國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
of absolute time.
Then, the units in follow-ups are often marked by full NPs plus shot shift. The
referential forms are limited to a set of participants who are able to update the latest
outcome, such as the police officer, investigators, etc. In addition, of the four
connectives, we found a higher frequency of causals, since they are usually used to
bring up the latest investigation results.
4.4 News Structure and Markers
In this chapter, we have presented the amounts of different types of markers at the
three levels of news structure. There are two major findings. First, the amounts and the
types of markers can only manifest the most global level, Level 1. In our study, 28% of
the units at Level 1 are marked triply and 16% of the units at Level 1 are even marked
quadruply, which is eight times the units at Level 2 and Level 3 (2% in total). Besides,
all of the units at Level 1 are marked by a drastic shot shift and speaker shift. The
shots shift from the studio to the news field and vice versa. In the same way, the
speakers change from the anchor to the journalists and vice versa. Thus, the units at
Level 1 are characterized with the linguistic boundary markers and conspicuous
changes in both scenes and speakers.
However, the amounts and the types of markers do not show significant
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
differences between the units at Level 2 and Level 3. At the two levels, double
marking is always the most frequent combination and there is no fixed type or
combination of markers for Level 2 and Level 3 units. The finding partly contradicts
the previous studies regarding written narratives, in which global units tend to be
marked by more markers to make the boundary more prominent while local ones are
usually marked by fewer markers (Li, 1985; Yu, 1990; Chen, 1990). In fact, the failure
of the amounts of markers to reflect the hierarchy of news structures at Level 2 and
Level 3 has a lot to do with the format of news. As mentioned in the previous literature,
the media practitioners (Lanson and Stephens, 1994; Cotter, 2001) reach an agreement
that broadcast news is scripted for listening instead of reading. Thus, the audience’s
memory span needs to be taken into consideration. To make sure that the audience can
catch up on the information in time, the markers often manifest the logical relationship
of juxtaposed sentences. Accordingly, there is little need to distinguish Level 2 from
Level 3.
The other finding is that the types of markers are closely related to the nature of
units rather than to the structure. Previous study on oral narratives shows that certain
markers tend to accompany specific units (Qin, 1998). The result goes to the units
under news kernel and news body as well. The most common combinations of markers
for the seven units are summarized in Table 16.
‧
Table 16 The combinations of the markers and the nature of the seven units
Units Combinations of markers Examples
Openings Shot shift and speaker shift + topic shift
fillers/temporals/additives
Anchor: ..>好好好好,_
..接著接著接著接著我們帶您來 看,_
Abstracts Locative phrase + referential forms
Shot shift and speaker shift + referential forms/locative phrase
Reporter: ..>穿著黑白條穿著黑白條穿著黑白條穿著黑白條 紋的嫌犯 紋的嫌犯紋的嫌犯 紋的嫌犯 Main news events Shot shift + temporals which
signal the exact time
Reporter: ..>凌晨兩點凌晨兩點凌晨兩點凌晨兩點,_
Follow-ups Shot shift + referential forms/connectives
Reporter: ..>警方警方警方警方在綁架地 點附近過濾出 這輛黑色馬自 達休旅車,_
Evaluations Shot shift + referential forms Reporter: ..>結婚六年的夫結婚六年的夫結婚六年的夫結婚六年的夫 妻兩人原本 妻兩人原本妻兩人原本 妻兩人原本幸福 美滿,_
Routine endings Longer pause Reporter: ..(.5)三立新聞朱
俊元張弘儀,_
..台北報導.\
From Table 16, we can see that different units are marked by different markers. The
beginnings of news kernels, i.e., openings, are always marked by global markers
which signal a transition to a new topic, and this discourse function is fulfilled by the
topic shift filler hao 好 ‘okay.’ Additives and temporals, in addition to signaling topic
shifts, denote an additional and sequential relation between news items. Then, the
abstracts typically begin with locative phrases plus referential forms, which introduce
the places and major participants into the discourse for the first time. The locative
phrases are featured as geographical proper nouns. The participants are always
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Down to the news body section, the first unit, event scene presentation, is usually
marked by referential forms/locative phrases together with shot shift and speaker shift.
