspaper writing in question/under consideration has
heading/subheading/both the headline, namely ‘…’ and the subheading, namely ‘…’
It should be pointed out that like any news reports the writing under
consideration is characterized by the abbreviated grammar, namely the absence of the
articles and the use of the Present Tenses instead of the Past Tenses, that is why a full
version from the grammatical point of view would have read as ‘…’.
One more lexical peculiarity of the newspaper is the so-called lead, which
coincides with the 1st (1st -2nd) paragraph and is treated indispensable component of a
news report, which comprises the answers to the 5 W-H-questions,
Who ‘…’
Where ‘…’
97
 When ‘…’
Why ‘…’
How ‘…’
Apart from this, we should take into consideration the use of typical of a news
report linguo-stylistic peculiarities. Since the text is concerned with the ‘…’, we
observe the use of specific terms connected with ‘…’:
Another lexical peculiarity of the writing in question is the use of newspaper
clichés: …
Additionally a news report is characteristic of some expressive emotionally
coloured words, which are used instead of the neutral counterparts/equivalents, for
example: …
One more point to be made is that the author relies on preferred forms of
expression and even though he resorts to the stylistic device of (metaphor), namely ‘…’.
One more functional peculiarity of the news report is the use of appositions in
order to lay a special focus on some information.
Alongside this, the author makes use of subjunctive mood to show some kind
of evaluation within the text presented: …
The above-mentioned information enables us to conclude that the news item
under analysis is a news report.
II. The Category of Informativity

Analyzing the text in terms of category of informativity, we must admit that,

since the writing under analysis is a piece of newspaper writing, only one type of
information can be elicited from it, namely, the factual one. Thus, as we can see it,
the factual information can be formulated in the following way: …
The reading matter of the present article is strictly paragraphed and
characterized by a careful arrangement into ‘…’ columns. Thus, in terms of its factual
information, the article can be segmented into ‘…’ logically complete parts.
Gist (Summary) of the Factual Information

The first logical part coinciding with the first physical paragraph…
The second / the third / the following / the ensuing / the final / the concluding
logical part
comprising / consisting of / including / embracing / covering / uniting / holding
together the 3d and the 4th physical paragraphs …
98
 deals with the description of … / focuses on the description / depiction of … /
provides the information about … / highlights smth. / concerns smth. / concerns itself
with smth. / renders the talk between … / is devoted to … / depicts smth. / portrays
smth. / smb. / casts light on smth. / looks closely at smth.
In the 1st logically complete part the journalist depicts / turns to the description
of … / introduces smb. / smth. / claims that… / brings forth the contrast between…/
points out that… / stresses that… / emphasizes that…/ further develops the idea of /
particularizes smth. / goes in for a variety of details characterizing smth. /smb. / goes
into the minutest details in respect of / with respect to smth. /smb. / makes a step back
in the narration / passes over to the description / characterization of… / concludes this
part by voicing his/her attitude to… / by painting a character’s portrait in full accord
with his/her moral properties etc.
III. The Category of Presupposition

The above / the above formulated factual information is extended by… / is

complemented by a number of facts relevant in terms of the category of
presupposition which require a certain amount of background knowledge on the part
of the reader.
There are some facts in the text that are relevant in terms of the category of
presupposition and broaden the volume of the factual information.
The factual information of the text is not confined to the facts described /
summed up above. It is enriched by a certain amount of background information
which comprises two different groups of facts:
1. facts of general socio-historical significance, usually references to some
facts of historical, social, cultural, political, ideological, economic life of the
society described, of some national customs and traditions etc.;
2. allusions to the works of world literature, including ancient mythology and
the Bible and/or references to their characters (personages).
The reader is expected to be aware of these facts to fully comprehend,
appreciate, evaluate and assess a work of verbal art, e.g. in the 2nd physical
paragraph the author implicitly refers to the historical event which the reader is
expected to know…; in the 9th physical paragraph another manifestation of the
category of presupposition is observed, namely, the Biblical allusion to …

