On the interpretation of ideology through comment articles: Two views in opinion discourse

Abstract

This paper focuses on the dimension of functional variation across different situation types within Halliday's Systemic Functional framework. Data obtained from a study on the linguistic features used in comment articles from two British national newspapers, The Guardian and The Sun, are correlated with their field, tenor and mode of discourse, with the aim of exploring to what extent variations of language use are related to variations of social context. From there, I consider the context of situation as a constitutive element of a broader context of culture. This will allow me to define register as well as see why register analysis is a valuable tool in understanding a culture.

Key words: Systemic Functional framework, register analysis, comment articles, British newspapers, situation types, language use.