1. 'On the grammar of death': the construal of death and killing in Colombian newspapers.
- Author
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García Marrugo, Alexandra
- Subjects
GRAMMAR ,LEXICON ,SPANISH language ,SEMIOTICS ,SEMANTICS - Abstract
The aims of this paper are twofold. First, following Halliday's 1998 paper 'On the grammar of pain', this study maps the lexicogrammatical resources available to Spanish speakers in the register of hard news to construe death and killing. Based primarily on a 250,000+ corpus of news reports of violent actions by illegal armed groups in the internal conflict from four major Colombian newspapers, it distinguishes between congruent and metaphorical construals of death, accounting for the different roles of the participants involved in these different types of constructions. In addition, it offers a topological perspective of the intersection of the more delicate distinction of process types and the system of Agency. The second objective is to apply these findings to contrast the construal of violence by the actors in the conflict, Marxist guerrillas and right wing paramilitaries. The results of the analysis show how the deployment of lexicogrammatical resources construes different semiotic spaces, highlighting the role of one group while diminishing the responsibility of the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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