MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature LEXICALMEANSOFCATEGORIZATION ANDDISCRIMINATION:DEPICTIONOF WOMENINNEWSPAPERS DIPLOMATHESIS BRNO 2006 Supervisor: Written by: Mgr. Olga Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Ph.D. Dana Mazalová 1 Poděkování Především děkuji Mgr. Olze Dontcheva-Návrátilové, Ph.D. za cenné rady a přípomínky,které přispělykvypracovánítétodiplomové práce. Acknowledgements I would like to express my greatful thanks to my supervisor Mgr. Olga Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Ph.D.for her valuable advice andcomments that helped compilethediplomathesis. 2 Prohlašuji,že jsemsvoudiplomovouprácivypracovalasamostatněa použila jenpramenyuvedenévseznamuliteratury. Souhlasím, aby moje práce byla uložena vknihovně Pedagogické fakulty MasarykovyuniverzityvBrněazpřístupněna prostudijníúčely. I proclaim that mydiploma thesis is a piece of individual writingandI used onlythe literature listedintheBibliographytocompileit. Iagreewithmythesis beingstoredintheLibraryoftheFacultyofEducation atMasarykUniversityandwithits beingavailableforacademic purposes. Brno7August2006……………………………….. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………...……….6 2.THE NEWSPAPERS…………………………………………………………...8 2.1.THESUN…………………………………………….………8 2.1.1.THESUN ANDITS CONTROVERSY……………..…9 2.1.2.THESUN´ SSPHERE OFINTEREST………………...9 2.2.THEDAILYTELEGRAPH………………………………..10 3.FUNCTIONS OF NEWSITEMS…………………………………………..…11 4.CATEGORIZATION………………………………………………………....13 5.DISCRIMINATIONAND NEGATIVESTEREOTYPES………………..….15 6.FREQUENCY OFOCCURENCEOF WOMENIN NEWS……...……….....17 6.1.THEDAILYTELEGRAPH,JULY7,2005………….……18 6.2.THEDAILYTELEGRAPH,FEBRUARY21,2004……...20 6.3.THESUN,JULY7,2005…………………..………………25 6.4.THESUN,JULY18,2005…………………..……………..27 7.HARDANDSOFT NEWS……………………………….……….…………..31 8.SEXIST LANGUAGEVERSUS GENDER–NEUTRAL LANGUAGE…….34 8.1.GENDER-NEUTRAL WORDS……………………………34 8.2.LANGUAGEANDTHOUGHT……………………………37 8.3.CONNOTATIONANDDENOTATION…………………..38 8.4.PERSONALTITLES……………………………….………39 8.5.POLITICALCORRECTNESS……………………..……...40 9.COMPARATIVE ANALYSES ………………………………………………43 9.1.POLITICS NEWS………………………………………….43 9.2.COURTREPORT………………………………………….47 9.3.ROYALFAMILY NEWS....………………………………50 9.4.TV SHOW NEWS…………………………………………51 9.5.CRIMEREPORT…………………………………………..54 10.THESUNANDCATEGORIZATION……………………………………...56 11.CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………62 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..65 SUMMARY(ENGLISH)...………………………………………………….…..68 4 RESUME(CZECH)……………………………………………………………..69 APPENDIX1/13,2/13,3/13…………..…………………………………….…..70 APPENDIX4/13………………………………………………………………...71 APPENDIX5/13………………………………………………………………...73 APPENDIX6/13………………………………………………………………...74 APPENDIX7/13,8/13…………………………………………………………..76 APPENDIX9/13………………………………………………………………...77 APPENDIX10/13...……………………………………………………………..78 APPENDIX11/13...……………………………………………………………..79 APPENDIX12/13,13/13………………………………………………...……..81 5 1. Introduction Newspapers are powerful tools that profoundly influence the reader´s mind. Theyare one of the mainsources from whichwe learn about the latest events. The newspapers we choose show our interests andalsothe politics we believe in. Theypurveythe news andevents throughtheir point of view andtheir point of view throughwords,phrases andexpressions.The same news andevents canbe depictedina substantiallydifferent way.Thus,I decidedto base my thesis ona comparison of two different kinds of newspapers and that is the tabloid and quality newspaper. The main aim of tabloids is to entertain, shock and amuse their readers.The qualitynewspapers,or broadsheets,onthe other hand,provide thereaders withindepthinformationandbackgroundreports. The central core of this analysis is the lexical means of categorization and discriminationemployedinnews. It is intriguing to looknot only at the lexical items the newspapers use,but also attempt toreveal their opinions andideology that might be concealed in the word choice. My main interest is to draw the attention tothe news where a womanis the mainfeature.I am goingtoanalyse the news with regard to the lexical components describing females and try to disclose gender stereotypes if theyare present in the newspapers.I wouldlike to prove or deprove the views of some linguists whosuggest that womenare still describedwithcertainsterotypes.The idea toresearchthis area originatedfrom my reading Roger Fowler´s work, Language in the News . Thus, I provide a quotationofFowler´sopiniononthe matterconcerned. ´Even a small sample, collected routinely without hunting for particularly dramatic examples, suggests that women are constituted in discourse as a special group with its own peculiar characteristics, set out from the population as a whole for exceptional evaluation. Irrationality, familial dependence, powerlessness and sexual and physical excesss are