Both of them refer to the participants and settings of the condition of the event scene
presentation and are highly matched to the scenes. Thus, the extra coding materials
modifying the participants can be directly inferred from the scenes. Then, main news
events are mainly marked by temporals plus shot shift. Previous studies on narratives
have shown that the beginning of a narrative is always marked by phrases signaling
the starting point of time. In TV news, the time frame is even narrowed down to a
definite spot and is therefore marked by temporals like shiliuhao lingchen liangdian
duo zouyou 16 號凌晨兩點左右 ‘around two a.m. on the 16th,’ which clearly points
out the specific time. These temporals not only “highlight the most important
discontinuity” (Bestgen and Costermans, 1997) but also meet the requirement of
precision in news report. As for the follow-up sections, all of them are marked by shot
shift and are frequently accompanied by referential forms (28%) and connectives
(32%). In addition to referential forms and connectives, reporting verbs such as genju
根據 ‘according to’ are also found in this section. The common ground these markers
share is that they bring in the latest development of the events and are often related to
policemen and investigators. Finally, the evaluation section, which is optional, is
mainly marked by referential forms which refer back to the participants mentioned
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
earlier, and to summarize the action which is about to be evaluated. As for the routine
ending section, no clear marker is identified. Nevertheless, a relatively longer pause
can be identified before the section.
Regarding the units within the abstracts, event scene presentations, main news
events, follow-ups and evaluation, the combinations of markers become very complex
and there is no clear pattern. The only thing we found is that since the units at Level 3
still center on the participants and their actions, referential forms and temporals are the
most prevalent markers. This is especially evident in the units in abstracts and main
news events. Yet, the distribution of connectives shows diversity in the event scene
presentation section and the follow-up section. In the event scene presentation section,
the events are often marked by referential forms, and few temporals are found because
this section is usually very short and the journalists are simply describing the footage.
In such cases, the audience is still able to know the sequential of events without the
temporals. As in follow-ups section, the frequency of causals is higher than those in
the other units because the follow-ups section always updates the latest investigation
results, which usually explains why the accident happened.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION
In this chapter, a brief summary of the present study is given and a few
limitations and suggestions for future study are also offered.
5.1 Summary of the Present Study
This thesis aimed to investigate the discourse structure of broadcast news related
to crime and damages in Taiwan. Besides, it probes into the correlation between the
discourse structure and use of the corresponding boundary markers.
As shown in the previous literature, broadcast news is deemed as a variant of
narrative. It contains two macrostructures: news kernel and news body (Lanson and
Stephens, 1994; Bell, 1991, 1994, and 1998; Thornborrow and Fitzgerald, 2004;
Thompson, 2005; Montgomery, 2007). The two macrostructures can be further
partitioned into smaller units, and we adopted Labov and Waletzky’s (1967) model of
narrative to account for them. These smaller units include: openings and abstracts in
news kernel and event scene presentations, main news events, follow-ups, evaluations,
and routine endings in news body. These units can be further subdivided into even
smaller ones. Thus, in the present study, the discourse structure of a broadcast news
item is divided into three layers. From global to local, they are Level 1, Level 2 and
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Level 3. The units at Level 1 include: news kernel and news body. The units at Level 2
include: the beginning of abstracts in news kernel, the beginnings of main news events
following event scene presentations, follow-ups, evaluations and routine endings in
news body. The units at Level 3 include: the transitions of events in abstracts, event
scene presentations, main news events, follow-ups and evaluation. To explain the
demarcation, we examine the amounts and types of each unit’s corresponding markers.
The markers are used to signal boundaries. The types of boundary markers
studied in the present study cover topic shift fillers, locative phrases, referential forms,
connectives, and shot shifts. Topic shift fillers, such as hao 好 ‘okay,’ and er 而
‘and’ may signal either the termination of a topic or the starting of a new topic, as do
locative phrases whose presence often implies the introduction of a new place or
change of place and thus are included. Referential forms include: modified NPs, full
NPs and pronouns, ordered from discontinuity to continuity in topic coherence. The
presence of modified NPs and full NPs may signal that the participants have changed
and another event happens. Connectives include: additives, adversatives, temporals
and cause-effects. They not only indicate the logical relationships of events but also
lead a new topic.
