台灣電視新聞的言談結構標記 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學語言學研究所碩士論文 National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Linguistics Master Thesis. 立. 政治大指導教授︰尤雪瑛. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Advisor: Dr. Hsueh-ying Yu. er. io. sit. y. Nat. n. a台灣電視新聞的言談結構標記 iv l C n U h Markers n g cofhTVi News Discourse Structuree in Taiwan. 研究生︰王佩郁 Student: Pei-yu Wang 中華民國 98 年 1 月 January, 2010.

(2) Acknowledgements 「何時才能完成論文?」這一個問題在過去兩年重複地出現在我腦海，多少次滿懷希望，又有多少次沮喪絕望? 真正完成了，對自己的成果卻懷有一絲絲不確定感，不管如何，希望之後的研究者可以把這個有趣的題目做的更完美。要感謝的人很多，首先是我的指導教授—尤雪瑛老師。這篇論文從發想到著手進行，老師都給我許多啟發。老師豐富的學養、嚴謹仔細的治學態度，以及對人生的體驗，都足以成為指引我未來方向的明燈。另外，我要感謝口委黃瓊之老師、林雪娥老師、proposal 口委張妙霞老師、詹惠珍老師，願意在這麼急迫的時. 政治大我也要感謝語言所的黃瓊之老師、何萬順老師、蕭宇超老師、萬依萍老師、立. 間擔任我的口委，並提供許多極具建設性的問題與建議。. ‧ 國. 學. 莫建清老師、徐嘉慧老師、詹惠珍老師，讓我這一個語言學生手可以窺視到浩瀚語言學中的一小部分。從句法到音韻，從語意到構詞，乃至語用、語言習得，都. ‧. 讓我意猶未盡，唯天資駑鈍，無法產生具深度的見解與研究成果。此外，我要感謝 S，謝謝他幫我錄語料，陪著我找資料，過去的日子，點滴. y. Nat. io. sit. 在心頭。感謝研究所同學美少女雅婷，謝謝她在我隱居山林的時候仍舊關心我的. n. al. er. 論文進度，鼓勵我。謝謝儷雲，過去一起爬後山、吃吃喝喝真的好開心，我永遠. i n U. v. 都不會忘記。謝謝寶哥、小嫻姐、慧盈、喬予、助教學姐、雅慧學姐、碧純學姐、. Ch. engchi. 碧嬋學姐、Michelle、春慧、妃容。我也要感謝姿瑩、書玉、以及遠在美國的佑昕，在我最失意的時候，聽我一把鼻涕一把眼淚的哭訴一切不順利。還有謝謝實習階段常逗我笑、促使我思考我的未來的文章老師、房主任、文欽老師。謝謝同事文婷、王大哥給我的鼓勵。最後，我要感謝爸媽、以及姐姐跟弟弟。記得前年暑假，我窩在圖書館拼論文，接到爸爸電話，尚未開口，眼淚便稀哩嘩啦流下，把他給嚇傻了吧。寫論文的「漫長」過程中 (真的很漫長)，爸媽都沒再給我任何壓力，只是默默陪著我，鼓勵我要撐下去，如果沒有他們的陪伴與鼓勵，我可能撐不下去了，爸媽，謝謝你們！ i.

(3) 國立政治大學研究所碩士論文題要研究所別︰語言學研究所論文名稱︰台灣電視新聞的言談結構標記指導教授︰尤雪瑛博士研究生︰王佩郁論文題要內容︰. 政治大. 本文主要探討台灣電視新聞的言談結構(discourse structure)，以及標示各單位. 立. 的言談標記(discourse marker)。本研究分析 25 則電視新聞，文類限定於社會新聞。. ‧ 國. 學. 首先，在結構上，每一則新聞包含兩大結構︰導語(news kernel)以及旁白與影片. ‧. (news body)。兩大結構又可細分為七個較小的單位，分別為︰開場白 (opening)、. sit. y. Nat. 摘要 (abstract of the news)、事件現場畫面 (event scene presentation)、主要新聞事. n. al. er. io. 件 (main news events)、後續發展 (follow-up)、評語 (evaluation)、結尾 (routine. Ch. i n U. v. ending)。而這七個單位還可再細分為更小的單位。此外，本文所探討的言談標記. engchi. 可分為五類︰1. 指涉詞 (referential forms) 2. 連詞 (connectives) 3. 地方副詞 (locative phrase) 4. 話題轉換填充詞 (topic shift fillers) 5. 畫面轉換 (shot shift)。是故，本文研究重點有二︰1.將新聞結構分為三個階層—Level 1、Level 2、Level 3，並探討出現於不同階層的言談標記在類型與數量上是否反映出階層 (hierarchy)？ 2. 標示各個結構的言談標記為何？研究結果指出︰1. 三個階層的言談標記在類型上除了 Level 1 固定有畫面轉. ii.

(4) 換之外，其餘兩個階層皆無固定的言談標記。另外，在數量上僅 Level 1 可同時出現多個言談標記，Level 2 與 Level 3 在數量上並無差異，顯示出電視新聞為口說語(spoken language)的一種，訊息與訊息之間的連結性比表現出文體結構階層性更為重要 2. 標示各單位的言談標記並無一致性。受到各單位特性影響，言談標記呈現不同的分佈。. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(5) Abstract The present study examines twenty five pieces of broadcast news about crimes and damages in Taiwan. The purpose is to examine the relationship between the discourse structures and their corresponding markers. The discourse structure of a piece of broadcast news is divided into seven components and they are categorized into three levels. Level 1 includes news kernel and news body. Level 2 includes. 政治大. abstract in news kernel, main news events, follow-ups, evaluation, and routine ending. 立. in news body. Level 3 contains the smaller units in the Level 2 units. The boundary. ‧ 國. 學. markers to be examined are divided into four categories: topic shift filler, referential. ‧. forms, connectives, and shot shift.. sit. y. Nat. The present study has two major findings. First, the amounts of markers only. n. al. er. io. show significant difference in Level 1. Down to Level 2 and Level 3, linearity. Ch. i n U. v. overrides hierarchy. Second, the types of markers are decided by the nature of each. engchi. unit. The opening is always marked by shot shift and speaker shift plus topic shift fillers/temporals/additives. The abstract section is marked by locative phrase plus referential forms. The event scene presentation section is marked by shot shift and speaker shift plus referential forms. The main news events section is marked by shot shift plus temporals which signal the exact time. Then, the follow-up section is marked by shot shift plus referential forms/connectives. The evaluation section is marked by. iv.

(6) shot shift plus referential forms. The routine ending section is marked by a relatively longer pause.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(7) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter One Introduction………………………………………………………….….1 1.1 Motivation…………………………………………………………………….…...1 1.2 The production of a broadcast news item………………………………………....3 1.3 The subtypes of news …………………..…………………………………………4 1.4 Objectives……….…………………………………………………………………5 Chapter Two Literature Review 2.1 Approaches to the discourse structure of news……………………………….…..7 2.1.1. Narrative approach……………………………………………………….…...7 2.1.1.1 Narratives in printed news……………………………………….…..11. 政治大. 2.1.2. 2.1.1.2 Narratives in broadcast news………………………………….……..16 Broadcast news-as-commentary approach………………………………..….20. 2.1.3 2.1.4. Satellite approach………………………………………………………….....23 Summary and conclusion………………………………………………….…26. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2 Markers of discourse structure……………………………………………….…..27. ‧. Chapter Three Methodology 3.1 Data collection and description……………………………………...……..…….35. sit. y. Nat. 3.2 Transcription conventions…………………………………………….………….37 3.3 Analytical framework…………………………………………………..………...38. er. io. 3.4 Data analysis…………………………………………………………….……….51 3.5 Summary…………………………………………………………………………57. al. n. iv n C Chapter Four Results and Discussion hengchi U 4.1 Level 1 markers…………………………………………………………………..59 4.1.1. News kernel markers.………………………………………………………...59. 4.1.2 4.1.3. News body markers…………………………………………………………..66 The characteristics of Level 1 markers……………………………………….71. 4.2 Level 2 markers…………………………………………………………………..73 4.2.1 Abstract markers……………………………………………………………..74 4.2.2 4.2.3. Main news event markers…………………………………………………….78 Follow-up markers…………………………………………………………...81. 4.2.4 4.2.5. Evaluation markers…………………………………………………………..85 Routine ending markers……………………………………………………...88. 4.2.6 The characteristics of Level 2 markers……………………………………….89 4.3 Level 3 markers…………………………………………………………………..91 vi.