99
 IV. The Category of Cohesion

Now let’s have a closer look at those means of the lexical cohesion which
contribute to the logico-semantic and artistic wholeness of the text under analysis.
It is generally recognized that among various means of any text cohesion
lexical means of cohesion play the crucial role because they, first and foremost, make
for the logico-semantic globality of the text.
One of the means through which the lexical cohesion finds its expression in the
text is the recurrence of the key-words.
In the present text the following key-words hold the logico-conceptual integrity
of the text together, they are: …
Since the author depicts / shows / portrays / mentions sth., it is quite natural
that … (some word) functions as the main / one more / can be regarded as the main
key-word.
The lexical cohesion of the text finds its expression in …
One of the main means of the lexical cohesion is …
One more / another means of the lexical cohesion is …
Besides, the lexical cohesion of the text results from a wide / extensive use of sth;
The lexical cohesion of the text is also achieved / reinforced / enhanced /
through sth;
The cohesive potential of the word … is supported / reinforced / enhanced by …
Apart from this, the cohesive potential / capacity of the key-word … is reinforced
by the words and word-combinations logically associated with the idea of …;
Alongside this, the use of words belonging to the lexico-semantic groups of
antonyms united by the notion of … and … also contributes to the lexical cohesion of
the text;
A very important role in the lexical cohesion of the text is played by the
synonyms proper and contextual synonyms. Among them: synonyms proper …;
contextual synonyms …, which explicitly / implicitly pertain to the notion of ….
The cohesive power of the key-word … is not confined to the above said,
because this word is logically associated with the words and word-combinations
united by the notion of… thus forming the thematic group …
Though the key-word … is not very frequently repeated in the present text its
cohesive power is enhanced by the contextual synonyms: …
100
 Alongside this, in the text under analysis a number of antonyms to the key-
word … are observed. The use of lexemes with the opposite meanings also makes for
the logico-semantic unity of the text.
The key-word … is supported by a number of contextual synonyms which
make for the wholeness and integrity (logico-semantic unity) of the text: …
The key-words enter a number of word-combinations which cover the text with
a kind of thematic network.
The use of words pertaining to one and the same lexico-semantic group is
another means of lexical cohesion which contributes to the logico-semantic unity of
the text.
Since the conceptual core of … is distinguished in the present text it is only
natural that there are words united by the common notion “…“ and belonging to the
LSG “…”. So, they also contribute to the lexical cohesion of the present text.
Another means of the lexical cohesion within this text is the use of words and
word-combinations referring to the same thematic group with the underlying notion
of …
Now let’s have a closer look at those grammatical means of cohesion which
ensure the formal integrity within the text.
To show / illustrate how the means of grammatical cohesion function / work in
the text I have chosen the paragraph where they find their most vivid expression.
The conjunction … semantically relates to and grammatically connects this
sentence with the previous one.
One more grammatical means of cohesion within this part of the text is …
which correlates the whole sentence with …
The unity of the tense forms, namely, … makes for the expression of the
author’s idea of …
The pronoun “…”, as well as other means of grammatical cohesion, functions
as a means of secondary nomination, which is in its turn semantically related to and
grammatically connected with … through another means of grammatical cohesion,
namely …
This grammatical means of cohesion substitutes for its antecedent …

101
 Supplement II
SAMPLE ANALYSIS OF A FEATURE ARTICLE

Read the feature article which is analyzed in terms of the textlinguistic

categories.

In Siberia, climate change comes to the coldest

village on earth
Alec Luhn, OYMYAKON
25 APRIL 2019

The Siberian village of Oymyakon is regarded as the coldest permanently-

inhabited place on earth.
Though it is only a few degrees of latitude further north than Aberdeen, the
village of 500 residents is in a mountain valley where cool air pools, isolated from
warmer currents by the “Siberian high” pressure system and the Chersky range.
Yet even here, the effects of global warming are already being felt.
There are no walruses tumbling to their deaths like in David Attenborough's
new Our Planet series. (That was in the neighbouring Chukotka region.) But as the
permafrost soil thaws in this region, thousands of people have had to move to new
housing, forests are burning more often and animals face new predators and diseases.
When I arrived after a bumpy 26-hour journey on the gravel “road of bones” -
which is built over the remains of gulag labourers - it was -22C in Oymyakon. Locals
described this as “warm” as they took me for a bracing dip at a place where an
underground stream prevents the river from freezing.
The next morning it was a more respectable -45C, cold enough to make a cup of
hot water freeze instantly when we threw it into the air. Yet it was still far from the
record of -68C recorded in the “Pole of Cold” in 1933.
“Severe frosts happen a lot less now,” said my host Tamara Vasilyeva, who was
born in 1947.
I asked her what is considered a “severe frost” in Oymyakon. “Negative 60.”
It seems almost funny to discuss, but data shows that the average 10-year
temperature has increased by one degree Celsius in Oymyakon since the 1930s, and by
nearly two degrees in the regional capital Yakutsk. The yearly average temperature for
the whole the region has risen by about three degrees in the past half century.