After deciding what kind of markers we are going to examine, we will count the
frequency of the markers used at a boundary. If the boundary is marked by only one
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
marker, it is singly marked. If the boundary is marked by two markers, it is doubly
marked and so on. The order of markers is also specified. For example, the boundary
shihao lingchen yexing nanzhi dao zhejia kala oke dian >10 號凌晨葉姓男子到這家
卡拉OK 店 ‘on the early morning on the 10th ofthis month, Mr. Ye went to this
Karaoke box’ is triply marked by a shot shift, a temporal and a modified NP. By
counting the frequency of the markers, we are able to examine the relationship
between the amounts and types of markers and the structures. According to the
Iconicity principle, we expect the units at the more global levels to be marked by
heavier coding materials.
What follows are the major findings of the present study. First of all, the amounts
of markers only show significant difference at the most global level. The percentage of
quadruple marking (16%) at Level 1 is much higher than that at Level 2 (0%) and
Level 3 (1%). Besides, all of the units at Level 1 are marked by drastic shot shift and
speaker shift. Down to Level 2 and Level 3, the amount of markers does not decrease
along with the descending levels. Double marking is the most common combination at
the two levels. Besides, there is no specific type of the markers for the units at Level 2
and Level 3 either. The failure of markers to show the hierarchy of the two levels
indicates that linearity outweighs hierarchy in broadcast news. This is ascribed to the
fact that broadcast news is presented in spoken form, and therefore the relationships
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
between neighboring sentences need to be clearly stated by connectives.
As for the distribution of types of markers, it is decided by the nature of each unit.
The beginning of news kernel (i.e., the opening) is always marked by shot shift and
speaker shift plus temporals, additives or topic shift fillers. The three linguistic
markers signal the global relationship between two news items. Temporals frequently
signal the reporting order; additives signal the addition of a new piece of news; and
topic shift fillers signal the completion of a previous news unit and the beginning of a
new one. Then, what immediately follows the opening section is the abstract section. It
is mainly initiated by locative phrases plus referential forms. The two linguistic
markers together introduce the setting and main participant of the news story to the
discourse.
In the news body, the optional beginning section, the event scene presentation
section, is often marked by shot shift plus referential forms. Such referential forms
inevitably refer to the participants on the screen. Thus, the reference and the scenes are
highly matched. After the section comes the main news events section. Whether or not
it follows the event scene presentation, it always begins with temporals signaling
specific calendar time at which the events start. This kind of temporal not only helps to
establish the time frame for the main news events but also meets the requirement of
precision in news. What follows is the follow-up section. This section is usually
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
marked by shot shift plus referential forms or connectives. In addition, a few reporting
verbs can also be found. These markers are usually related to policemen and
investigators because this section usually brings up the latest investigation or
development of the events. Finally, the evaluation section may be marked by
referential forms and shot shift. Such referential forms usually refer back to the
participants mentioned earlier or the entire events to be evaluated. When closely
connected to follow-ups, this section usually is not marked by any marker. As for
routine ending section, no specific marker is found except for longer pauses.
Regarding the events in abstracts, event scene presentations, main news events,
and follow-ups, the combinations of markers are very complicated and no clear
patterns were found. Referential forms, temporals and shot shift are the most common
markers since the participants and the actions are still the major concern. The only
difference between the events in the four sections is the distribution of connectives. In
event scene presentation section, few temporals are found because the journalists are
simply describing the actions shown on the screen, which are usually arranged
chronologically. In follow-ups section, a comparatively great number of causal are
discovered because this unit functions by providing the possible cause for the main
news events.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study
This study has a few limitations. First, the amount of the data is far from being
sufficient and not all news programs are included, such as PTS, DaAi TV, GTV34, etc.
It would be more justified if the amount of data increases and all channels are included.
Second, the scope of the data is only limited to broadcast news about crimes and
damages. Thus, our findings cannot be applied to the other types of subject matters,
such as industry and business news, education news, political news, etc, since news
with different subject matters may have different discourse structures, and thus may be
marked by different boundary markers. Third, the present study only focuses on
broadcast news. It would be interesting and meaningful to compare the same news
events presented in both broadcast news and newspapers. Fourth, the supralinguistic
features like intonations and gestures are not touched upon in the present study.
