Why The Writer Chose to Be As Vague as to What Really Happened
Table 1 reveals some interesting insight into the language used in this sentence. Replica Watches First of all, when the Actor is human, the Process is intentional.
This happens in the first and in the third phrase while, conversely, in the second phrase the Process ‘were struck’ is unintentional since the Actor ‘bullets’ is inanimate. So there are two intentional Processes, one performed by the football supporters (‘fought’) and one by the guards (‘tried to clear’). It is worth noting that while one has clear negative connotations, the other conveys the guards’ intention to restore order. The unintentional Process ‘were struck’ is not immediately linked with the other two. The Actor ‘bullets’ clearly cannot have decided to strike the Goal ‘two supporters’ but it is not at all apparent from where or by whom they were shot. It is only through world knowledge that readers may assume that perhaps the bullets came from guns used by the guards.
However, as there is no firm evidence of this, it is impossible to be in any way conclusive about it. This is a very good example of a text in which grammar is used in order to maintain neutrality.
At this point the students can be invited to reflect on the reasons why the writer of the article chose to be so vague as to what really happened. It is reasonable to assume that the reporter wanted to avoid blaming the guards directly for the incident in order to preserve the idea that they were actually trying to restore order. It however is crucial that the teacher does not try to impose their own interpretation. What is really important is that the students become aware of the fact that the writer has used grammar intentionally in order to convey—or hide—a particular meaning.
Once the students have become familiar with the concept and the terminology, they can work more independently on a pair of texts where the points of view are somewhat more overt. They can analyse the system of transitivity in order to show how the same event can be reported in radically different ways. Whenever there is a situation of conflict, positions tend to become extreme, and that is why news reports dealing with conflicts are particularly suitable to show how grammar may encode ideology. IWC Portuguese Replica The language classroom, however, does not need to be partisan and so, in this case, it is very useful to compare two texts dealing with the same event. This will have a twofold advantage: it will serve to reinforce the point that grammar can be used to convey particular meanings, and it will also help avoid ideological bias.
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