Manipulation of semantics and syntax: the use of emotive language in English and Arabic news reports and editorials with reference to translation

Ouayed, Abdul-Jabbar (1990) Manipulation of semantics and syntax: the use of emotive language in English and Arabic news reports and editorials with reference to translation. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Since language is an important means of communication between human beings, it is held that writers or speakers can affect their readers or hearers by using certain linguistic means. The manipulation of semantics and syntax, namely the use of emotive language, is seen as an affective means resorted to by text producers to influence the people's acceptance of the truth.

Emotional language aims ultimately at persuading the addressee to accept the facts as they are presented by writers. It is regarded as a necessary condition for persuasion to be successful. This is due to the persuasive force of emotive meaning exerted upon the receiver. In addition, the employment of emotive language may be attributed to ideological considerations. This will be demonstrated in Chapter II.

Emotiveness, as a means of persuasion, can be expressed by using certain devices such as repetition, intertextuality, word-order, figures of speech, intensifiers ... etc. These strategies will be discussed in detail with reference to translation in Chapter III.

Furthermore, I must say that some of my remarks have been based on the findings of outstanding grammarians and linguists, and therefore, I have been obliged to quote from such works to substantiate my points of view.

Before proceeding with the investigation, I must point out that the entire data of my work will be confined only to news reports and editorials both in Arabic and English, and for this end a number of articles have been used from official newspapers in both languages.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PE English; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General); P Language and Literature > PI Oriental languages and literatures
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Supervisor's Name: Mattock, Prof. John and Fronek, Dr. Joseph
• Date of Award: 1990
• Depositing User: Elaine Ballantyne
• Unique ID: glathesis:1990-1630
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 05 Mar 2010
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:44
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/1630