102
 Weather is more erratic and the seasons are changing. Ducks and crows arrive
earlier and stay later in the year, along with brightly-coloured birds from the south
that residents haven't seen before.
More heat means more wildfires, including 10 times more hotspots in the
Russian Arctic, once almost fire-free, than a decade ago.
It's also snowing more: a study last year found precipitation had increased in 70
per cent of the region of Yakutia in the past 50 years, insulating the soil under more
snow and raising the spectre of greater flooding.
Last summer, president Vladimir Putin had to allocate more than £9 million in
emergency funding to Yakutia to restore housing lost in flooding and wildfires. At
least one person died fighting blazes that destroyed more than 1 million hectares of
forest in the region.
The region is still very cold, but the seemingly small temperature changes are
beginning to thaw the permanently frozen soil here.
In Yakutsk, construction engineer Eduard Romanov said the impact on buildings
was visible. He pointed at the wall of the meeting room where we were sitting,
which, on closer inspection, was riven by several metre-long cracks.
Most buildings in Yakutsk are built on concrete piles driven through an “active"
surface layer, which sometimes thaws, into colder permafrost below. But this active
layer, which has deepened from 2.7 metres on average to 3.5, is thawing and
refreezing more often, slowly disintegrating the piles along with increased
precipitation.
Stepping into the frosty air outside, we crossed the main square and immediately
stumbled upon a building whose windows had gone drunkenly askew as the
foundation warped.
Even the buildings of the Triumph stadium complex, which was hosting the
freestyle Wrestling World Cup that weekend, were cracked in several places.
“We need to pay more attention to ongoing renovations. We can't allow a
catastrophe,” said city worker Olga Banschikova, displaying a digitised map with
photographs of every building foundation in Yakutsk.
But all this is a drain on already cash-strapped budgets. Moscow has allocated
£720 million to the region to resettle residents of condemned buildings in the next six
years. Yakutsk alone has already resettled more than 6,000 people.
It's plain to see that the biggest victims of climate change will be animals native
to the area.
The lake islands where the Siberian crane nests to avoid danger are starting to
flood more often, while new predators like the wolverine, sable and brown bear are
103
moving north.
Pests like snakes, rats and new parasites have established a foothold in the
region for the first time.
An uncertain future also awaits the reindeer, the linchpin of indigenous people's
livelihood across the north.
Of the 140,000 reindeer counted between the Yana and Indigirka rivers in 1990,
only 2,000 remained last year, and scientists aren't sure where the rest have gone,
according to biologist Innokenty Okhlopkov.
Migration routes are changing as reindeer lichen disappears in warmer areas.
More and more often, it rains and then freezes, covering the lichen with a layer of ice
so the reindeer have difficulty eating.
“People in the north won't be able to follow their traditional livelihood, reindeer
herding and fishing,” Mr Okhlopkov said. “Everything will turn into a swamp.”
Anthrax, rare in recent years, has returned to Siberia with a vengeance as spores
preserved in thawing permafrost enter the water cycle and food chain. An outbreak in
the northern region of Yamal in 2016, which experts blamed on a record heat wave,
killed some 2,000 reindeer and a 12-year-old boy. Yakutia has more animal burial
grounds than any other region.
People in Yakutia know what a climate-related extinction event looks like: A
major source of income in rural areas is gathering the tusks of woolly mammoths,
who died out after the last ice age.
Yet there is little sense of threat here. Many still believe that global warming is
caused not by human-generated emissions but by natural cycles.
At an Arctic forum this month, Mr Putin, who once joked climate change would
save Russians money on fur coats, said his country was warming even faster than
previously estimated.
But this was little more than an afterthought as he announced a new Arctic
development strategy, including oil and gas infrastructure, ports and nuclear
icebreakers on the northern sea route and tax breaks to draw investors to the north.
The situation was “sad for the bears,” Mr Putin admitted, but nonetheless the
huge energy reserves in the Arctic needed to be extracted and “delivered in the
service of humanity”.
Sweeping changes are necessary. Russia could start by ratifying the Paris
climate agreement and setting a later baseline for emissions cuts than 1990, a year
when Soviet factories were working at an inflated tempo.
But few are willing to make sacrifices to solve a global problem - sell the car,

