Viewing frame

The application of construals or cognitive operations in Newspaper Discourse

Plan

1. What is a construal?

2. Types of construals applied to the Newspaper Discourse

2.1. Viewing operations

1. What is a construal?

Let me cite Julius Caesar by Shakespeare: But men may construe things, after their fashion, Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.

There is, as a rule, more than one way of thinking of a particular scene and describing it in language. In choosing one conceptual or linguistic alternative rather than another, the speaker “construes” his/her thoughts in a specific way. This is what is meant by the notion of construal. For example, I may describe the contents of a bottle of whisky as being half full or half empty. In describing it as half full, I am looking at the drink that is (still) left in the bottle, and in describing it as half empty, I am thinking of the drink that is gone.

Construals are crucial for the way language is used. Construals are operations that help select the appropriate structural possibility among various alternatives. Construal is a selection of a particular expression among various alternatives that reflects just one of the countless ways of conceiving and portraying the situation in question (R.Langacker Cognitive Grammar 2008: 4). Construals are strikingly similar to principles of perceptual organisation.

Construal refers to the way in which a speaker mentally shapes and structures the content of an expression: the relative prominence of elements, the schematicity or specificity and the point of view adopted.

2.

The descriptions clearly differ with respect to the perspective adopted: from the perspective of a full bottle or from the perspective of an empty bottle. Adopting a particular perspective is one of many possible construal operations. Perspective is defined by the point from which we observe the situation (left- right; up-down, etc.). Here we will look at five dimensions of construal that are relevant in grammar. The first 4 relate to viewing operations and the fifth relates to prominence:

1) viewing frame, 2) generality vs specificity, 3) objectivity vs subjectivity, 4) mental scanning, 5) figure and ground

Viewing frame

By viewing frame we mean broad or narrow conceptualization of a situation evoked by the linguistic units. Broad conceptualization of a situation gives a reader a wider viewing frame and a narrow conceptualization of a situation gives us a restricted viewing frame. The type of the viewing frame depends on a more distant or closer position of a reader represented in the discourse. If to talk about a newspaper discourse we may come to the conclusion that a wider viewing frame is represented by the names of the section, e.g. Europe, United States, Region in Revolt, etc. When you perceive the name of the section Europe you conceptualize the whole continent due to your distant position the gives you a wider viewing frame as if you are studying the map that encompasses Europe on the whole.

When you move a step down to the headline of the article 44 die in Russian plane crash (The IHT 22.06.2011) you acquire a narrower viewing frame as the adjective Russian takes you closer to the spot on the map Russia from where you can observe a plane crash. If you move a step further you notice a toponym Moscow that takes you closer to the event and narrows your view. A step further and you see a subheadline 8 survivors are pulled from burning wreckage in latest Tupolev accident in which language units burning wreckage and Tupolev bring you even more closer to the place of the accident. And the introduction or lead passage narrows your view even more: A passenger jet crashed a few hundred meters from an airport in northern Russia, killing 44of the 52 people aboard, emergency officials said Tuesday.

2) Generality vs specificity

The notions of generality and specificity relate to the degree of precision with which a scene is viewed or conceived. A distant view normally gives us a general impression of a scene while a close view or the use of a microscope or binoculars enables us to discern indepth details. In cognition and language, taxonomic hierarchies reflect different levels of generality and specificity. By using higher-level categories, the speaker construes a situation in a more general way; by using lower-level categories, the speaker construes the situation in a more specific way. The examples given above demonstrate operations generality vs. specificity in action. The viewing frame and the general or specific view of the situation is represented mostly by nouns and nominal groups. The following examples show how the usage of different nominals and their combinations gradually changes the conceptualization from general to specific: Russian plane crash – Tupolev accident – A passenger jet crashed a few hundred meters from an airport in northern Russia, killing 44of the 52 people aboard, emergency officials said Tuesday. – the crash Monday night – The Tupolev-134 – the plane broke apart.

Articles also function as specifiers of the situation.

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