3.5 Summary
4.1.3 The characteristics of Level 1 markers
Anchor: It becomes an important clue to solving the case.
Old lady: How can I live?
Reporter: The old lady leaned on the sofa and cried bitterly.
(# 3 ET-Today) In the excerpt, IUs 5-6 are the end of the news kernel and IUs 7-9 are the beginning of
the news body. The news body begins with a shot shift and a speaker shift. The
presentation of an old lady crying lasts for about six seconds. With such a conspicuous
change of speaker and shot, the audience will notice the beginning of a new unit.
4.1.3 The Characteristics of Level 1 Markers
We have investigated the amounts and types of markers of the most global
structures: news kernel and news body. In the following section, we will discuss their
characteristics. Table 5 below shows the numbers and the percentage of markers at
Level 1.
Table 5 The numbers and the percentage of markers at Level 1 Quadruple
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
As Table 5 shows, double marking outnumbers the other amounts of markers in both
news kernel (40%) and news body (80%). For the news kernel, the percentages of
quadruple and triple marking even reach 16% and 28%. The occurrence of multiple
discourse markers conforms to the Iconicity principle, whereby the more global a unit
is, the more markers that it is marked by. In the case of a news body, surprisingly,
neither quadruple marking nor triple marking is discovered. It is double marking that
comprises the majority of the amounts of markers (80%). Though the amounts of
markers do not reflect the fact that a news body is a Level 1 unit, it is marked in a
conspicuous way as is the news kernel. We notice that the two units are both marked
by a drastic shot shift and speaker shift and this is a strong indicator of the shift of
topics. In the following, we will further explore the types of markers for the two units.
Both of the global units are marked by a shot shift and speaker shift. In the news
kernel, the scenes shift from the news field of the previous news to the studio, and the
speakers are switched from the reporter to the anchor. In the news body, the scenes
shift from the studio to the news field of the present news and the speakers shift from
the anchor to another reporter. However, they are marked by different linguistic
markers. For the news kernel, the most prevalent combination is connectives plus shot
shift and speaker shift. Of the four connectives, additives and temporals are the most
common. Additives indicate the addition of a piece of news with a similar subject.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Temporals usually signal the reporting order of a series of news items. Sometimes, the
topic shift filler hao 好 ‘okay’ may precede the connectives and signal the completion
of the previous news item. All of these markers manage the logical relationships
linking two news items.
The news body may begin with the event scene presentation or main news events.
The Level 1 markers of the event scene presentation and those of main news events
differ. For the event scene presentation section, referential forms, locative phrases and
speaker shift and shot shift are the most frequent markers. Referential forms and
locative phrases often refer to the referents involved in event scenes and the name of
locations. For the main news event section, temporals are more frequently used
markers. They usually precisely signal the exact time at which the main news events
take/took place.
4.2 Level 2 Boundary Markers
Level 2 markers include those indicating the shift of the units of news kernel and
news body, including the abstract of the news story in the news kernel, and main news
events, follow-ups, evaluation and routine ending in the news body. The boundary
markers of each unit differ and will be illustrated in separate sections.
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In this section, we will discuss the amounts and types of markers marking the
beginning of abstracts21. Table 6 shows the amount and types of boundary markers for
abstracts.
Table 6 The boundary markers of the beginning of the abstract (Level 2 boundary marker)
(1) locative phrase + modified NP (2) topic shift filler + modified NP (3) full NP + temporal
(4) temporal + locative phrase23
8
Table 6 above indicates that the amounts of markers range from one to three. The most
common combination is double marking, amounting up to 66%. Nearly half of the
double marking (37%) is locative phrase plus modified NPs. In second place is triple
marking (19%). All of the combinations of triple marking begin with locative phrases
subsequently followed by modified NPs plus temporals, or temporals plus modified
21 In the 25 abstracts, four abstracts are directly presented at the onset of news kernel and the markers marking them are considered to be Level 1 boundary markers and had been discussed in 4.1.1.
22 The item is “雲林斗六八號晚間發生了兩天以來第四起的爆裂物毀壞民宅的事件.” In the
combination, the modified NPs 兩天以來第四起的爆裂物毀壞民宅的事件 are preceded by the verb 發生了 ‘happened.’