104
forego another pair of shoes, don't fly for a weekend getaway - even when in the
coldest place on earth, people know the climate is changing.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/siberia-climate-change-comes-
coldest-village-earth/

Sample analysis of the feature article

‘In Siberia, climate change comes to the coldest village on earth’

The text under analysis is a piece of newspaper writing headlined ‘In Siberia,
climate change comes to the coldest village on earth’, comes from ‘The Telegraph’
written by Alec Luhn, issued on the 25th of April, 2019, which in my opinion can be
regarded as a feature article as it possesses a number of features typical of this genre.
First of all, as far as the kind of information conveyed in the article is concerned,
it should be stated that like any feature article it does not relate to events currently in
the news, it focuses on a single topic of certain social significance, namely, the more
increasing problem of global warming that reached even the coldest region in the
world – Siberia, which harmfully influences environment and people’s and animals’
lives.
Another factor in favour of the newspaper writing to be a feature article is a
clear and attractive topography, or layout, of the reading matter which is presented in
the most readable and readily interesting way with the use of different sizes of type
for the headline “In Siberia, climate change comes to the coldest village on earth” and
the body of the text itself. Apart from this, the reading matter of the text is carefully
arranged and falls into 35 rather short physical paragraphs. In this connection, it
should be pointed out that though the arrangement of the present text is more typical
of news report, such division can be observed in feature article, too. Most of the
sentences are composite, therefore, different types of composite sentences are found
in the article: – compound sentences (e.g. “Weather is more erratic and the seasons
are changing.”); – complex sentences (e.g. “At least one person died fighting blazes
that destroyed more than 1 million hectares of forest in the region.”); – complex-
compound sentences (e.g. “Of the 140,000 reindeer counted between the Yana and
Indigirka rivers in 1990, only 2,000 remained last year, and scientists aren't sure
where the rest have gone, according to biologist Innokenty Okhlopkov.”).
As for the author’s attitude towards the facts described, I think that the balance
between information and evaluation is in favour of the latter. The text in question
carries a considerable amount of information, but it seems to me that the author’s
concern is to influence the reader by giving subjective interpretation and assessment
of certain facts, commenting upon them and thus appealing not only to the reader’s
mind, but to his/her feelings, as well, as for example in the 15 th paragraph: ‘In
105
Yakutsk, construction engineer Eduard Romanov said the impact on buildings was
visible. He pointed at the wall of the meeting room where we were sitting, which, on
closer inspection, was riven by several metre-long cracks.’, in the 17th paragraph:
‘Stepping into the frosty air outside, we crossed the main square and immediately
stumbled upon a building whose windows had gone drunkenly askew as the
foundation warped.’.
It should be mentioned that the use of dashes and appositions is not
characteristic of a feature article, but the author resorts to the use of them in order to
lay a particular stress on the problem discussed, for example, in the 5th paragraph the
author uses a dash for specification: ‘When I arrived after a bumpy 26-hour journey
on the gravel “road of bones” – which is built over the remains of gulag labourers –
it was -22C in Oymyakon.’, in the 15th paragraph to show author’s own suggestions
for solution of the problem: ‘But few are willing to make sacrifices to solve a global
problem – sell the car, forego another pair of shoes, don't fly for a weekend getaway
– even when in the coldest place on earth, people know the climate is changing.’
Additionally, one more typical trait of a feature article is the use of certain
grammatical forms and constructions, which are of colloquial character, for example:
− contracted forms: haven’t, it’s, can't, aren't, won't;