(8) 4.3.1 4.3.2. Level 3 markers in abstract…………………………………………………..91 Level 3 markers in event scene presentation…………………………………98. 4.3.3 4.3.4. Level 3 markers in main news events………………………………………103 Level 3 markers in follow-ups………………………………………………108. 4.3.5 The characteristics of Level 3 markers……………………………………...111 4.4 News structure and markers…………………………………………………...113 Chapter Five Conclusion 5.1 Summary of the present study……………………………………………….…118 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for future study…………………………………..123. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vii. i n U. v.

(9) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation News is one of the most important means by which we receive information nowadays. The major disruptive events, the important government announcements or the words of important officials are transmitted by the means of language, which is presented mainly by two modes—newspapers and broadcasting. According to the. 政治大 statistics provided by government of Information Office, there are 2,216 newspaper 立. ‧ 國. 學. offices and 178 broadcasting stations in Taiwan. Therefore, one can conceive that the amount of the language produced one day is so huge and the media language is so. ‧. ubiquitous in our society.. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. Previous studies on media language are multidisciplinary, from the fields of. n. “communication studies, linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, semiotics,. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. and sociology [to] social psychology” (Bell, 1991).For example, from the perspective of sociology, researchers may focus on “macro-phenomena, such as the institutions, the audience or public, large-scale processes of effects, or overall functions of media in society” (van Dijk, 1985). Otherwise, researchers pay their attention to the news values and ideology, which influence journalists’ choice and formation of news. Consequently, media language is more than a tool of expressing information; it is a “powerful ideological instrument” (Toolan, 2001). 1.

(10) However, comparatively few studies pay their attention to the discourse structure of news itself. Among these relatively few linguistic-oriented researches, nearly all of them are concerned with news in print. For example, van Dijk (1988) considers different genres have their own grammar so he analyzes numerous newspapers worldwide and draws up the discourse structure or schemata of news stories. In the same vein, Bell (1991, 1994, and 1998) compares news stories in print with personal. 政治大. oral narrative and concludes that though the two share some crucial structural elements,. 立. they differ from each other in 1) the temporal organization of events and 2) the. ‧ 國. 學. distribution of orientation and evaluation. Yet, unfortunately, seldom does research. ‧. focus its attention on the discourse structure of broadcast news register, which, though. sit. n. al. er. io. following aspects.. y. Nat. rooted in the tradition of newspaper (Bell, 1991), is different from news in print in the. Ch. i n U. v. 1. The allocated time and the amount of words used are much constrained in. engchi. broadcast news. According to Chang (2007), for the same news story, the amount of words is roughly 700 to 800 words per piece of news in print; yet, the same content has to be condensed into approximately 300 words in its counterpart of broadcast news. 2. The broadcast news script, though in written form, is edited with the voice-over of the journalists and is presented in spoken form. The sentences should be short and. 2.

(11) simple because the audiences cannot go back to the information they do not catch up (Lanson and Stephens, 1994). In addition, the lexicons tend to be colloquial. 3. The broadcast news has an additional and decisive element—visual image, which plays a crucial role in distinguishing it from news in print. The frequent use of demonstrative like zhe 這 ‘this’ and synchronized editing of words and images underline its influence upon the narration of the news event.. 政治大. Accordingly, broadcast news is believed to behave at variance with news in print to. 立. some extent. It exhibits the features of both written and spoken discourses. ‧ 國. 學. simultaneously (Cotter, 2001). On one hand, it “has a measure of economy and. ‧. cohesion, which is lacking in everyday speech” (Glasgow University Media Group,. sit. y. Nat. 1975). In addition, its audiences, just like the readers of a written work, are so remote. n. al. er. io. that they cannot influence the flow of discourse (Garrett & Bell, 1998). On the other. Ch. i n U. v. hand, it should meet the requirement of being colloquial because it is for listening. engchi. rather than reading (Lanson and Stephens, 1994). Therefore, broadcast news is a genre existing between the extremes of written and spoken discourses (Cotter, 2001), which makes it so distinct that deserves our attention. In 1.2 and 1.3, we will introduce the formation of a piece of broadcast news and the subtypes of news, respectively.. 1.2 The Production of Broadcast News The production of a piece of broadcast news takes many parties to cooperate with 3.

(12) each other, including the journalists, camera operators and the editors. In practice, the journalists gather materials with the camera operators. The staffs involved in will discuss what the main events of the news are, provide script and then supplement it with shots. Once it is determined, one mode is the main narration line while the other is used to supplement it (Niu, 2006). After that, the journalists will write news scripts and edit the pictures with voice-overs. If necessary, they need to add extra elements to. 政治大. enhance the audiences’ comprehension, such as charts to illustrate the key points of an. 立. important announcement from the president or animations of the process of crime. ‧ 國. 學. when there are no suitable shots. Hence, a piece of broadcast news is a hybrid of. ‧. voice-over, visual images and captions or charts on screen. Then they pass the product. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. to the news editors to see if there is any language or content problems.. 1.3 The Subtypes of News. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. News can be further divided into several subcategories based on how it is treated, such as soft news and hard news, to name just a few. Soft news is usually concerned with the least serious subjects, which are not timely at all, such as arts and entertainments, lifestyles and celebrity. Their contents are treated in a “lighter” way and their major purpose is to entertain the audiences rather than informing information. Accordingly, more descriptions and comments can be found. On the other hand, hard news, which is the staple product of news discourse (Bell, 4.

(13) 1991), is featured as being serious, timely and of importance. Accordingly, it is supposed to convey information in an accurate, objective, and neutral manner (Montgomery, 2007). Its subject matters cover two major types. The first type is “eruptive violence, [which] reveals fortune and socially significant breaches of the moral order,” including accidents, natural disasters, crimes and conflicts (White, 1997). Such kind of news is the core of hard news and thus is called “spot news” (Bell, 1991).. 政治大. Niu’s (2006) statistics also reveals similar findings in which that damage and criminal. 立. news occupies one-fifth of a broadcast news section in Taiwan. The second type. ‧ 國. 學. includes the other serious and crucial issues, such as news of elections, government. ‧. announcements, international negotiations, [and] party politics” (Bell, 1991). These. sit. y. Nat. communicative events, including a speech, interview, report or press release can by. n. al. er. io. themselves form a piece of hard news because they have impact on a great number of people (White, 1997).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 1.4 Objectives The present study will investigate broadcast news, for so far there have been few linguistic-oriented studies on it. Hence, there is a need to explore this special genre more. As to the subtypes of news, the present study will focus on only news about crime and damage, because they are with higher percentage compared with the other subject matters in Taiwan’s broadcast news (Niu, 2006). Therefore, the present study 5.

