An ECM Analysis Of Reciprocal Functions Of Interrogatives

Reciprocity is an interdisciplinary phenomenon. It can be applied not only in mutual effect among things, but also in interpersonal communication among human beings. Researches on reciprocity abroad have been done in the fields of social psychology, international relations and anthropology. However, researches on reciprocity at home have been made mostly in the field of computer science and multi-media language learning. So far few researches on reciprocity have been done from the cognitive perspective; moreover, fewer studies systematically expound reciprocity of news-headline interrogatives. News headline is typically symbolic of news text. By means of news headlines, eyesight is attracted; editors’ intentions or attitudes implied. With the applications of ECM (Event-domain Cognitive Model) and CRP (Cognitive Reference Point Model), the thesis attempts to make an in-depth analysis of reciprocal functions of news-headline interrogatives collected from The Economist during2008-2010. In2008, the economic crisis took place in America. Soon the crisis rapidly inflated to a world-wide economic crisis. The global economy continued to falter and underperform by the end of2010.In the context of global economic crisis, it is more salient to explore how reciprocal functions are exerted in news headlines of interrogatives. The762items of news-headline interrogatives are collected from The Economist of2008-2010as the corpus of the study. The corpus have been categorized and analyzed one by one. It is drawn that when question focus is highly centralized, doubt degree is correspondingly high. Thereupon news-headline interrogatives are more likely to exert reciprocal functions. By classifying and analyzing the762items, it is found that news-headline interrogatives have6reciprocal functions in all. They are respectively conveying editors’ intentions, making judgments, gaining recognition, invoking obligation, delivering emotions and expressing attitudes. Among the six, reciprocal function of conveying editors’intentions is the most widely employed in news-headline editing. Reciprocal function of making judgments stands second to the former one.Besides, it can be drawn from the statistical analysis that news-headline interrogatives can simultaneously exert more than one reciprocal function. Of the six functions, one may overwhelm the others in different types of interrogatives. In a broad sense, reciprocity with readers by means of news headline is an essential reflection of the establishment of interpersonal relations. In a narrow sense, news headlines of interrogatives exert reciprocal functions to deliver directive implication of authors, such as expressing thoughts or emotions, gaining recognition or undertaking obligations.This is an era of mass media. An analysis of reciprocity of news-headline interrogatives cast a constructive influence on researches on news text. Effective reciprocity with readers by means of news headline mainly depends on the dynamic integration of interrogatives and reciprocal functions.