EXPLORING GENERIC STRUCTURE POTENTIAL OF SELECTED EDITORIALS IN THE MYANMAR TIMES NEWSPAPER

Ae Mon Kyaw,Xin Zhiying

doi:10.30743/ll.v3i2.1780

Abstract

Systemic Functional Linguists introduced Generic Structural Potential (GSP) that can be used to distinguish different social activities of a text. A variety of researches have been conducted on Generic Structural Potential of the editorials of other countries. However, no research has been conducted about the editorials of Myanmar newspaper. Therefore, The Myanmar Times newspaper, written in English, is chosen to carry out a research. The aim of the research paper is to identify the schematic structural elements of the editorials in The Myanmar Times newspaper. The materials are measured using Generic Structure Potential proposed by Halliday and Hason (1985). The result of the study shows that there are two obligatory elements and five optional elements. Heading (H), and Contributing the Writer’s Opinion (O) are obligatory while Picture (P), Caption(C ), Addressing the issue (AI) , Background Information (BI), and Discussing the issue Raised (D) are optional elements. The sequence of the elements follows the procedure H^ (P)^{ *(BI) *(AI) *(D) }^O.

Highlights

According to Eggins (2004, p. 58), “... as situations, or contexts, recur, so we develop recurrent ways of using language.”
Taking a glance at the headline can give the general idea about the whole content
Some of the examples are given below; - “Myanmar should not retreat into isolation”

Summary

Introduction

According to Eggins (2004, p. 58), “... as situations, or contexts, recur, so we develop recurrent ways of using language.”. It can be noted that Photo(P), Caption (C) , Background Information (BI), Addressing the Issue (AI) and Discussing the Theme or Issue Raised (D), are optional elements. 5.8 The sequence of the generic structure elements in The Myanmar Times newspaper In the previous section, we have explored the generic structure elements of the selected editorials from The Myanmar Times newspaper They are Headline (H) and Writer’s Opinion (O), Picture (36%), Caption (28%), Background Information (64%), Addressing the Issue (84%) and Discussing the Issue Raised (76%) the sequence of these elements is to be examined in the following way; H^ (P)^ (C) { *(BI) *(AI) *(D) }^O The caret (^) represents the fixed order of the stage; H precedes P. {*(BI) *(AI) *(D) }^O indicates that writer’s opinion always follows the elements in the { }

Results

Discussion

Conclusion