(14) contains 25 pieces of broadcast news, all of which is criminal and damage news. After reviewing the previous literatures on the discourse structure of news, we would like to examine what kinds of linguistic and visual markers are used to signal a unit boundary and their co-relationships.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 6. i n U. v.

(15) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW In chapter two, the previous studies on the approaches concerning the discourse structure of news and the markers of units will be discussed in detail. In 2.1, we reviewed the three major approaches dealing with news stories—narrative approach, news-as-commentary approach and satellite approach. In 2.2, we reviewed the. 政治大. previous research on the correlation between discourse structures and their. 立. corresponding boundary markers, be them linguistic or visual ones, including. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. discourse markers and shift of scenes.. 2.1 Approaches to the Discourse Structure of News Story. sit. y. Nat. The approaches concerned with the discourse structure of news story encompass. n. al. er. io. three major approaches—narrative approach, broadcast news-as-commentary approach. Ch. i n U. v. and satellite approach. Narrative approach can be applied to news in print as well as. engchi. broadcast news respectively. They are introduced in 2.1.1. Broadcast news-as-commentary approach is introduced in 2.1.2 and satellite approach in 2.1.3.. 2.1.1 Narrative Approach Narrative has been one of the major topics in humanistic (Johnstone, 2001). Its realm varies depending on different definitional criteria. In a narrow sense, it only denotes the genre of story. In a wide sense, the characteristics of a narrative can be. 7.

(16) found in genres ranging from dramas, conversation, broadcast news, to fine art (Ochs, 1997; Montgomery, 2007). In either case, a narrative is a recapitulation of past events, which create transformations of state of affairs and whose participants are usually animate (Ochs, 1997). Personal oral experience and news report are two good examples of narrative. The former one is a personal account of past experiences, which are usually out of the ordinary and therefore are tellable (Labov and Waltezky, 1967;. 政治大. Goffman, 1974; Ochs, 1997). More importantly, more than merely a recapitulation of. 立. events, it usually has some moral points to make (Labov and Waltezky, 1967; Goffman,. ‧ 國. 學. 1974; Ochs, 1997). On the contrary, news report, though also recapitulating other. ‧. people’s past events vicariously, is told due to having news values set by journalism. sit. y. Nat. practitioners rather than moral points (van Dijk, Bell, 1991, 1994 and 1998).. n. al. er. io. Personal oral experiences and news reports have some structural elements in. Ch. i n U. v. common (Bell, 1991, 1994 and 1998). Therefore we would like to review the studies. engchi. on narrative structure before exploring the discourse structure of news report. According to the classic study conducted by Labov and Waletzky (1967), there are six structural elements of a personal oral narrative: abstract, orientation, complicating actions, evaluation, resolution and coda and they are presented in this order (Labov and Waletzky, 1967). A typical abstract occurs at the beginning of a narrative, serving as a prelude to the following story. It outlines the main actions and may even reveal. 8.

(17) points of the narrative. Besides, it is a sign indicating the present speaker gets the floor to speak. Orientation’s unmark position is between abstract and the following complicating actions. It mainly functions as setting the scene of a narrative and is usually realized by a set of phrases or lexical items, which orient the listeners in respect to person, place, time and behavioral situation. Hence, such kind of information is called as. 政治大. “introductory orientation.” In addition, orientation can also occur throughout the. 立. whole narrative because as the action happens, the scene changes accordingly. The. ‧ 國. 學. narrators are responsible to provide the background information so that the listeners. sit. y. Nat. orientation.”. ‧. can catch up the development and such orientation is labeled as “emerging. n. al. er. io. Complicating actions, taking place after orientation, is the skeletal structure of a. Ch. i n U. v. narrative. It comprises a series of chronological events, which advance or progress the. engchi. storyline. Each event is linked to one another causally and there is at least one temporal juncture within them. Normally, the series of events lead to the most reportable event, i.e., the climax or the high point, which is the point of maximum suspense. After that, the tension is gradually released and what happens at last occurs to conclude the sequences of events. The last event, labeled as “resolution” or “result,” is usually unreportable so it does not need further explanation.. 9.

(18) Evaluation is the value of a narrative, normally inserted between complicating actions and resolution but can also occur throughout the story. It points out the most interesting or unusual part of the story, persuading the listeners to keep listening to or reading the story. It can occur either outside or within the narrative. In the previous case, the narrators comment on the story from outside, stating phrases like “But it was really quite terrifying,” which emphasizes the value of the story—horror. In the latter. 政治大. case, evaluation is embedded in the storyline. The narrators can exploit some linguistic. 立. devices to underscore the importance of one event, including intensifier, explicatives,. ‧ 國. 學. quantifiers, paraphrase and repetition.. ‧. Coda falls at the end of a narrative, wrapping up the story and signaling its end.. n. al. Ch. er. io. Phrases like “And that was that” is an example of coda.. sit. y. Nat. Sometimes it provides a short summary or connects the story world with the present.. i n U. v. News report, as mentioned above, is considered as sharing some structural. engchi. elements with personal oral experience. Therefore, some researchers apply the Labovian framework to account for news in print. Similarly, a few researchers deem broadcast news as being evolved from news in print so they also examine it with narrative approach. In 2.1.1.1 and 2.1.1.2, we will introduce the narrative approaches on news in print and broadcast news, respectively.. 10.

(19) 2.1.1.1 Narratives in Printed News Traditionally, news has been treated as one narrative genre because it shares some structural properties with personal oral narratives. Bell (1991, 1995, and 1998) and Schokkenbroek (1997), therefore, apply the framework introduced by Labov and Waletzky (1967, 1972) to account for news in print, respectively. Both of them agree that news in print and personal oral narratives are similar in the following aspects: 1). 政治大. they are concerned with a series of events and 2) they are told or reported for some. 立. purposes.. ‧ 國. 學. However, the two differ from each other in context and purposes. News is. ‧. institutional language whose authors are multiple and the purpose is mainly to inform.. sit. y. Nat. On the other hand, personal oral narratives belong to personal discourse and their aims. n. al. er. io. range from self-aggrandisement to social talk (Schokkenbroek, 1997). Accordingly, the narrative form of news stories has been modified.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The structure of a news item, be it in newspaper or news bulletin, is composed of an obligatory lead plus a subsidiary story proper1. The beginning paragraph of news stories, i.e. the lead or the intro, not only summarizes the central actions of a news story but also underlines its importance—why the reporters think it is worth reporting. In other words, it is an abstract within which the news values are the most prominent.. 1. In broadcast news, the lead/intro is termed as “news kernel” and the story proper/ body copy is termed as “news report” (Montgomery, 2007). 11.

(20) Bell (1991) illustrates this point by offering an example. He observes that intensifiers, which function as stressing the importance of a news story, are used much more often in the lead and the intensity, seriousness and importance are decreasing in the story proper section. In the section of story proper, the whole news event is reported in some detail. Contrary to personal oral narrative, there is no separate section for orientation in news. 政治大. in print because a news item usually covers more than one person, place and time,. 立. orientation is usually embedded in events and disperses throughout the news stories.. ‧ 國. 學. With regard to complication, Labov and Waltezky (1967) have defined that the. ‧. chronological ordering of events is a required definition for a personal oral narrative.. sit. y. Nat. However, according to Bell (1991), in journalistic writing, the presentation of events. n. al. er. io. seldom chimes in their logical order in the real world; instead, they are presented. Ch. i n U. v. non-chronologically. Normally, the latest development of a series of news events is. engchi. placed earlier in order to satisfy the principle of recency/timeliness. There is a set of news values manipulating the placement of events in news behind2. The more valuable the events are, the earlier they are placed. Both van Dijk (1985) and Bell (1991) argue that in newspaper writing, events are organized contingent on their news values rather 2. These news values are journalism conventions. Galtung and Ruge (1965b) have made a commonly categorization. The following researchers (van Dijk, 1985; Bell, 1991, Montgomery, 2007 and the others) all follow the categorization more or less. According to Bell (1991), these news values include recency, proximity, consonance, unambiguity, unexpectedness, superlativeness, relevance, personalization, eliteness, attribution and facticity. 12.

