Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Since the 20th Century, language use in the media has received unparalleled
attention among scholars, especially, linguists. Though scholars have established
outstanding evidence for possibilities of the media universally, there is still the need
to account for spoken major news presentation, which has been partially described
for comprehensive descriptions of the language of television (TV). It is against this
background that the present study presents an account of news presentations in
Ghana. The general objective is to describe resources that construe evaluation,
semiotic mediations in the news and ideological meanings at word, clause, and
sentence levels. The account is based on primetime news presentations from four
most influential TV stations in Ghana – TV3, Joy TV, GTV and Citi TV. The
analysis and descriptive interpretation of the language is guided by the Appraisal
Theory proposed by Martin and White (2005) and developed out of the broader
theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The study shows
that evaluative resources are employed in primetime TV news to construe authorial
Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. It again became clear that semiotic
mediations enrich meaning of news stories. Finally, it was observed that linguistic
resources (evaluative, semiotics, pronouns, and interpersonal expressions), enacted
ideological positioning for subjects of primetime TV news presentations. The study
will contribute to Appraisal analysis of media language and discourse analysis for
specific purpose and African linguistics.
