On the multiple faces of projection: A look at English and Spanish news reports

This talk looks at projection in the discourse of news reports in English and Spanish. Journalistic discourse in general has received wide attention from different approaches (e.g. Van Dijk 1988; Bell 1991; Fairclough 1995; White 1998, 2012; Scollon 1998; Alonso Belmonte 2007; Dafouz 2008), including contrastive studies (e.g. Wang 2008, for English and Chinese; Lavid, Arús and Moratón 2009, for English and Spanish). While studies of projection in journalistic, and other, texts typically focus on quoting and reporting at clause nexus level, news reports are a good example of the ‘fractality’ of projection, i.e. projection taking part at different ranks in the lexicogrammar, not just the clause complex (for a rich account of the fractality of projection, see Matthiessen and Teruya 2014). A selection of Spanish and English excerpts from news reports reveals the extent to which projection pervades these texts at different ranks and with different degrees of intricacy. Example (1) below, for instance, is paradigmatic of such intricacy, with a locution (β) projected in the clause nexus (αàβ), and two more projections within (β): a locution (δ) projected within the clause nexus (γàδ), and, within this, a projection at group level, with the congruent Process realized as a nominal Head, i.e. requests, the congruent Sayer realized as the completive in the post-modifier from unions, then followed by the projected element (ζ) realized as a yet another post-modifier within the nominal group. [α:]The prime minister’s comments suggest [β:][[γ:]the government is prepared to consider [δ:][appointing a replacement if Heydon accepts [[ε:] [congruent Process:]requests from [congruent Sayer:]unions [ζ:]to recuse himself on the grounds of apprehended bias]]]The contrastive discussion of this and other examples from news reports in English and Spanish intends not only to contribute to a broader understanding of the concept of projection but also to pave the way for the study of the multiple faces of projection in other languages.