(21) than their corresponding sequences in real world. That is, the most news-worthy parts of a news story are reported first, then the background information may be supplemented, and subsequently return to the details of the news. This kind of writing results in the specific schemata of news writing—inverted-pyramid structure. However, Duzak (1995) has pointed out that writing styles vary from culture to culture. She compares news-texts in English, Polish and German, finding that the latter two show. 政治大. the traces of everyday storytelling. In her data, a piece of news begins with possible. 立. causes, then presenting the setting against which the news events occur. Subsequently. ‧ 國. 學. the main news events are organized chronologically.. ‧. Schokkenbroek (1997), though admitting that a news item starts with abstract. sit. y. Nat. rather than settings, questions Bell’s argumentation of non-chronological order of. n. al. er. io. events. She asserts that in most of the cases she studies, the discourse structure. Ch. i n U. v. matches the event structure. If not, there must be some linguistic markers to indicate. engchi. their temporal relationship to prompt the readers/audiences in the process of comprehension. The linguistic markers to indicate the temporal structures are divided into anchors and temporal connectors by Schokkenbroek (1997). Anchors mainly function as situating events in absolute calendar time, including deictics and adverbial phrases. Temporal connectors are used to explicate the relative temporal order of two events, such as relational adverbials.. 13.

(22) In terms of evaluation, Labov (1972) has mentioned that evaluation is as important as complicating actions in personal oral narratives. It expresses the narrators’ attitude toward the narrative. However, in the case of news story, due to the principle of objectivity in journalism, the journalists’ personal comments are less preferable in hard news (Schokkenbroek, 1997; Keeble, 2006). Instead, it is news values that can account for why a news story is reported (Bell, 1991, 1994 and 1998;. 政治大. Schokkenbroek, 2007). Journalists write their news stories based on the principles. 立. established by their proprietor managers.. ‧ 國. 學. Though in principle the journalists’ personal comments are not welcomed,. ‧. Schokkenbroek (1997) discovers that the journalists can still evaluate the news event. sit. y. Nat. by either semantic or formal means. Bell (1991) has roughly discussed the frequent. n. al. er. io. use of intensifiers in the lead, but he neither extends the concept into the story proper. Ch. i n U. v. section nor refers to form devices. Schokkenbroek (1997), on the other hand, asserts. engchi. that both evaluative devices can be found in the story proper section. In the semantic level, the journalists can use intensifiers, comparators, correlatives and explicatives to compare the scales of importance among events. In the formal level, they can extensively quote a third person’s evaluative comments directly or indirectly3 serving as their own evaluation. They are empowered to select which person’s speeches to. 3. Quotation may have two functions – updating the news events and expressing evaluative comments. 14.

(23) quote and decide in which context the comment is placed. Accordingly, they can evaluate the events covertly and meanwhile avoid directly expressing their own evaluation, which is less preferable in news reports. However, nowadays, the direct evaluative comment made by the journalists in broadcast news seems very common, especially at the end of a news item. With regard to resolution and coda, Bell (1991) mentions that these two are. 政治大. optional in news items. News story, according to him, is more akin to a serial than a. 立. short story. Most of the time, news is only concerned with the latest step rather than. ‧ 國. 學. the result when the news events have not ended at reporting time. Therefore, it seems. ‧. that resolution is not an obligatory element in news story. As to coda, Bell asserts there. n. al. Ch. er. io. to the real world as personal oral narrative does.. sit. y. Nat. seems no counterpart in news items to mark the finish or to return from the story world. i n U. v. In summary, a news item contains a lead/intro (abstract) and a story proper. engchi. (complicating actions). In story proper, the events, which may be accompanied with orientation, can be arranged depending on either their importance or their logical orders in the world. In the former case, some linguistic markers will definitely occur to indicate the temporal relationship. Evaluative expressions are exploited to reveal the journalists’ attitudes toward the news events indirectly. As to resolution and coda, neither of them is strictly required.. 15.

(24) 2.1.1.2 Narratives in Broadcast News Broadcast news is deemed as deriving from news in print (Bell, 1991). Therefore, the sense of news as narrative is extended to broadcast news (Hartley, 1982; Fiske, 1987; Graddol, 1994, cited in Montgomery, 2007; Thompson, 2005). For example, Graddol (1994) asserts that broadcast news, just like fiction cinema, exploits a realist narrative technique. Scannel (1996, cited in Thornborrow and Fitzgerald, 2004) even compares TV news as successors to the historical novels of the 19th century. In. 政治大 line with them, Thompson (2005) agrees that broadcast news is not simply an 立. ‧ 國. 學. accumulation of bare facts. Instead, he proposes that the journalists should exploit a technique called narrative journalism, which refers to turning the accurate and. ‧. well-researched information into interesting and attracting stories.. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. Though these studies hold that broadcast news exhibits the features of narratives,. n. few of them, except for Thompson (2005), carefully examine its discourse structure as. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. those have done to news in print. Hence, we need to supplement the insufficiency by referring to some journalism textbooks or guidebooks, which offer us some bases of the composition of a news item and help us sketch the structure of a broadcast news item. The overall structure of a piece of broadcast news resembles that of news in print, containing an obligatory opening sequence plus a subsidiary story proper (Thompson, 2005; Montgomery, 2007). The opening anchor sequence, also called “intro,” is read 16.

(25) by the anchor and is roughly equivalent to abstract in personal oral narrative. To serve the purpose, the opening sequence has its own features. The classic way is simply conveying the information of who, what, where and when in one sentence (Thompson, 2005). Nowadays, however, an increasing number of anchors start by something relevant to the audiences. A beginning statement involving pronouns “you” and “we” are rather common, such as “Do you ever drive with a mobile phone in your hand”. 政治大. (Thompson, 2005; Chang, 2007). In addition to the two openings mentioned above, we. 立. observed many anchors in Taiwan add some sort of “transitional phrase4” to bridge. ‧ 國. 學. two consecutive news items or phrases to mark the reporting flow. Yet, the situation is. ‧. totally different from British broadcast news. According to Montgomery (2007), one. sit. y. Nat. news item succeeds another with little or no lexical marking. Therefore, phrases like. n. al. er. io. “and now to our next story…” is seldom seen in British broadcast news. As to the end. Ch. i n U. v. of a news kernel, Montgomery (2007) mentions a news kernel usually ends in an. engchi. introductory preface to introduce the following presenter, such as “Here’s Helen Wright….” Yet, this situation seems less common in Taiwan broadcast news. According to our observation, the completeness of news kernels in Taiwan is always achieved through anchors’ falling tone and a held scene instead of a specific ending mark. 4. So far, there seems little research on transitional phrases of broadcast news items in Taiwan. Many audiences find that the transitional phrases are sometimes used inappropriately or incoherent, so we believe that it is a field worthy of being explored. 17.