23 The item is 在今天基隆的一個學校當中, ‘today, at a school in Keelung.’ This phrase seems
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NPs. The least common one is single marking. All of the markers of single marking
are modified NPs.
Table 6 also shows the types of initial boundary markers: 12 locative phrases24, 3
modified NPs25, 3 topic shift fillers26, 2 full NPs27 and 1 temporal28. All of the locative
phrases at the initials of abstracts are proper nouns, referring to the exact geographical
names, such as taibeixian 台北縣 ‘Taipei County.’ After the spatial background is
established, the main participants are introduced into the discourse. All of the 11
locative phrases are immediately followed by modified NPs. In fact, nearly all of the
modified NPs are indefinite NPs, which may or may not be preceded by the existential
marker you 有 ‘have.’ These indefinite NPs are even further elaborated by restricted
relative clauses. The following excerpt of news on a suicide accident is taken for
example.
24 The locative phrases include 畫面上, ‘on the screen,’ 台北縣‘Taipei County,’ 台中縣‘Taichung County,’ 台南‘Tainan,’ 在台北板橋 ‘in Banqiao, Taipei,’ 在屏東縣 ‘in Pingdong County,’ 台南縣 六甲鄉‘Liujia, Tainan County,’雲林斗六‘Douliu, Wuenling,’桃園縣‘Taoyuen County,’ 在嘉義縣的中 埔鄉‘Chungpu, Jiayi,’ 台南 ‘Tainan’ and 嘉義 ‘Jiayi.’
25 The modified NPs include: 已經淡出了歌壇的藝人李恕權‘Li Shu-chuan, who used to be a part of the musical industry,’在高雄市的警方‘the police in Kaohsiung City,’ and 就讀台大法律系二年級的 張同學 ‘Mr. Chung, a sophomore at NTU law school.’
26 Topic shift fillers include: 好 ‘okay,’ 這是/這個是 ‘this is’, and 那麼, ‘so.’
27 Full NPs include: 海巡隊, ‘coast guard’ and 警方, ‘police officers.’
Abstract Opening
Level 2 marker
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Anchor: Now, let’s turn to social news. In Banqiao, Taipei County, a remarried woman suspected her husband had cheated on her. Her husband even asked for divorce, so she could not bear it and committed suicide last night.
(#6, CTV) The abstract of the news story starts by a locative phrase zai taibeixian banqiao 在台
北縣板橋 ‘in Banqiao, Taipei County.’ Then it brings in its character in the form of
the existential you-sentence you yinming zaihun de nuzi 有一名再婚的女子 ‘there is a
remarried woman.’ In the structure, the indefinite NP yiming nuzi 一名女子 ‘a
woman’ is modified by a relative clause zaihun de 再婚的 ‘remarried.’ Generally
speaking, the indefinite NP you yiming nuzi 有一名女子 ‘there is a woman’ is able to
signal the debut of the new participant. Yet, to make the referent more informative, the
anchors tend to add extra coding materials in the relative clause and make the referent
more salient. Besides, the position where the modified NP is placed is also meaningful.
The referent is made thematically important to the unfolding discourse by being placed
at the beginning position of the abstract. Indeed, the following discourse stretch
focuses on the fact that the remarried woman, betrayed by her second husband,
committed suicide.
The second most widely used boundary markers for this section are modified NPs,
including yijing danchu getan de yiren lishuchuan 已經淡出了歌壇的藝人李恕權
‘Li Shu-chuan, who used to be a part of the musical industry,’ zai kaoxuong de
jingfang 在高雄市的警方 ‘the police officers in Kaohsiung City,’ and jiudu taida
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
faluxi ernianji de zhongtongxue 就讀台大法律系二年級的張同學 ‘Mr. Chung, a
sophomore at NTU law school.’ As we can see, the head NP, Li Shu-chuan, is unique
and accessible. However, since he has been less active in public for a long time, to
make sure the audience is able to identify the referent, the anchor added supplementary
information to help the audience. The other two head NPs, Mr. Chuang and the police
officers, on the other hand, are less accessible and thus need to be narrowed down with
the help of relative clauses. We take the following excerpt for an example.
