Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

DOI

10.1515/text-2014-0035

Publication Title

Text & Talk

Volume

35

Issue

2

Pages

207-236

Abstract

The present study aims to demonstrate how writers display their stances in information-oriented written discourse. In particular, the paper analyzes nominal sentences in three newspaper subgenres, and explicates how the Japanese copulas da and dearu , which are normally considered stylistic variants in written language, are used by journalists as important grammatical resources for expressing their epistemic and evaluative stances toward certain types of information conveyed in nominal sentences. Da in newspaper discourse is used as a marker of the writer’s commitment to the relevance of the information in the given discourse context. Dearu, on the other hand, marks the writer’s own interpretive and evaluative stance. In addition, the non-use of a copula (i.e., a bare nominal) also conveys a certain stance of the writer, namely that the information presented is taken to be factual. The specific kind of stance expressed through the use and non-use of these copula types is closely linked to the functional objectives and concerns of the particular genres.

ORCID

0000-0002-7183-9888

Original Publication Citation

Kaneyasu, M. (2015). Stance taking in Japanese newspaper discourse: The use and non-use of copulas da and dearu. Text & Talk, 35(2), 207-236. doi:10.1515/text-2014-0035

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