(26) The story proper, enunciated by reporters, develops and elaborates the whole news story. It is integrated with three crucial elements—images, the reporter’s voice-overs and soundbites from the interviewees. The images and voice-overs are of equal importance. Voice-overs, which are usually matched to images tactically, are understood as commentary to images (Montgomery, 2007). Thus, if one mode is missing, the integrity of the text will be damaged. Besides, soundbites, which are the. 政治大. essence of the speaker’s ideas, are commonly inserted into a news item. They are. 立. knitted with the journalists’ narrations into a “seamless coherent ‘story’ (Cotter, 2001).. ‧ 國. 學. As a result, a thorough structure of the story proper takes the three components to. ‧. cooperate with one another.. sit. y. Nat. The structure of the story proper can be divided into beginning, middle and. n. al. er. io. ending, though there are an infinite number of possibilities of how to cover those three. Ch. i n U. v. points (Barron, cited in Thompson, 2005). In principle, it begins with something being. engchi. able to arrest the audiences’ attention, subsequently discloses the whole news events and finally ends with a conclusion or an expectation toward future (Thompson, 2005; Lanson and Stephens, 1994; Chang, 2007). Visually impressive scenes, such as the horrible scenes resulting from an accident or the relatives’ bitter responses are rather common at the beginning position of criminal or damage news in Taiwan (Chang, 2007; Yang, 2006). Therefore, if we view the news report as an interest line, it rises. 18.

(27) rapidly at the beginning. The middle part, in which the whole news story is developed, concentrates on what happens and how news events are dealt with so far (Niu, 2006; Thompson, 2005). The two foci—what happens and how it is dealt with are similar to the concepts of complicating actions and resolution in Labov’s framework. The sequence of reported events in broadcast news chimes in with their logical order in the real world. 政治大. (Thompson, 2005). The components of a news story with their corresponding pictures. 立. usually follow the chronological order so that the audiences will not get confused. ‧ 國. 學. (Thompson, 2005). In other words, the traditional inverted-pyramid structure used in. ‧. news in print, where events are organized contingent on their significance rather than. sit. y. Nat. their logical order, has been discarded in broadcast news (Thompson, 2005; Lanson. n. al. er. io. and Stephens, 1994). After the main news events are referred to, how the whole news. Ch. i n U. v. is going to end, or how it is dealt with so far will be provided. Such information is also. engchi. important, for the audiences or the hearers would like to know what happens afterwards. The conclusion, usually one or a few sentences, is termed as “snapper” in journalism (Lanson and Stephens, 1994). It may provide insightful ideas (Thompson, 2005). Yet, ending in snappers is not the only condition. Very often, a news item ends in a phrase looking to the future (Thompson, 2005). For example, in a piece of a. 19.

(28) railway accident, the journalist may mention that the investigators were still focusing on a set of points to clarify the causes (Thompson, 2005).. 2.1.2 Broadcast News-as-commentary Approach Montgomery (2007) is probably the first one able to offer us a thorough linguistic-oriented introduction to the discourse of broadcast news. Contrast to the. 政治大. previous narrative approaches, he asserts that the direct application of narrative. 立. structure to account for television news can “distort our understanding of the prevalent. ‧ 國. 學. characteristics of journalism as a textual system.” According to his observation, the. ‧. majority of news coverage, as he claims, is concerned with “public information,” such. sit. y. Nat. as a new policy, a piece of new scientific information or the latest information about. n. al. er. io. president campaign. Therefore, what is said by the reporters is arguably a kind of. Ch. i n U. v. “commentary” or “public announcement,” rather than “narration.” In other words,. engchi. word to image is better understood as commentary to illustration. He provides an alternative, in which we should start by revealing the characteristics, from which we are able to establish a set of principles of its discursive intelligibility. According to him, a news item often includes an obligatory news kernel (the opening anchor sequence) plus the optional subsidiary components (the story proper in. 20.

(29) news in print)5. The former one is enunciated by the newsreaders, who address the audiences directly through the camera in the studio, which is called deictic zero point by Montgomery in that the news kernel is delivered from “the here and now.” As to the news reporting, the world is brought to the studio (i.e., the deicit zero point) from the news field and its discourse structure is realized by the combination of the video clips with the reporters’ voice-over. Hence, the coherence of the discourse of news reports. 政治大. needs to take voice-overs and visual images into consideration simultaneously. He. 立. especially points out that visual image is a crucial element, which not only. ‧ 國. 學. distinguishes television news from news in print but also plays an important role in. ‧. text cohesion.. sit. y. Nat. There exists a reciprocal relevance between voice-over and the visual images.. n. al. er. io. What is mentioned in the verbal track is also usually seen in the visual track. For. Ch. i n U. v. instance, when the reporter mentioned “flashing lights,” a shot of flashing lights. engchi. appears on the screen immediately. Accordingly, this kind of interplay is termed as “simultaneous reference.” Yet, Montgomery also reminds us that what is seen in the visual track can only be “illustrative” or “representative.” In other words, the shot may be a document which has already been previously recorded or stored. Besides, sometimes the interrelation between words from the reporters and. 5. There are other variants of the presentation of news reports. For example, sometimes a news item is composed of only news kernel and sometimes kernel news plus a live two-way interview. 21.

(30) images in the visual track is less transparent; under the circumstance, the assumption that the two tracks are connected to some degree borne in the audience’s mind may aid them to relate the words with images. Such assumption of “simultaneous reference” of visual and verbal elements, as Montgomery claims, is the “effect of the text and of the inferences which it prompts.” Therefore, the intelligibility and coherence of a news report can only be achieved through the collaboration of both tracks. This is especially. 政治大. evident when the deixis or demonstrative occurs since such uses cannot stand along without visual images.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. This overlapping reference can also be found in editing. For example, the. ‧. transition of shots and the boundaries of sentence/clause coincide with each other.. sit. y. Nat. According to Montgomery (2007), there is nearly a 50% correspondence between shot. n. al. er. io. boundaries and clause/sentence boundaries. Such synchronized editing is another. Ch. i n U. v. evidence of the mutual or reciprocal relation between words and images.. engchi. However, the relationship between the two modes is not necessarily overlapping; there are still other kinds of interrelationship. Meinhof (1994) indicates in addition to overlap, there are other two relationships—displacement and dichotomy. Displacement is the situation in which the footage and text represent different action components details. Dichotomy is the situation in which the footage and text represent related action components.. 22.

(31) 2.1.3 Satellite Approach Thornborrow and Fitzgerald (2004) provide an alternative framework, which they claim to be able to deal with news in print and broadcast news. They propose that news stories are quite different from Labov’s account on oral narrative, which contains six ordered elements. Likewise, Toolan (2001) also asserts that “news stories have developed a distinct narrative structuring, quite at variance with the Labovian high point oral narrative.” Thornborrow and Fitzgerald’s (2004) main consideration is that. 政治大 news stories are already complete in the headline or news kernel (i.e., the opening 立. ‧ 國. 學. anchor sequence). The following sections/paragraphs in news body (i.e., the story proper) do not advance the storyline; instead, they “thicken” or “expand” the elements. ‧. introduced in the lead/ anchor introduction. The elements encompass category. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. (participants or locations mentioned), action and reason,6 which recur in each of the. n. subsequent paragraphs/sections. Accordingly, a news story is like a collection of. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. intra-linked stories. Let’s take the excerpt of a news item for example. (1) Anchor: [1]A tanker which has already leaked three thousand tons of fuel off the coast of Spain is being towed into calmer waters in an effort to prevent further ecological damage. [2] It's thought the owners of the Prestige will try to dock the ship in Portugal but the government there has said it will turn down any request. Reporter: [1] It's the people who live in this region of Galicia are having to cope with the effects of this accident. As thousands of tons of thick sludgy oil come 6. The three elements were adopted from Sacks’s observation on child story. Sacks (1995) provides an example in which the two sentences – “The baby cried” and “The mommy picked it up” form a story because they are linked with each other by sharing categories of “baby” and “mother,” by the action of “picking up,” and by the reason of “crying.” 23.