some of the attributes predicated of women, these aspects of the paradigm for this ´group´which have been found also by other writers on sexism in languge. ´ (Fowler : 1993 : 95) 6 Myother concernis tocompare the tabloidnewspaper The Sun andthe quality newspaper The Daily Telegraph with a particular focus on the lexical components used todepict women,their conduct andbehaviour.I wouldlike to investigate whether and towhat extent the news media differ intheir attitude to womenandhow the stance is communicatedtothe readers.I am goingtofocus mainlyon: • Thefrequencyofappearanceofnewsfeaturingwomen • Namingforms,directnaming,especially: o theuseofmaleexpressionsgenericallytoincludereferencetofemales, o theuseofdiminutiveandjuvenileformstorefertooraddresswomen, o offensivetermstorefertofemales • Titlesandaddressforms • Adjectivaldescription,withamajorfocusonqualitieswhichare typicallyassociatedwithmalesandfemales • Choiceofverbstodescribeactionsandprocessesattributedtowomen 7 2. The newspapers The primary reason why I chose The Sun and The Daily Telegraph for the comparisonistheirhighnumberofcirculationinBritain. The Sun is a tabloiddailynewspaper publishedinthe UnitedKingdom andthe Republic of Ireland.It has the highest circulationof any dailyEnglishlanguage newspaper inthe world.The circulationis approximately3,154,881copies a day (inearly2006).Thedailyreadershipisestimatedat justunder8,500,000. The Daily Telegraph is consideredtobe one of the qualitynewspapers andthe highest sellingBritishbroadsheet.Its average dailycirculationis approximately 904,955 (November 2005). Another quality newspaper, The Times , enjoys the circulationof692,581. It is important for the analysis to mention several facts about their attitudes towards female, political and other social issues. The main source of the informationis the website www.wikipedia.com.The reasonwhyI provide more informationabout The Sun is that it has always arouseda storm of controversyin comparisonwith The Daily Telegraph .Therefore,there are more data available aboutthe tabloid. 2.1.TheSun It is claimedthat the introductionof the page three girl resulted in a decline of the content of the newspaper. The picture, page three girl, used to be a photographof a nakedgirl but it changedinto top-half nude in1970,one year since its launch.The pagethreegirl wasnotadailyfeatureof The Sun atfirst. The Sunis ownedbyRupert Murdoch,a rich businessman,whoholds News International,a newspaper group whichincludes The Sun. The newspaper usedto support the Labour Party.But it is claimedthat its attitude towards Labour was hostile in 1974whenthe election tookplace. Maragaret Thatcher became a leader of The Conservative Party in 1975 and the newspaper changed its political persuasion.It urgedits readers tovote for her inthe next General Election.Then, 8 in 1996, The Sun started to favour the Labour Party again as they correctly predicted that Tony Blair and his political party is going to win the General Election. Tony Blair emerged as the winner and became the Prime Minister. Since thenit has,despite strongcriticism of some of the Labour Party´s policies, supported them in elections. It has been suggested by some critics that a deal between Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch was negotiated. Others say that Murdochhas followedhis usual opportunist policyof backingwinners.Nowdays The Sun is consideredtoexpress right-wingopinions andtosupport TonyBlair andhis political party.Fortyone percent ofits readersare saidtobe supporters of theLabour Party. 2.1.1TheSun´ssphereofinterest The Sun provides extensive coverage onhumaninterest stories, particularythe entertainment world,the Royal Family,national andinternational celebrities and alsosport.The paperis always eagertospot celebritiesintrouble. The Sun enjoys displayingstrikingpicturesandphotographswhichareoftentakenbypaparazzi. Apart from articles on celebrities and stars, there are common story topics that include politics,immigration,securityandcorruptionscandals andsocalled ´destructionoftheBritishwayoflife´ byEurope. 2.1.2TheSunanditscontroversy The Sun has always beensurroundedbycontroversy.From the early1970s, feminists and many conservatives objected to the page three girls, which they considered pornographic and discriminating against women. These critics were joined by left-wingers after The Sun dismissed the Labour Party in favour of Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives. They objected to the paper's right-wing populist political line,whichtheyclaimedwas chauvinistic andhostile.Onthe whole,the Murdoch Sun has beencriticisedsince its launchfor its sensationalism and for its focus on celebrities for its news and feature coverage. The Sun ´s attempts for sensations have occasionaly led it to publish stories on false evidence. It has regularlybeenaccusedof