(15)
1. Anchor: ..而製毒的手法也是愈來愈誇張大膽了,_
2. ..在高雄市的警方在高雄市的警方在高雄市的警方在高雄市的警方逮到這麼一名嫌犯,_
3. ..他窩藏在一間兩層樓的鐵皮屋裡面製作毒品,_
Anchor: Drug production is getting more and more bold and incredible. In Kaohsiung City, policemen arrested such a drug dealer, who produced drugs in a two-story wrought-iron-covered house.
(#22, TTV) The abstract starts by a NP jingfang 警方 ‘the police officers’ modified by a restricted
relative clause zai gaoxiongshi de 在高雄市的 ‘in Kaohsiung City.’ The news
character jingfang 警方 ‘the police officers’ is introduced to the discourse for the first
time and accordingly is brand new to the audiences. To aid the audiences to identify
the referent, the additional coding materials are added.
In addition to locative phrases and modified NPs, topic shift fillers like
zheshi/zhegeshi 這是/這個是 ‘this is,’ and name 那麼 ‘so’ are also used to initiate Abstract Opening Level 2 marker
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kaoguti dawang jianrenxi 考古題大王蔣仁曦 ‘King of sample questions, Jiang
Ren-xi’ and you yisao zai yuanmu de huolun 有一艘載原木的貨輪 ‘there is a cargo
of logs.’ It is not surprising for topic shift fillers to occur at such a global boundary. As
we can see, to introduce the new referents into the discourse, the anchors need to
provide more information about the new referents, thereby helping the audience to
identify the upcoming referents. At the same time, the anchors’ processing loads are
also increased, for they require greater cognitive efforts in processing the extra
information when initiating the new news item. Thus, the topic shift fillers and
modified NPs together indicate the beginning of the news item.
4.2.2 Main news event markers
In this section, we will discuss the markers marking the beginning of main news
events. As mentioned above, twelve main news events are presented at the very onset
of the news body and thus are reckoned as Level 1 markers. We will next discuss the
remaining thirteen main news events preceded by event scene presentation. Table 7
below presents the Level 2 markers to mark main news events.
Table 7 Boundary markers of the beginning of main news events (Level 2 markers)
Boundary markers N %
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
As Table 7 shows, this section is marked by both referential forms plus shot shift or
temporals plus shot shift. The combinations of markers are less complex. In total, there
are eight temporals, three modified NPs and one full NP and one pronoun. The
temporals include: chingchen sidian duo 清晨四點多 ‘around 4 a.m.,’ chunian bayue
去年八月 ‘last August,’ sangwu jiudian ban 上午九點半 ‘9 o’clock this morning,’
shiliuhao lingchen liangdian duo zouyou 16 號凌晨兩點左右 ‘around two a.m. on the
16th,’ shanggeyue erhao 上個月二號 ‘on the 2nd of last month,’ shichihao xiawu
wudian 17 號下午 5 點 ‘5 p.m. on the 17th,’ 31 號凌晨五點多 ‘around 5 a.m. on the
31st,’ 十號凌晨 ‘early morning on the 10th,’ and 清晨四點半多 ‘around 4: 30 a.m.
this early morning.’ According to Table 7, temporals are nearly double the referential
forms. All of these temporals are absolute calendar time, signaling the time of the main
news events. Second to temporals, referential forms, mainly modified NPs, are
sometimes used to initiate the section, including guoshi de zhongtongxue 過世的張同
學 ‘Mr. Chuang, who had passed away,’ wushisuei de sizhe 50 歲的死者 ‘the dead,
aged 50’ and zheci zhehuo 這起車禍 ‘this car accident,’ a full NP nantongxue 男同學
‘the male student’ and a pronoun ta 他 ‘he.’ In fact, the four referents have been
mentioned in the event scene presentation. They are restated and become the main
focus in the following main news events section.
Temporals occurring at the beginning of main news events are characterized as
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
signaling precise time. Let’s take the following excerpt for instance.