(32) ashore, all fishing has been banned….Teams are working on beaches all along the coast to try and clear up the oil but the wildlife has been badly affected. Volunteers are trying to save as many birds as they can….[2] She is being pulled by tugs from Spanish to Portuguese waters but Portugal says under no circumstances will she be allowed to dock…. Claire Marshal, BBC news, Acarunia. (BBC Lunchtime News of November 6, 2002) The first strand of this news kernel is concerned with the leaking ship off the coast of Spain (i.e., category), which is going to be towed away (i.e., action) for the prevention of ecological damage (i.e., reason). Then, in news body, the related category—action. 政治大 and reason, in news kernel will occur again. For example, “the coast of Spain” in news 立. ‧ 國. 學. kernel (i.e., the category) is alternated to “this region of Galicia” in news body, both of which refer to the same place. The action, being towed away is supplemented by. ‧. additional activities, such as coping with effects of accidents, banning fishing, working. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. on beaches and saving birds. Finally, all these actions are conducted to prevent. n. ecological damage (i.e., the reason). Therefore, the first strand is further expanded and thickened in news report.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In line with Thornborrow and Fitzgerald (2005), White (1997) considers news story of printed news a lead-dominated structure, in which the subcomponents of the body do not provide any new information but only refer back to the headline/lead. There are five possible relations between the lead and the body – elaboration, explanation, contextualization and appraisal. The headline/lead, which is the nucleus, is supplemented by the subcomponents 24.

(33) of the body through these five relations. Accordingly, the relation between the headline/lead and the subcomponents is compared to an orbital structure in which the dependent satellites surround the nucleus. What is more, the arrangement of these subcomponents is relatively free in that the interactions lie between subcomponents and the news kernel rather than between each subcomponent. These five relations proposed by White (1997) were provided in the followings.. 政治大. 1. Elaboration: more detailed description or exemplification of information in the. 立. lead or restatement of what is described in the lead. ‧ 國. 學. 2. Cause-and-effect: causes or reasons for the consequences described in the lead. ‧. 3. Justification: evidence or reasoning which supports the newsworthy claim. sit. y. Nat. presented in the lead. n. al. er. io. 4. Contextualization: details of the geographical setting or prior events of a similar. Ch. nature for the purpose of comparison. engchi. i n U. v. 5. Appraisal/attribution: evaluative comments of the significance of the news event, its emotional impact or other value judgment Some of the relations seem to overlap with the elements found in Labovian framework. For example, justification, appraisal/attribution and contextualization are similar to the concept of evaluation; elaboration and cause-and-effect are under the scope of complication. In addition, though the paragraphs can be freely placed in. 25.

(34) different positions, it is less feasible for broadcast news.. 2.1.4 Summary and Conclusion From the previous studies, we have learned all the three approaches agree upon that broadcast news is composed of news kernel (i.e., the opening anchor sequence) and news body (i.e., the story proper). However, they have not yet reached agreement on the structural elements of news body. Researchers of narrative approach (Hartly,. 政治大. 1982; Fiske, 1987; Graddol, 1994; Thompson, 2005) treat broadcast news as a variant. 立. of narrative, which can be produced through multiple modes together like verbal and. ‧ 國. 學. visual modes. News kernel is equal to the first element—abstract in narrative. The. ‧. elements in the news body, however, differ from those of narrative. To attract the. sit. y. Nat. audiences’ attention, news body sometimes begins with something visually attractive. n. al. er. io. (Thompson, 2005; Lanson and Stephens, 1994; Chang, 2007). Then the whole news. Ch. i n U. v. story is developed along with orientation, complicating actions, resolution and coda.. engchi. News-as-commentary approach (Montgomery, 2007) is valuable in that it points out a commentary relationship between both words to images and shot boundaries to clause/sentence boundaries. Thus, we may infer that shot shifts as the events or topics are switched. Though emphasizing the commentary relationship between the two modes, news-as-commentary approach does not touch how events are arranged in a news item. Thus, the approach may only be used when we examine the correlation. 26.

(35) between shot shift and topic shift. Satellite approach (Thornborrow and Fitzgerald, 2004), opposing the tradition of viewing news as a form of narrative, sees news report as a “thickening” relationship between news kernel and news body. It proposes that each section/paragraph of news kernel can be viewed as an intra-linked story, which encompasses category, action and reason. Then, the three elements of the intra-linked story recur in the following news. 政治大. body. Indeed, news body do serve the function of “thickening” the elements in news. 立. body, since news kernel is a virtually a brief version of news body. Yet, based on our. ‧ 國. 學. observation, each intra-linked stories defined by Thornborrow and Fitzgerald (2004) is. ‧. still connected to each other according to their temporal sequence in the real world.. sit. y. Nat. For instance, in example (1) in 2.1.3, the actions initiated by habitants near Galicia. n. al. er. io. (i.e., the first strand) took place prior to the Portuguese government’s turn-down of the request to dock near Portugal.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. After comparing the three approaches, we have learned that each approach has its pros and cons. We will adopt narrative approaches to serve as a framework of the outlook of a piece of news and use news-as-commentary approaches to examine the co-relationship between shot shift and topic shift.. 2.2 Marker of Discourse Structure Any type of discourse can be segmented into smaller sections, each of which is. 27.

(36) semantically coherent individually (Oliverira, 2000). The propositions included in one discourse segment can be subsumed under a macro-proposition or summarized in a single word or phrasal title (van Dijk, 1988; McCarthy, 2002). They can be either termed as topics (van Dijk, 1988) or thematic paragraphs (Givon, 1983). The boundary of each topic or thematic paragraph usually indicates the change of time/period, place, action, participants, or possible world. In other words, the introduction of a new topic. 政治大. is usually marked in a “semantically conspicuous way,” which is usually realized in. 立. forms, intonation patterns or pausing (van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983).. ‧ 國. 學. In the present study, we will only review studies on forms. Previous studies. ‧. (Schiffrin, 1987; Fraser, 1999; Li, 1985; Yu, 1990; Chen, 1990; Qin, 1998; Miracle,. sit. y. Nat. 1991; Chui, 2002; Wang, 2001, 2005) on boundary markers are fruitful. The genres. n. al. er. io. cover written narratives, oral narratives and daily conversation. Their results show that. Ch. i n U. v. there exists a correlation between boundary markers and the conspicuousness of. engchi. discourse units. Thus, in the following section, we will introduce the categorization of discourse markers first and then the relationship between discourse units of different size and their corresponding boundary markers. To begin with, discourse markers, according to Schiffrin (1987), are cohesive devices which can not only indicate the connections between two sequential propositions but also bracket units of talk, which may refer to speech acts, utterances,. 28.