− the use of linking elements, such as but, at the beginning of the sentence, for
example: ‘But as the permafrost soil thaws in this region, thousands of people have
had to move to new housing…’, ‘But few are willing to make sacrifices to solve a
global problem…’, ‘But this was little more than an afterthought…’
One more argument in favour of this newspaper writing being a feature article is
the connection between different parts of the author’s reasoning which is made as
smooth as possible due to various adverbial connectors (e.g. so, though, even, yet,
while, nonetheless, still) so that the reader is led easily into the reading matter.
Apart from what has been said above, the newspaper writing under
consideration is characterized by certain lexical and grammatical peculiarities typical
of a feature article. As for the bulk of the vocabulary of the newspaper item, it is
mostly stylistically neutral and common literary, but in contrast to a news report, it is
characterized by rather an extensive use of emotionally-coloured language elements
which can be explained by the fact that the journalists writing feature articles are able
to give a free reign to their own individual stylistic tastes. The following lexical
peculiarities are distinguished in the text under analysis:
– the use of emotionally-coloured lexical units, for example:
Nouns: tumbling, hotspots, catastrophe, drain, victims, linchpin, vengeance,
outbreak, sacrifices
Verbs: to rive, to stumble upon, to warp, to blame
106
 Adjectives: bumpy, respectable, erratic, cash-strapped, huge, sweeping, inflated
Adverbs: drunkenly, askew
– the use of some stylistic devices, namely, the SD of an epithet: cash-strapped
budgets, sweeping changes, huge energy reserves, an inflated tempo; the SD of a
metaphor: a bracing dip, a drain on already cash-strapped budgets; the SD of a
metonymy: Moscow has allocated £720 million to the region…, Yakutsk alone has
already resettled more than 6,000 people…, Russia could start by ratifying…; the SD
of a parallelism: More heat means more wildfires; the SD of a personification:
climate change comes to the coldest village on earth…, Anthrax, rare in recent years,
has returned to Siberia with a vengeance…, An outbreak in the northern region of
Yamal killed…; the SD of a simile: There are no walruses tumbling to their deaths
like in David Attenborough's new Our Planet series.
− the wide use of newspaper clichés and stereotyped forms that are expressive
which is never the case with a news report: to regarded as, stumbled upon smth., to
pay attention to, a drain on budgets, it's plain to see, to establish a foothold, a major
source, development strategy, to draw investors, to deliver in the service of humanity,
sweeping changes, to set a baseline, to make sacrifices, etc.
In my opinion, all the above said makes it possible to draw a conclusion that the
piece of newspaper writing under consideration is a feature article.
Analysing the text in terms of the category of informativity, we must admit that
since the text under analysis is a piece of newspaper writing, only one type of
information can be elicited from it, namely the factual one. It can be formulated in the
following way: the author emphasises the problem global warming which reached
even the coldest permanently-inhabited place on earth and harmfully influences
environment and people’s and animals’ lives. In terms of its factual information the
text can be segmented into 3 conceptual paragraphs.
In the first conceptual paragraph, comprising first four physical paragraphs, the
columnist describes the allocation of the coldest permanently-inhabited place on earth
– the Siberian village of Oymyakon. He points out the main problem which local
inhabitants and animal have to face with there.
The second conceptual paragraph, beginning with the 5th physical paragraph
and ending with the 29th physical paragraph, focuses on the climate changes in the
region that influence the growth of plants and animals’ behavoiur. It is also
mentioned that changes of the temperature cause thaw of the permanently frozen soil
which affects the stability of the residential constructions.
The third conceptual paragraph, embracing 30-35th physical paragraphs, deals
with the author's ideas as for changes that are necessary for Russia in terms of its

