Interpersonal Meaning in Media texts Written by Native & Non-native Writers of English

Abstract

This study presents an exploration of how interpersonal meaning is created and recognized in media texts written by native and non-native writers of English. The objectives of this study are: to compare and describe the types of interpersonal meaning, and the various structures and speech functions realized in media texts from native and non-native online newspapers that reveal the authors' intention to influence the readers. Eight articles from Washington Post (WP) & Arab News (AN) online newspapers were collected for the analysis. The texts' clauses were identified and analyzed for mood and modality based on Halliday's framework of Systemic Functional Grammar. The analysis reveals that the most dominant mood type is declarative, and modality of medium value pervades all the texts with higher frequency in WP newspaper which makes the authors appear to be more personal and certain about their claims than the AN authors. Yet, declarative moods have varying structures and varying degrees of ‘functions’. The conclusion shows that this variation in the clause structures and functions is done with the authors' intention to get the readers persuaded.