(37) turns or sentences. They have been extensively investigated since the 1980s. The similar terminologies include cue phrases, clue words, discourse connectives and discourse particles (Hirschberg & Litmaw, 1993). Most of the previous studies agree that discourse markers are able to mark discourse structures. For example, the use of “but” at the beginning of turns in conversation may indicate topic or sub-topic shift (McCarthy, 2000). Therefore, their occurrences can help the audiences comprehending. 政治大. the content by indicating the shift of topic (Schiffrin, 1987).. 立. As to the subcategories of discourse markers, Schiffrin (1987) has divided them. ‧ 國. 學. into four kinds of lexical expressions—conjunction, interjections, adverbs and lexical. ‧. phrases. Similarly, Fraser (1999) also asserts that discourses markers can belong to. sit. y. Nat. different syntactic classes, such as connectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases. In. n. al. er. io. terms of positions, discourse markers can be further divided into two types. Some. Ch. i n U. v. occur at the beginning of a discourse unit yet some at the end. At the semantic level,. engchi. they help the narrators establish coherence; at the discourse level, they segment discourse into several components. Therefore, the cohesive devices can not only denote coherence but also function as markers indicating the demarcation of units. With regard to Mandarin Chinese, markers used to signal boundaries include connectives, anaphoric variants, topic shift fillers and sentence-final particles. In addition to these markers, we suggest adding shot shift, since visual image plays an. 29.

(38) important role in broadcast news. We will introduce these boundary markers in the order above. First, concerning connectives, Yu (1990) has conducted a thorough study on the discourse function of connectives as well as the correlation of connectives and anaphora in written narratives. She discovers that four types of connectives—additives, adversatives, causal-effects and temporals are able to mark discourse segments of different levels. Simply stated, different types of connectives tend to occur at different. 政治大. unit boundaries. Additives usually connect micro-structures which are related to one. 立. topic. Adversatives, however, frequently connect two topics each of which has its own. ‧ 國. 學. topic. Therefore, the presence of adversatives may denote the topic is shifted.. ‧. Causal-effects can function as global markers and local markers. Similarly, temporals. sit. y. Nat. can also indicate macro-structure as well as micro-structure.. n. al. er. io. Chen (1990) compares the cohesive devices in spoken and written narrative. She. Ch. i n U. v. finds that contrajunctions such as raner 然而 ‘yet,’ bugo 不過 ‘but,’ and. engchi. meixiangdao 沒想到 ‘unexpectedly’ can serve to signal a new topic. Besides, contrajunctive expressions which indicate the meaning of opposition such as shishisang 事實上 ‘in fact,’ qishi 其實 ‘in fact,’ and xiangfande 相反的 ‘in contrast’ are also able to start a new topic. Qin (1998) analyzes the narrative structures in spoken Mandarin and finds some correlations between the discourse markers and the six components of a narrative. In. 30.

(39) her data, the utterance-initial particle na 那 is the most prevalent discourse marker, which is able to mark orientation, complicating action, and evaluation. Discourse markers such as houlai 後來 ‘then,’ keshi 可是 ‘but,’ and yinwei 因為 ‘because’ often precede orientation. The successive events are usually connected by ranhou 然後 ‘and then,’ houlai 後來 ‘then,’ and jieguo 結果 ‘as a result.’ Evaluation often begins with markers such as jieguo 結果 ‘as a result,’ houlai 後來 ‘then’ and suoyi. 政治大. 所以 ‘so.’ As to coda, it is predominately marked by suoyi 所以 ‘so.’. 立. In addition to connectives, anaphora is also a good indicator of topic shift.. ‧ 國. 學. According to Givon (1983)’s Iconicity principle, if a topic or referent is discontinuous. ‧. or less accessible, a referential form with more coding materials is chosen to make the. sit. y. Nat. topic more informative. On the other hand, if a topic or referent is continuous or. n. al. er. io. accessible, a referential form with less coding materials will be used. With regard to. Ch. i n U. v. Mandarin Chinese, Li (1985, as cited in Yu, 1990) has also done a thorough study on. engchi. the three variants of anaphora. According to her categorization, full NPs, pronouns and zero anaphora are the morphological variants of anaphora and they are related to discourse units at different levels. Full NPs tend to occur at the beginning of a larger unit and can progress the story line. Pronouns mark the beginning of a smaller unit like a topic chain with minor break in continuity. Zero is an internal tie which connects two closely related clauses. Therefore, the presence of full NPs and pronouns indicates the. 31.

(40) topic is switched. The third category of boundary marker is topic shift fillers, including hao 好 ‘okay,’ er 而 ‘and/but,’ name 那麼 ‘then,’ and zhege 這個 ‘this.’ Previous studies on hao 好 ‘okay’ (Miracle, 1991; Wang, 2001, 2005) examine both its literal meanings and discourse functions. The researchers agree that in addition to expressing the meaning of “good,” “fine,” “nice,” and “okay,” hao 好 can serve as a discourse. 政治大. marker. It signals the closure of the previous unit and the transition to the new topics at. 立. the textual level of discourse (Wang, 2005). As to er 而 ‘and/but,’ name 那麼 ‘then,’. ‧ 國. 學. and zhege 這個 ‘this,’ they have similar functions. Er, 而 ‘and/but’ can denote. ‧. additive, adversative, and causal-conditional. Besides, it is able to serve as a topic shift. sit. y. Nat. point (Chen, 1990; Hong, 2008). These topic shift fillers are often viewed as a. n. al. er. io. mechanism for the speakers to earn more processing time as the topics shift. Thus, the. Ch. i n U. v. presence of topic shift fillers is a possible indicator of topic changes.. engchi. The fourth boundary marker is sentence-final particle, which is also termed as yu qi chi 語氣詞 ‘mood words’, including la, 啦, ne 呢, o 喔, a 啊, ma 嗎, ba 吧, etc. They mainly occur in informal context and function as expressing speakers’ emotions and attitudes (Li, 1999). Traditional research often lists the meanings of sentence-final particles by offering examples (Diao, 2000; Tsai, 2002, cited in Wu, 2006). However, in a thorough examination of sentence-final particles, many researchers (Li, 1999; Hu,. 32.

(41) 1993, cited in Wu, 2006; Wu, 2006) point out that the inferred meanings of sentence-final particles are actually a combination of the propositions of the whole sentence, intonation and the context. Li (1999) further suggests that the meaning of sentence-final particles is general. The specific meanings are derived in different context7. The indexical function suggests that sentential-final particles should be treated as discourse markers. For example, la 啦 in Taiwanese usually occurs at the. 政治大. end of a discourse unit of a larger level, such as the changes of topics.. 立. The last type of boundary marker is shot shift. According to Montgomery (2007),. ‧ 國. 學. there is nearly a 50% correspondence between shot boundaries and clause/sentence. ‧. boundaries. The results may infer that there is a correlation between shot shift and. sit. y. Nat. discourse segments because the propositions coded in clauses/sentences are matched. n. al. er. io. with relevant scenes. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that shot shift goes with the shift. Ch. i n U. v. of topics and accordingly serves as indicators of topic switching.. engchi. Based on the previous studies, we have learned that sentence-final particles, connectives, anaphoric variants, topic shift filler and shot shift are able to indicate the boundary of a discourse unit. Sentence-final particles often occur in informal context or conversation. Accordingly, they are less likely to be found in a formal genre like. 7. Li’s (1999) analysis on la 啦 in Taiwanese provides us a good example. She mentions that la 啦 in 緊吃啦 denotes the meaning of “impatient” and “friendly” in the contexts where a mother talking to her son who is going to be late for school and where a host talking to his or her guest, respectively. Therefore, la 啦 has a general meaning. The specific meanings, such as “impatient” and “friendly” will be divided when la 啦 is used in different contexts. 33.