However, we know that suprasegmental features like rising pitch may hint at the onset
of a new discourse unit and falling pitch hint at the closure of a discourse unit. Thus,
the study will be more legitimate if the supralinguistic markers are included.
‧
Bell, A. (1991). The language of news media. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Bell, A. (1995). News time. Time & Society 3(4): 308-28.
Bell, A. (1998). The discourse structure of news stories. In A. Bell & P. Garrett (Eds), Approaches to media discourse (pp. 64-104). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Bestgen, Y. (1997). Segmentation markers as trace and signal of discourse structure.
Journal of Pragmatics, 29, 753-763.
Brooks B.S., Kennedy, G.D., Moen, R., & Ranly, D. (1985). News Reporting and Writing. NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Chafe, W. & Danielewicz, J. (1987). Properties of spoken and written language. In Horowitz, R. & Samuels, S. J. (Eds.), Comprehending oral and written language (pp.83-113). CA: Academic Press.
Chen, M. H. (1990). Cohesive devices in spoken and written Chinese narrative discourse. Unpublished master thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chui, Kawai (2001). Topic chains and grounding in Chinese discourse. Taipei: Crane Publishing.
Cotter, C. (2001). Discourse and media. In D., Schiffrin, D, Tannen & H.E., Hamilton (Eds), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 416-436). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Du Bois J. W., Schuetze-Coburn, S., Cumming, S. & Paolino, D. (1993). Outline of discourse transcription. In Edwards J. A. & Lampert M. D. (Eds.). Talking Data:
Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research. Hillsdale: New Jersey, Lawrenc Duszak, A. (1995). On variation in news-text prototypes: some evidence from English, Polish, and German. Discourse Processes, 19, 465-483.
Ekström, M. (2000). Information, storytelling and attractions: TV journalism in three modes of communication. Media, Culture & Society, 22, 465-492.
Firbas, J. (1992). Functional sentence perspective in written and spoken communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
‧
Fraser, B. (1999). What are discourse markers? Journal of Pragmatics, 31, 931-952.
Fry, D. L. & Sigman, S. J. (1984). Newspaper language and readers’ perceptions of news events. Newspaper Research Journal, 5, 1-11.
GivÓn, T. (1983). Topic continuity in spoken English. In T. A., GivÓn (Ed), Topic continuity in discourse: a quantitative cross-language study (pp.343-363). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Glasgow University Media Group. (1975). Bad News. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Hirschberg, J & Litmaw, D. (1993). Empirical studies on the disambiguation of cue phrases. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/980000/972490/p501-hirschberg.pdf?key1=972490&
key2=2920857021&coll=GUIDE&dl=&CFID=62750166&CFTOKEN=51356687 H, J.H. & P, H.H. (2002). Focus and the basic function of Chinese existential You-sentences. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from
ctlhpan.cityu.edu.hk/haihuapan/paper/Existential-1.doc
Hsin, A.L. (2002). On Indefinite Subject NPs in Chinese. Retrieved July 4, 2009, from ccs.ncl.edu.tw/Chinese_studies_20_2/353_376.pdf
Labov, W., & J. Waletzky. (1967). "Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience," Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, J. Helms, (ed.) 12-44. Seattle:
University of Washington Press.
Labov, William. (1972). "The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax,"
Language in the Inner City. 354-396. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lanson, G & Stephens, M. (1994). Writing & reporting the news (2nd ed.). NY/Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Liu, Y.C. (2001). Coherence and cohesion in news-writing: An exploratory study.
Unpublished master thesis, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Keeble, R. (2006). The newspapers handbook (4th ed.). London/ New York: Routledge McCarthy, M. (2002). Discourse analysis for language teachers. (13th ed.) Cambridge:
‧
Meinhof, U.H. (1994). Double talk in news broadcasts. In Graddol, D. and Boyd-Barrett, O. (eds.), Media text: Author and readers (pp. 212-223). Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters
Mencher, M. (1997). News reporting and writing (7th ed.). Brown & Benchmark Publishers.
Niu, L. G. (2005). The tabloidization and it's gatekeeping process of TV news.
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Ochs, E. (1997). Narrative. In T.A., van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as structure and process
Ochs, E. (1997). Narrative. In T.A., van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as structure and process