Exploring the generic structure of French editorials from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics

2.1 Background

Editorials are of comparatively recent invention. Unlike the case with many traditional genres, we can date the emergence of editorials with some precision to the early nineteenth century. Before this time, the editor’s opinion permeated newspapers, mixing inextricably with the news (Smith 1978, 165). The idea that news should be reported objectively as information and that editorial comment be identified as such and confined to a certain space in the newspaper emerged gradually in the early nineteenth century, the earliest practitioner of the modern editorial or “leader” being perhaps Thomas Barnes of The Times around 1815 (Murray 1966, 23). The use of the term “éditorial”, imitating the English word, came even later in France: the Robert dictionary dates it as 1852. (The term for editor is “rédacteur”.) This brief history allows us to identify several of the key functions of the editorial: not only does it present the stance of the newspaper but it serves to legitimize the objectivity of other areas of the newspaper – that is to say, opinion has supposedly been corralled into one section.

This distinction between editorials and other types of article in newspapers, and especially “hard news stories”, is underlined through characteristic features of the “paratext” of editorials and through the separation of roles within the news organization.

Thus editorials are clearly identifiable by elements of their “paratext”: the editorial occupies an unchanging, unique and singular place in the newspaper and is generally identified through a heading. Its position in the paper is usually a prominent one, at the top of the page or in a side column, always in its main section, often in the centre pages, aligned with the letters from the readers and opinion pieces, suggesting a dialogue within the newspaper and with the readers. Other characteristic features of editorials include their length: more than a column length would be unusual; their periodicity: the fact that they appear every day, in every issue; their titles: typically short, without a “lead”; and the absence of pictures or cartoons. Editorials are usually unsigned though they are more often signed in the French press than in the English. Such distinguishing features of editorials vary of course from culture to culture but the attempt to differentiate editorial text from other types of articles seems to be constant.

Organizationally, editorial and news staff are generally distinct in terms of function and in the power and influence they can exert in determining the political line of the newspaper: in this, their role has changed very markedly. The editor or editorial board, generally backed by a powerful proprietor, carries great weight in defining the orientation of the newspaper. The realities of ownership and control allow the imposition of an editorial line that reflects broader, external power structures. Except in a few exceptional circumstances (for example, Libération for some of its existence), editors are not answerable to, nor do they claim to represent the views of, the staff or the readers. The prerogative of the editor to dictate the line of the newspaper and to address the readership in an expository and even exhortatory manner is not contested, even though the views expressed may be. The question of who reads editorials, and who the implied public is, is an interesting one, since media analysts point out that few ordinary readers read the editorial. Does it provide an ideological framework for the journalists writing for that paper?

In order to provide a context and point of comparison for our analysis of the generic structure of editorials, we will start by summarizing the recent theoretical conclusions reached concerning the generic structure of other types of newspaper text, and in particular the structure of informational, “hard news” stories.

2.2 Editorials versus “Hard news”

It is widely agreed amongst analysts of the print news media that the generic structure of “hard news” stories consists in the relation of nucleus to satellites (Iedema et al. 1994). The nucleus is to be found in the headline and lead, while the development of the article consists of a series of associated items of information that can generally be characterized under the broad headings of elaboration, explanation, contextualization and appraisal, though under each of these headings finer distinctions can be drawn (White 1997, 115). Each piece of satellite information refers directly back to the kernel of the “headline/lead” rather than to its immediate neighbour; the order of presentation is thus orbital rather than linear since the order of presentation of items of contextualization, explanation, etc., is less important than the repetitive referral back to the nucleus. According to the principle of “radical editability” (1997, 119), it would be possible to change the order of the satellites without fundamentally altering the interpretation of the event being proposed by the journalist because, White asserts, “the sub-components do not link together to build a linear semantic pathway by which meaning is accumulated sequentially” (118). The nucleus–satellite structure is sometimes referred to as an inverted pyramid: the progression is top-heavy in that all the important information is provided first and then elaborated in the subsequent segments.

“Hard news” stories are also characterized by an absence of interpersonal register:

The meanings typically avoided include explicit value judgements by the reporter about the morality, competence, normality etc. of participants, explicit evaluations of events and entities in terms of their aesthetics or emotional impact, inferences about the motivations and intentions of participants and contentious claims about causes and effects (White 1997, 107).

However White and others are quick to point out that this stance of neutrality and objectivity in fact glosses over the bias in the choices made by the journalist (and the sub-editor) of the stories to be covered, and in the slant given to their reporting via attitudinal tokens, etc. We analysed in a previous article the linguistic resources mobilized to carry the ideological positioning of two “news articles” on the same topic as the editorials we study here (Caffarel and Rechniewski 2008).

