Sagprosaanalyse

Når du arbejder med analyse af en non-fiktionstekst/sagprosatekst i engelsk, er der fem områder, der kan være relevante at komme ind på.

 

Helt simpelt handler det om 5 spørgsmål – og sammenhængen mellem dem:

 

  1. What is the message?
  2. Who is the sender?
  3. Who is the receiver?
  4. What are the circumstances?
  5. What is the language like?

 

 

Det er ikke nok at sige ”Who is the sender?” og ”What are the circumstances?”, men man skal også spørge sig selv ”Who is the sender AND what is the sender’s connetion to the circumstances?”

 

Her er beskrevet nogle af de ting, man kan kigge på, under de fem punkter:

1.     Message

  • What: What is the message: a political speech, an advertisement, a declaration of love?
  • What channel is used: A newspaper, a book, a blog on the Internet, a speech, etc ?
  • What is the sender’s intention?
  • What kind of message does the sender intend to send to us? “Only half of all American college students graduate” OR “The number of students succesfully completing college is up from 40 to 50 % from 2001 to 2012”. Here two senders use the same fact with a negative and a positive intention.

2.     Sender

  • Who sends: Is it a politician, a poet, a short story writer? It means something for the form of the message.
  • How is the message coded by the sender – is it in the form of a speech, an article in a paper, etc.
  • Is the sender objective or subjective? The sender reveals his or her attitude through choice of words or the angle of the story. Look for phrases like: ”My guess is”, ”What matters is…”, ”I now see it as…”, I believe…”, etc. or the use of irony/sarcasm..
  • Does the sender rely on any shared values?
  • Does the sender want to inform, evaluate, present an argument, try to activate people or influence behaviour?
  • Den informative tekstfunktion (informative text function) Ren information, fokus på fakta. Sproglige træk: fagterminologi (technical language), upersonlige grammatiske konstruktioner, som f.eks. passiv (the passive form)
  • Den ekspressive tekstfunktion (expressive text function) Afsenderens holdning (attitude), argumentation (arguments). Sproglige træk: ladede adjektiver (positive / negative adjectives), billedsprog (imagery), atypiske grammatiske og syntaktiske træk, neologismer (neologisms = sproglige nydannelser)
  • Den direktive tekstfunktion (directive text function) Påvirkning og aktivering af modtageren (influencing and activating the reciever), propaganda (propaganda), reklamer. Sproglige træk: direkte tiltaleform i form af personlige stedord (personal pronouns), bydeform (the imperative), ”skjulte” opfordringer (hidden appeals).

 

3.     Receiver

  • To Whom: Target group (målgruppe).
  • An audience, voters, readers?
  • How does the receiver decode the message?
  • How is the message angled (vinklet) toward the target group?
  • With what effect is the message received? – And how is it perceived (opfattet). This may depend on education, psychological characteristics, life style, class background, social environment, etc.

 

4.     Circumstances (situation)

  • What is the context?
  • How does it affect the text? (fx an environmental conference – positive angle on issues like renewable energy)

5.     Language

 

  • Stilistik (style)

 

Høj stil (formel) (formal)                      My beloved father has passed away

Normal stil (neutral)                              My father has died

Lav stil (uformel) (informal)                 My father has kicked the bucket.

 

  • Sætningsstruktur

 

Simple sætninger – ingen ledsætninger.

 

Kompleks sætningsstruktur – en eller flere ledsætninger er underordnet en                       hovedsætning. En tekst er lettere tilgængelig, hvis de underordnende led står                    sidst (”bagvægt”) end hvis de står først (”forvægt”)

 

  • Ordklasser, ordvalg

 

Mange navneord (nouns) – statisk præg

 

Mange udsagnsord (verbs) –  handlingsorienteret præg

 

Mange tillægsord (adjectives) –  beskrivende, emotionelt

 

Ordvalg –  Mange abstrakte begreber giver et højt stilniveau, mens få giver et lavt.

 

  • Stilfigurer

 

Sammenligning (simili) – indeholder ”as” eller ”like”: He went white as a sheet.                  My love is like a rose.

 

Metafor (metaphor) – et sprogligt billede, hvori et ord eller udtryk med en   konkret betydning bruges i overført betydning (She has always lived her life in      the fast lane).

 

  • Bias

Bias in a single word: terrorist/freedom fighter

Bias in a phrase: I did not have sexual relations with that woman

Bias between the lines: politician – I want to motivate people who are            unemployed

Create a positive/negative feeling in the receivers

Us/them

 

  • Argumentation

 

          Et argument (point of argument) består af:

Påstand (claim) – det synspunkt, afsenderen ønsker modtagerens                                  tilslutning til.

Belæg (premise) – den begrundelse, afsenderen bruger til at                                           underbygge sin påstand.

Hjemmel (inference) – en uddybende begrundelse, der underbygger                             afsenderens belæg for påstanden

  • Rhetorical techniques:
  1. Gentagelse (repetition) – af et eller flere ord eller udtryk for at forstærke budskabet ved at lede modtagerens opmærksomhed i en bestemt retning eller fremme forståelsen
  2. Anafor (anaphora) – gentagelse af et eller flere ord i begyndelsen af flere på hinanden følgende sætninger:

(Tony Blair: “I want a Britain that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege, run for the many not the few, strong and sure of itself at home and abroad.  I want a Britain that does not shuffle into the new millennium afraid of the future, but strides into it with confidence.

  1. Parallelisme (parallelism) – den syntaktiske struktur gentages flere gange (JFK: ” …we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe…”).
  2. Modsætning / kontraster (contrasts) – Et eksempel på ord eller udtryk, der betydningsmæssigt kontrasterer finder vi i Kennedys tiltrædelsestale, hvor han anskueliggør konsekvenserne af at stå sammen og at være splittet:

“To those allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of new cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.”

  1. Ironi/ sarkasme – udtrykker typisk det modsatte af det, man mener.
  2. Logos: the appeal to logic – facts and figures that support the speaker’s topic. When a writer/speaker focuses on logos, the focus in the text will be on the subject matter itself
  3. Ethos: The appeal to trust (to trust the writer/speaker with a certain authority). The writer focus on themselves to persuade you that they are qualified to speak on the subject. People with a strong ethos do not use as many arguments. When you talk about a writer/speaker’s ethos you talk about your (the reader’s) opinion about the writer
  4. Pathos: The appeal to emotions. A text which focuses on pathos will try to arouse the reader’s feelings by using words and images that are sad, angry, passionate, happy etc.