(16)
7. Reporter: ..>凌晨兩點凌晨兩點凌晨兩點凌晨兩點,_
8. ..看準四下無人,_
9. ..歹徒衝進加油站,_
Reporter: Around two a.m., judging there was no one around, the robber rushed into the gas station.
(#14, CTS) In this fragment, the time at which the main news events took place is pinned down at
the beginning by the temporal lingchen liangdian 凌晨兩點 ‘2 a.m.’ This kind of
temporal is very common at the beginning of main news events. They pin down the
explicit time at which the events take place in order to meet the requirement of
precision in journalism. After the time frame is established, the subsequent events can
be naturally presented in a canonical manner.
As for referential forms, the majority of them are modified NPs. In fact, all three
modified NPs refer back to the participants or events mentioned in the event scene
presentation; however, they were not the main focus in the previous section. What is
more, there is usually a sound-bite inserted between the event scene presentation and
the main news events. Because the long referential distance, the journalists needed to
add more materials to recall the previously activated participants. For example, the
modified NP guoshide zhongtongxue 過世的張同學 ‘Mr. Chuang, who had passed
away,’ had been mentioned once in the event scene presentation. Yet, the major Main news events
Level 2 marker
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participant in that section is a woman who witnessed Mr. Chuang falling down.
Moreover, a sound-bite narrating the process is placed between the event scene
presentation and the main news events. To reintroduce the participant, the journalist
linked him with the previous context by means of a relative clause.
4.2.3 Follow-up Markers
In this section, we move to the boundary markers indicating follow-ups. The
markers for the section include: referential forms (modified NPs and full NPs),
connectives (temporals and causatives) and shot shift. The combinations of markers
are shown in Table 8.
Table 8 Boundary markers of the beginning of follow-ups (Level 2 markers)
Boundary markers N %
1. Triply marked:
(1) Referential forms: full NP + temporal + shot shift (2) Connectives: adversative + full NP + shot shift
causal + full NP As Table 8 above reveals, the amount of markers ranges from one to three. Up to 52%
+ shot shift
+ shot shift
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立 政 治 大 學
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N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
of this section is doubly marked, 28% is triply marked and 20% is singly marked. The
combinations of double marking fall into three categories: referential forms plus shot
shift, connectives plus shot shift, and reporting verbs plus shot shift. Referential forms
and reporting verbs are the most widely used. As for triple marking, although no clear
pattern is found, we notice the frequency of causals is comparatively high here.
Regarding single marking, shot shift and speaker shift comprise all of the tokens.
As mentioned earlier, the two most common combinations of double marking are
referential forms plus shot shift, and reporting verbs plus shot shift. The referential
forms include two modified NPs and three full NPs. The modified NPs are nuxueseng
jiashu 女學生家屬 ‘the female student’s family members,’ and you liangming
chuanyuen 有兩名船員 ‘there are two crew members.’ The full NPs are jiaren 家人
‘family members,’ lishuchuan 李恕權 ‘Li-shuchuan,’ jingfang 警方 ‘the police
officers,’ and jingfang 警方 ‘the police officers.’ The prevalence of full NPs is due to
the participants of this section being more predictable. Since the data we collected are
social events, the participants of follow-ups are confined to a set of characters, such as
the victims’ relatives, police officers and investigators. Therefore, the modifiers do not
need to carry as much new information as those qualifying the NPs at the beginning of
main news events. The following example is a kidnapping, in which the father of the
kidnapped youth tried to negotiate with the kidnapper.
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Reporter: The abductors did not release the kidnapped youth as they claimed they would.
Instead, they asked for more ransom. The police officers examine the cars near the kidnapping site and focus on a black Mazda recreation car. Later on, they found out that the suspect, Mr. Liu, lent the car to a man called “Xiao Chen.” Xiao Chen rents a suite in Yingge in Taipei County.
(#15, ET-Today) IUs 60-61 are part of the main news events, in which the parents of the kidnapped
youth negotiate with the abductors over the ransom. The full NP jingfang 警方 ‘the
police officers’ was not mentioned in the previous discourse; it is newly introduced to
the discourse. However, there is no need to add more information to the full NPs
because they are predictable and therefore contextually grounded.
because they are predictable and therefore contextually grounded.