“Hard news” stories may be seen as lying at one end of the spectrum of articles to be found in newspapers, ranging from those that adopt a stance of neutrality and objectivity to those that are overtly opinion pieces. We are referring to a spectrum whose two poles are represented by “ideal types” – that is to say, at one end, the ideal-type of the “hard news story” would be one that not only adopts a nucleus/satellite structure but also entirely excludes interpersonal register and the language of appraisal, confines itself to “facts”, and does not have recourse to external spokesmen to indirectly import opinion and evaluation into the article. Such an article almost certainly does not exist in this pure form, and even if it did, it would not of course escape from the ideological positioning that underpins the choice of subject matter and of the nucleus. But it offers a clear contrast, in terms of the linguistic resources mobilized, to the ideal type to be found at the other end of the spectrum: the pure opinion or argument piece, where the author overtly adopts a personal viewpoint, using interpersonal and pragmatic language and appraisal inscription.

2.3 The generic structure of editorials

Teun van Dijk argues that editorials constitute one of relatively few forms of openly persuasive writing for the general public and that this function is recognized as such by writer and readers. The aim of the editorial, he argues, is to suggest to the reader a “preferred model” for interpreting the events discussed, from which, once this model is accepted as valid, certain pragmatic conclusions can be “logically” drawn (van Dijk 1996, 39). Van Dijk deplores the lack of theoretical attention paid to editorials: “There are virtually no book-length studies, and rather few substantial articles, on the structures, strategies and social functions of editorials.” He adds that those that exist are often “practical and anecdotal”, written by practitioners rather than by media analysts (van Dijk 1). He proposes a model of the structure of editorials which he summarizes as follows:

1. summary of the event

2. evaluation of the event – especially of actions and actors

3. pragmatic conclusion (recommendation, advice, warning).

2.4 SFL studies of the generic structure of editorials

Hasan Ansary and Esmat Babaii describe editorials as a “Cinderella” genre – one that has been overlooked in studies of the print media, perhaps because editorials are rarely used in English language teaching and therefore have been ignored by the “TESOL industry” (Ansary and Babaii 2004, 9). The comparatively poor field of prior studies leads Ansary and Babaii to turn to the GSP approach formulated by Halliday and Hasan, an approach which seeks to identify the obligatory and optional rhetorical elements, sequenced in a particular order, that characterize a genre of communication. The obligatory elements define the genre to which a text belongs (see Halliday and Hasan 1985, 62]), while the optional elements may typically occur but are not essential to the recognition of the genre. It should therefore be possible to:

express the total range of optional, obligatory, and iterative elements and their sequence in such a way that all the possibilities and/or potential of text structure for every text appropriate to a specific Cultural Construction may be exhausted (Ansary and Babaii 2004, 6).

Their study of the GSP of editorials is based on an analysis of 30 editorials from the Washington Post (chosen because “representative of American newspapers”) selected “non-randomly” from a pool of 4 months of editorials published in 2003. They identify four obligatory structural elements, Run-on Headline, Addressing an Issue, Argumentation and Articulating a Position, that are present in 90% of the editorials in their sample. They appear in this order: RH^AI^A^AP.¹ The full equation can be codified as follows: RH^[(BI).AI]^{(IA)^A1^A2^A…^(CA) }n^{AP1^AP2^AP…}m

The researchers conclude:

In sum, the GSP presented here is a condensed statement suggesting that an unmarked English newspaper editorial typically carries a headline and addresses an issue which may or may not require some background information occurring either before or after it. It then starts off an argumentation for or against the addressed issue by an initiation statement that is optional. It makes the arguments, and finally takes a position about the issue discussed. This latter process may reoccur. This is to say, an argumentation process begins with a series of arguments and ends with the articulation of a position. This process can then be repeated until the planned conclusion is drawn. (Ansary and Babaii 2004, 18–19).

In an article published in July 2010, Hossein Shokouhi and Forough Amin build on the GSP identified by Ansary and Babaii to examine the generic structure of Persian and English newspaper editorials, with the aim of testing whether consistent genre structure helps foreign language students to understand text. They conclude that the GSP of these texts can be shown as: H ^ [(BI). ^ AI] ^ [A ^ (AS).] ^ (CR).²

Shokouhi and Amin use slightly different identification to Ansary and Babaii to represent the stages: thus the final stage is referred to as AP (Articulation of a Position) in Ansary and Babaii, and as AS (Articulating a Solution) in Shokouhi and Amin. However, these latter authors conclude that their study of the GSP of Persian and English newspaper editorials has produced very similar results to those of Ansary and Babaii and of other studies: “The rhetorical structure of their material like ours revealed little variation across countries and languages.”(Shokouhi and Amin 2010, 394). We note however the relatively limited range of editorials analysed across countries and languages. Our own study uses the range of tools provided by an SFL framework to identify the specific textual generic features of two editorials from French newspapers, Libération and Le Figaro, and compares our findings to those of previous studies of English, American and Persian editorials. The aim of our study is thus to contribute to the cross-cultural analysis of the GSP of editorials through an examination of French editorials. Although Elizabeth Le has published a recent study of editorials from Le Monde (Le 2010), she does not identify the generic, schematic structure of the editorials, nor compare her findings to previous studies of this structure.