107
climate and emissions policy – instead of unilateral developing of oil, gas and nuclear
infrastructure, Russian government should also focus on environmental issues.
Now I’d like to look closer at those means, which serve for the cohesion of the
text. As the text is devoted to the problem of climate changes, it is naturally that
‘climate’ is the main key-word, which holds together the logico-semantic wholeness
of the article. The author uses some word-combinations connected with the key-word.
These are: climate change, climate-related extinction, climate agreement.
Another key-word of the text is ‘thaw’. Its cohesive potential is achieved by the
use of word-combinations which cover the text with a kind of a thematic network: the
permafrost soil thaws, to thaw the permanently frozen soil, “active" surface layer is
thawing, thawing permafrost.
One more means of the lexical cohesion is the use of words and word-
combinations making up certain lexico-semantic groups and thematic groups on the
basis of common underlying notions.
The thematic group with the underlying notion of ‘nature’ includes words:
Nouns: river, weather, seasons, precipitation, snow, forest, swamp
Adjectives: cold, erratic
Verbs: to thaw, to freeze, to rain
Word-combinations: mountain valley, cool air pools, warmer currents, the
Chersky range, the permafrost soil, an underground stream.
The lexico-semantic group with the underlying notion of ‘plants and animals’
includes words:
Nouns: walruses, ducks, crows, victims, the Siberian crane, wolverine, sable,
brown bear, pests, snakes, rats, parasites, reindeer, lichen
Word-combinations: to face new predators, brightly-coloured birds, migration
routes, tusks of woolly mammoths
The thematic group with the underlying notion of ‘damage’ includes words and
word-combinations:
Nouns: wildfires, hotspots, flood, renovations, catastrophe, a drain, danger,
anthrax, spores, an outbreak, threat
Verbs: to rive, to disintegrate, to resettle, to avoid, to flood
Adjectives: cracked
Word-combinations: to fight blazes, forests are burning, several metre-long
cracks, drunkenly askew windows, warped foundation, condemned buildings, human-
generated emissions.

108
 The thematic group with the underlying notion of ‘environmental conditions’
includes word-combinations: temperature changes, severe frosts, to insulate the soil,
the permanently frozen soil, frosty air, to cover with ice, heat wave, a climate-related
extinction event.
The thematic group with the underlying notion of ‘places and localities’ includes
words and word-combinations:
Nouns: Siberia, Aberdeen, village, planet, Oymyakon, Yakutia, Yakutsk,
Moscow, the Yana, Indigirka, Russia
Word-combinations: the Siberian village of Oymyakon, the coldest permanently-
inhabited place on earth, to move to new housing, “road of bones”, the “Pole of
Cold”, the region of Yakutia, the lake islands, the main square, the Triumph stadium
complex, the northern region of Yamal
The lexico-semantic group including verbs of saying, thinking consists of: to
believe, to announce, to say, to know, to admit, to ask, to consider, to joke.
A very important role on the lexical cohesion of the text is played by the
synonyms and antonyms. In the present text they are as follows:

– proper synonyms:
current – stream
to rise – to raise
to begin – to start
danger – threat
little – small
to stay – to remain
main – major
immediately – instantly

– contextual synonyms:
livelihood – money
to rise – to increase
locals – residents
anthrax – disease
frost – blaze
to disintegrate – to warp
askew – cracked
catastrophe – danger
pests – parasites
indigenous – native
route – road
109
– antonyms:
cold, cool – warm, hot
north – south
to thaw – to freeze
water – soil
further – nearly
permanently – erratic
earlier – later
cold – heat
more – less
to restore – to destroy
to lose – to find
first – last
uncertain – sure
future – past
to change – to remain
rural areas – capital
small – huge
sad – funny

One more lexical means of cohesion within this part of the text is the use of
derivatives (affixation, prefixation):
cold – coldest
warm – warmer – warming
freeze – freezing
region – regional
year – yearly
flood – flooding
freeze – refreeze
frost – frosty
north – northern.

110
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NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES

1. The Financial Times

2. The Guardian
3. The Independent
4. The Sun
5. The Times
6. https://www.theguardian.com
7. http://www.independent.co.uk
8. http://www.express.co.uk
9. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com
10. http://www.aboutenglish.it
11. https://www.nytimes.com

112
 Бессонова О. Л., Трофимова Е. В.

LANGUAGE OF MEDIA

УЧЕБНОЕ ПОСОБИЕ

для студентов направлений подготовки

45.04.01 Филология, профиль «Западноевропейская филология

(английский язык). Сопоставительное и типологическое языкознание»

45.04.02 Лингвистика, профиль «Лингвистика и межкультурная

коммуникация (английский язык)»