(42) broadcast news. However, we found only a few sentence-final particles, including la 啦, o 喔 and ne 呢 in our data, most of which are in news kernel and produced by some anchors. Thus, we will exclude sentence-final particles in the present study. Connectives, which help topic shifts more smoothly, are good indicators of discourse units in narratives. They are also commonly seen in broadcast news, which usually covers a series of events happening at different times, locations and involving different. 政治大. persons. Besides, anaphoric variants, which are able to signal the discourse units of. 立. different level, are as well useful indicators, because the focus of broadcast news is. ‧ 國. 學. human beings. Topic shift fillers are very likely to occur, especially in news kernel.. ‧. Shot shift, the distinctive feature of broadcast news, is also used as an indicator. Thus,. sit. y. Nat. in the present study, we will use connectives, anaphoric variants, topic shift fillers, and. n. al. er. io. shot shift as the boundary markers and see their relationship with discourse units.. Ch. engchi. 34. i n U. v.

(43) CHAPTER THREE METHODOLGY In this chapter, data collection and description, transcription conventions and analytical framework will be presented. Section 3.1 presents the data collection and description. Section 3.2 presents the transcription convention. Section 3.3 introduces the framework concerning the structure of a broadcast news item as well as the. 政治大. potential boundary markers of each structure. Section 3.4 offers an example to. 立. illustrate how the model operates.. ‧ 國. 學. 3.1 Data Collection and Description. ‧. The data presented in this thesis were twenty-five pieces of news, recorded from. sit. y. Nat. television news programs in Taiwan8. The channels were evenly distributed to reduce. n. al. er. io. idiosyncrasy, since each news organization may set its own prescriptions. Besides, the. Ch. i n U. v. genders of the news presenters, eight females and seven males, are also evenly. engchi. distributed in avoidance of gender differences. In regard to the subject matter, only damage and criminal news are taken into consideration in that they occupy the highest percentage (i.e., one-fifth) of a broadcast news section in Taiwan (Niu, 2006). Besides, they are more akin to personal oral narratives, as defined by Labov and Waltezky 8. The channels include: Era-News (年代), ET-Today (東森), CTI (中天), FTV (民視), SET (三立), TVBS, TTV (台視), CTV (中視) and CTS (華視). The previous six channels are 24-hour television news channels and the last three are cable TV channels. The inclusion of the previous six channels is because they are professional news channels (Cai, 2006) and are probably the main source from which the major population receives new information. The last three are included because they provide scheduled news sections for those who do not have access to satellite channels. 35.

(44) (1975) in that both of them cover a series of events, resulting in some reportable damages or casualties. Their background information is given in Table 1. Table 1 The information of the twenty-five pieces of news Data types. Channel. Reporting date and time. Allotted time. Anchor’s gender. 1. 2.. Murder Murder. SET Era-NEWS. 2/15; 18:00 1/14; 18:00. 2’27’’ 1’46’’. F F. 3. 4.. Murder Murder. ET Today CTI. 4/24; 00:00 5/6; 11:00. 1’48’’ 1’53’’. M M. 5. 6.. Suicide Suicide. CTI CTV. 1/18; 18:00 2/22;19:00. 1’48’’ 1’15’’. F F. 7. 8.. Accident Accident. 1’39’’ 2’25’’. M F. 9. 10.. Car accident Car accident. 1’20’’ 1’19’’. F F. 11. 12.. 1’07’’ 1’28’’. M M M M. No.. 治政 TVBS 4/27; 12:00 大立TVBS 12/31; 19:00. Car accident Robbery. Era-NEWS CTV. 5/18; 08:00 4/23; 00:00. 13. 14.. Robbery Robbery. CTV CTS. 4/21; 00:00 1/26; 19:00. 1’26’’ 1’18”. 15. 16.. Abduct Fire. ET Today Era-NEWS. 1/29; 19:00 12/31; 13:00. 2’22’’ 1’42’’. 17. 18.. Fire Fire. ET Today. 2/19; 20:00. 19. 20.. Fraud Arson. 21. 22.. sit. io. er. Nat. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 1/11;11:00 2/29; 19:00. 學. SET TTV. 2’16’’. n. a l CTS 5/9; 19:00 i v1’07’’ n C CTSh 2/20; 11:00 U 1’19’’ eng chi. F F F M. CTI. 4/30; 8:00. 1’03’’. F M. Shipwreck Arrest. FTV TTV. 1/16; 19:00 2/29; 18:00. 1’20’’ 1’21’’. F F. 23. 24.. Harm Explosion. FTV SET. 5/6; 09:00 5/9; 08:00. 1’35’’ 1’35’’. M M. 25.. Illegal launching. FTV. 5/6; 09:00. 1’26’’. M. The topics of the 25 pieces of news include murder, suicide, accident, car accident, robbery, abduction, fire, fraud, arson, shipwreck, arrest, harm, explosions and illegal launching to make our data more diverse. Each topic was originally designed to. 36.

(45) contain two or more pieces of news, but due to the limited time, the last seven topics only contain one piece of news, respectively. Besides, each channel donated two or three news items. The recording time is aimed at morning, noon, evening and midnight. As for the length of a piece of news, each piece of news is one min and 37 sec on average. News kernels are 24 sec in length and news report 73 sec in length, which is three times the length of news kernel.. 立. 政治大. 3.2 Transcription Conventions. ‧ 國. 學. TV news, though written in advance, is presented in spoken form. It is tactically designed to sound as natural as speech (Cotter, 2001). Therefore, it exhibits the. ‧. characteristics of ordinary speech, such as pauses, rising, falling and level intonations.. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. We adopted Du Bois et al.’s (1993) transcription conventions for ordinary speech.. n. Under the transcription conventions, “speech is segmented into intonation units (IU),”. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. defined as “a stretch of speech under a single coherent intonation contour.” Its boundary is commonly marked by four features: 1) pitch reset: the pitch value of a new prosodic unit is usually higher than that of the previous one; 2) pause: an IU usually ends with a longer pause; 3) lengthening: the final syllable of an IU is usually lengthened; and 4) speech rate alternation: the speech rate is slow at the end of an IU but is fast at the beginning of the next IU. In the present study, the acoustic features to be transcribed are simplified and are inclusive of only pause and intonation. Aside 37.

(46) from acoustic features, because shot shift is considered to be related to event shift (Montgomery, 2007), we also mark it in our text. All of the transcription symbols are listed in Table 2. Table 2 Transcription symbols Features Pause. Symbols. 9. 1) Long: …(N) 2) Short: ... Intonation. 1) Rising pitch: / 2) Falling pitch: \ 3) Level pitch:_. Shot shift. 立. 治政 > 大. ‧ 國. 學. 3.3 Analytical Framework. Concerning the discourse structure of TV news, we chose the narrative approach. ‧. as our framework for two main reasons: 1) TV news shares similar structural elements. Nat. sit. y. with narratives, and 2) these elements are presented in a canonical way as oral. n. al. er. io. narratives. Among the narrative approaches, we mainly followed Montgomery’s (2007). Ch. i n U. v. and Labov and Waltezky’s (1975) models. To begin with, we took Montgomery’s. engchi. (2007) observations on the overall structure of broadcast news as our model, in which a broadcast news item is composed of an obligatory news kernel and a succeeding news body. A news kernel is a summary of the whole news story (“in a nutshell”). The news body, on the other hand, clarifies and adds details to the news story. Nevertheless, 9. In Du Bois et al.’s (1993) framework, pauses are categorized into long, medium and short. Long pauses are beyond 0.6 seconds, medium ones are between 0.6 and 0.3 seconds, and short ones are below 0.3 seconds. However, in broadcast news, which is so constricted in time span, long pauses are seldom found. Thus, we divide pauses into only long and short ones. Long pauses are beyond 0.3 seconds and short ones are below 0.3 seconds. Besides, in the transcription symbol for long pause, the N in the parenthesis stands for seconds. 38.