3.1 Generic structure

In both editorials, the title appears to be a condensed version of the thesis or a preface to the thesis, typically realized as a nominal group, a simple noun in Libération: “Echo” and a nominal group expanded by a prepositional phrase in Le Figaro: “Une méthode face à l’horreur”. The expansion of the nominal group in Le Figaro enables the expression of emotion from the outset.

Both texts begin with an orientation stage, which is attitudinal in nature. The orientation stage in Le Figaro is short and again more emotionally charged than in Liberation with the experience construed as attributive relational clauses, where the attributes are “une torture” and “horrible”. In Libération, we find highly nominalized themes that enable the journalist to evaluate the reaction of the population to the kidnapping. Each orientation is expanded by an elaboration that can be defined as restating in other words, specifying in greater detail, commenting or exemplifying what has been stated in the initial clause.

Following the orientation comes the Thesis. Le Figaro presents three main arguments followed by a conclusion of the result type. The first argument, presenting the past success of the French government in releasing hostages, serves as a background against which the other two arguments are made. In Liberation the counter-thesis, emphasizing the powerlessness of the government and ridiculing its claims to have any impact on the kidnappers, gives more weight to their own arguments that the mobilization of the Arab world and of the Muslim population in France and abroad offers the only chance of success. Libération ends with a conclusion that is a recommendation for action. These two editorials provides an illustration of the GSP of French editorials which consists of an attitudinal orientation followed by a thesis, a background argument and a number of arguments supporting the thesis followed by a conclusion that summarizes and evaluates the situation or is a call for action.

We will now explore how the thematic structure of the texts correlates with their generic structure as argued by Fries (1981):

[…] in argumentative or expository prose each sentence should follow logically from what has gone before. This implies in part that the point of departure of each sentence should relate in some way to what has preceded. If there are unexplained jumps in the sequence of starting points that implies that there are breaks in the argument. If the theme of a sentence indicates the point of departure of that unit, then the information contained in the themes of each sentence within a highly structured passage should reflect the structure of that passage (121).

Before going further, it is important to explain the notion of theme within SFL. Within the systemic functional model, the clause is interpreted as a multifunctional unit in which three different types of structures are mapped onto one another, the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual structure. The textual structure is realized by the systems of themes and theme choice in a text serves to guide the speaker/listener through the unfolding text so that s/he can process the information constructed by the interpersonal and ideational meanings. In Halliday’s words:

The textual component represents the speaker’s text-forming potential; it is that which makes language relevant. This is the component which provides the texture; that which makes the difference between language that is suspended in vacuo and language that is operational in a context of situation. It expresses the relation of the language to its environment, including both the verbal environment—what has been said or written before—and the non-verbal, situational environment. Hence the textual component has an enabling function with respect to the other two; it is only in combination with textual meanings that ideational and interpersonal meanings are actualized (Halliday 1978, 112–113).

Theme is most commonly defined as expressing “what the sentence is about” (Firbas 1987; see also Hagège 1978). This is because theme is often equated with topic. However, as theme within the systemic framework can include not only topical elements but also textual and interpersonal ones, a broader definition is required. As Halliday (1994, 38) puts it: “Theme is the ground from which the clause is taking off”. In Matthiessen’s (1995, 531) words:

THEME is the resource for setting up the local context or local semiotic environment in which each clause is to be interpreted. This local context constitutes a particular status in the clause-thematic prominence. While all clauses occur in context, THEME is thus the resource for manipulating the contextualization of the clause.

The term “manipulating” describes precisely the process in which a journalist is involved when choosing particular element(s) as “local context” of a clause in order to make a point. This is what we will be exploring in the two French editorials under analysis. We will see that the choice of themes in both texts is not arbitrary but contributes to constructing both the global structure of these texts and the local structure of arguments whilst foregrounding a particular method of development which is essential to making these texts persuasive.

