Strategies for Affiliation in Media Editorials: Persuading and Aligning Readers Feifei LIU A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of Technology Sydney July 2017 Certificate of Original Authorship I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Signature of Student: Date: July 2017 ii Dedication I dedicate this thesis to my loving husband, Changxing. iii Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis owes thanks to a large number of people who have been supporting me both personally and academically during my study. I am taking this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to them. My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr Susan Hood, who showed me the ways to do research and more importantly how to think critically. Her encouragement and support have accompanied me through the process of my academic study and research. She always encouraged me to go one more step further in analysing the data and to write one more draft to complete the thesis. She always considered it a pleasure to provide any reading material I needed and to guide me in my reading and thinking. Her instruction, encouragement, guidance, support and patience have been of the greatest value to me. Sue has not only been a great supervisor but, more importantly, a friend and a member of my family. She has always been here whenever I needed help. I am also profoundly indebted to Professor Jim Martin at the University of Sydney for his help and guidance during my study in Sydney. He has been kind enough to let me sit in his classes in Functional Grammar, Analysing Discourse, and Media Discourse Analysis, where his explanations and instructions helped me to better understand the general fields of systemic-functional linguistics and of media. He has been patient in giving me advice and feedback on my presentations at meetings and conferences. I have benefitted a lot from every meeting and every talk with Jim. I am also deeply grateful to the other scholars and my colleagues in Sydney. I would like to thank Dr John Knox and Dr Helen Caple for their comprehensive explanations of and instructions on media discourse. My thanks also go to Dr Peter White and Dr Lexie Don for their advice and support in the analysis of my data. It is my honour to thank my colleagues in Sydney, especially those frequently joining the PhD meetings: Dr Sumin Zhao, Dr Jing Hao, Dr Yaegan Doran, Dr Eszter Szenes, Dr Jennifer Blunden, Dr Bandar Alhumaidi A. Almutairi, Dr Min Xie, Dr Xi Wang, Dr Xiaoqing Yan, Dr Chen Wang, Dr Ayumi Inako, Lucy Jones, Kunkun Zhang and Muwen Yang. Their research and expertise greatly encouraged me to explore more in my own writing. My special thanks go to Dr Harni Kartika Ningsih who always accompanied me both as my best friend and as my colleague. iv I would also like to offer my thanks to my teachers and friends in China. I am greatly indebted to Professor Chenguang Chang at Sun Yat-sen University, Professor Xuanwei Peng at GuangDong University of Foreign Studies, Professor Delu Zhang at Tongji University, Professor Guowen Huang at South China Agricultural University, and Professor Shizhu Liu at Shandong University. It was their lectures and conference presentations that lead me into the field of systemic-functional linguistics and motivated me to pursue this field further as a PhD student. It is my honour to thank the China Scholarship Council for its four-year sponsorship of my studies at the University of Technology Sydney. It was with its help that I could focus fully on my PhD study. I would also like to thank my family: my parents, my parents-in-law, and my young sister Ning Liu. Their encouragement and support have given me great strength to do more in the studies. v Table of Contents Certificate of Original Authorship ................................................................................ ii澳 Dedication ....................................................................................................................... iii澳 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv澳 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... vi澳 List of Figures ................................................................................................................. ix澳 List of Tables ................................................................................................................. xii澳 Abbreviation ................................................................................................................. xiv澳 Abstract .......................................................................................................................... xv澳 Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................ 1澳 1.0 An emerging object of study ······························································· 1澳 1.1 Media and rhetoric ·········································································· 3澳 1.2 Overview of the research design ·························································· 4澳 1.2.1 Editorial texts ··········································································· 4澳 1.2.2 Research questions ····································································· 6澳 1.2.3 Linguistic theories ····································································· 7澳 1.2.4 A discourse semantic perspective ················································· 10澳 1.3 Research significance ····································································· 12澳 1.4 Organisation of the thesis ································································ 13澳 Chapter 2 – Foundations in Literature and Theory .................................................. 15澳 2.0 Introduction ················································································ 15澳 2.1 Studies of media discourse ······························································· 15澳 2.2 Linguistic study of newspaper editorials ··············································· 19澳 2.2.1 Genres of editorials ·································································· 19澳 2.2.2 Language of editorials: lexicogrammar features ································ 20澳 2.2.3 Persuasion: evaluative studies of editorials ······································ 23澳 2.2.4 The writer-reader relationship ······················································ 27澳 2.2.5 Consolidating the current literature on newspaper editorials ·················· 28澳 2.3 Systemic-functional linguistics (SFL) ·················································· 29澳 2.3.1 Metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual ··························· 30澳 2.3.2 Realisation: stratifying language and context ···································· 31澳 2.3.3 Instantiation ··········································································· 37澳 2.3.4 Individuation ·········································································· 40澳 2.3.5 Affiliation strategies ································································· 41澳 2.3.6 Discourse semantic systems and structures ······································ 46澳 2.3.7 Consolidating the theoretical model ··············································· 54澳 2.4 Conclusion·················································································· 54澳 Chapter 3 – Research Design ....................................................................................... 56澳 3.0 Introduction ················································································ 56澳 3.1 Research methods ········································································· 57澳 3.2 Research data ·············································································· 59澳 3.2.1 Selecting newspapers ································································ 59澳 3.2.2 Identifying editorials ································································ 61澳 3.3 Building data sets ·········································································· 62澳 3.4 Data analysis ··············································································· 63澳 3.4.1 APPRAISAL analysis ·································································· 63澳 3.4.2 IDEATION analysis ···································································· 75澳 3.5 Consolidating the research design ······················································ 78澳 vi 3.6 Ethical considerations ···································································· 78澳 Chapter 4 – Proposing Communities of Readers ....................................................... 80澳 4.0 Introduction ················································································ 80澳 4.1 Attitudinal profiles ········································································ 80澳 4.1.1 Kinds of attitude in The Australian ················································