A cognitive-pragmatic análisis in British and AmericanNews

The aim of this study is to analyze two articles in two different newspapers (The Guardian and Herald Tribune) to underline, following a rhetorical exposition, not only the parallels between them in terms of the information given and the incidents mentioned, but also the striking differences or contrasts in their treatment of the same event. This comparative analysis will follow two of the three main rhetorical components, that is: invention and disposition . In «invention» we shall deal with the semantic contents or subject matter of the news: deployment of missiles versus disarmament proposals. The main function of language displayed is the communicative one, and as it highlights the content of the message, the language is making use of the referential or denotative function in contrast to the connotative function . Arrangement or «disposition » contains an analysis of the structural scheme of both news texts, that is, how the previous material is organized into structural form. In this structural part we shall analyze the main parts of a news item: its headline, lead and the body. The news item adopts the structure of an inverted triangle: the most important facts appear in the » headline » and are explained in the » lead ». Although the two headlines treat the same event, they usually adopt different point of views in their treatment in the headline and the place they occupy within the paper. Emphasis will be laid on one of the three major functional-semantic components of a text: the ideational element, the field which tends to determine the transitivity pattern, types of processes, participants and settings (or circumstances). We are going to apply to these journalistic texts mainly a cognitive approach, but also a functional one, analyzing the processes and their components to deduce which ones are the commonest and why. To conclude, the contrast in newspaper styles is best seen when different newspapers deal with the same story right from the opening lines of a news item. These two articles are clear examples of journalistic language, in which the semantic contents are more or less the same although each newspaper focuses them according to a different point of view, paying attention to the elements which could more strongly interest their respective readers. This is related somehow to three main » cognitive linguistic » perspectives: experiential view, the prominence view, and attentional view. Finally, this comparative analysis will allow us to se