As mentioned above, three types of themes are recognized within SFL, textual, interpersonal and topical (experiential) themes. A topical theme is the only necessary theme in any clause with textual and interpersonal themes being optional. A topical theme is a theme that has a function within the transitivity structure of the clause. It is either a participant, a circumstance or a process. If the participant is also the subject of the clause, then the theme is said to be unmarked. If the theme is a participant other than the subject or a circumstance or a process (in a declarative clause) then it is said to be marked. Another type of marked theme relevant for our analysis is β clause in hypotactic clause complexes when preceding the α clause. A textual theme is a conjunctive marker creating a logical relation with the preceding (or following) clause or discourse. An interpersonal theme is typically an attitudinal, comment or modal adjunct expressing attitude or probability with regards to the proposition.

Both our texts show similarity in relation to their choice of theme types. Both have a majority of unmarked themes, i.e. the subject of the clause is also the theme of the clause. This is partly because they are expository in nature rather than narrative. Each text has a few explicit logical connectors mostly elaborating or expanding the main clause causally with conjunctions of purpose such as “pour” or condition such as “si”. There is only one interpersonal theme in the text, “au moins”, which brings the thesis to the fore following the initial orientation: The wait is torture but at least the country is doing everything it can. The interpersonal theme has the effect of bringing relief after the initial pain encoded in the orientation. However, apart from this interpersonal theme, attitudinal meaning is generally realized as nominalizations or qualities within nominal groups or as attributes in relational clauses as in the attitudinal orientation stage. There are two marked themes of the circumstantial type in Le Figaro, the first one marking the contrast between the situation today and what happened in the past and the second one in the conclusion marking the contrast between French Islam and the Islam of the kidnappers. A feature of both texts is to have dependent clauses functioning as marked theme, mostly foregrounding aim, purpose and condition. We have not analysed enough data at this stage to claim that this is a characteristic of French editorials but it is certainly something that we will investigate in the future.

Having looked at preferred theme choices in these two editorials, we will now focus on their thematic progression.

Danes (1974) identifies three patterns of thematic progression: Pattern 1 represents a linear progression where the theme follows from the preceding Rheme and so on; Pattern 2, a progression where each theme is derived from a more general macro-theme; and Pattern 3, a constant progression where the theme is kept from clause to clause as shown in Figure 1.

3.2 The thematic progression in the Libération editorial

The exploration of theme choices provides a methodological approach for understanding the structuring of a text and cohesion within a text.

Figure 1.

Danes’ Patterns of Thematic Progression.

Thematic choices in the Libération editorial clearly correlate with the structuring of information and contribute to the global organization of experiential content as well as to continuity and cohesion within and between each stage. The attitudinal orientation is essentially carried through with a constant pattern of progression referring to the “unanimous condemning voice”, which is then cohesively related to the two kidnapped journalists through a linear progression linking the Rheme of the last clause of the first elaboration to the theme of second elaboration by means of the referential demonstrative pronoun “cela”. In the final theme of that stage, “nos deux confrères” the possessive adjective, “nos” creates the connection between the text and the context of situation, emphasizing the emotional link between all journalists and the kidnapped journalists. This also creates the link with the Thesis stage where the emotion provoked by the plight of the journalists is foregrounded as theme. The method of development in the counter-thesis is built around a contrast between France and the kidnappers. The two elaborations within that stage are foregrounded by a marked theme realized as a β clause. All β clauses in the text have the function of challenging reality and clearly serve to structure the text, as shown at the beginning of the first argument and the conclusion. The first argument has the Arab leaders as theme and the second argument has a linear pattern where the Rheme of the first clause is further developed in the following clause, itself a rhetorical question. The conclusion is linked to the preceding argument by means of the possessive adjective “leurs”. Personal reference within the thematic progression is one of the resources used to create cohesive harmony between the stages of this text.

3.3 The thematic progression in Le Figaro editorial

The attitudinal orientation has a constant progression foregrounding “the wait” as the point of departure which is then linked emotionally to the thesis by means of the interpersonal theme “at least” that provides a step forward to the theme of the thesis and the main arguments which revolve around “France” and the reaction of “everyone else”. The second argument begins with a marked theme “Today” providing a contrastive link with the first argument. The second argument focuses around the three main strategies of the government, foregrounding as theme the principal people involved in working towards the release of the journalists (the government, secret agents and diplomats). The final argument is linked to the preceding one by the use of the demonstrative adjective “ces” in “ces operations extérieures”. This last argument is again organized around a contrast, this time between the kidnappers (introduced as theme in a β clause questioning their aims) and French Muslims that are theme in the second point of this argument. And this division between the two Muslim groups provides the theme to the conclusion which ends with a marked topical theme, “dans l’islam de la France” again foregounding contrast.

Both texts appear to foreground a method of development based on contrast as a resource for making their point and scaffolding their arguments.

The relationship between the schematic structure and thematic progression of the texts is represented in tabular format in the Appendix.