MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN DUNG A STUDY OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN ARTICLES FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: HA THANH HAI, PhD BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN DUNG BIỆN PHÁP TU TỪ TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO THUỘC TẠP CHÍ NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Người hướng dẫn: TS. Hà Thanh Hải i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP This thesis does not contain any information that has been published elsewhere with the exception of references stated within the thesis. No other person's work has been used in the thesis without giving proper credit. This thesis has not been submitted to any other tertiary institution for consideration for a degree or diploma.
Binh Dinh, 2023 Nguyễn Thị Xuân Dung ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would want to sincerely thank and appreciate my supervisor, Dr. Ha Thanh Hai, for all of his assistance and support in helping me finish this thesis. He took the time to read my manuscripts and make the necessary edits, for which I am also grateful. I want to express my gratitude to the course lecturers for their insightful discussions, helpful resources, and insightful experiences that helped lay the groundwork for my thesis.
I am so appreciative of my friends for supporting me and getting me the supplies I needed. My sincere gratitude is extended to my family, who have always looked after me and have helped me go through a lot of stress while I've been studying for this thesis and the course. iii ABSTRACT The primary goal of this thesis is to highlight common rhetorical device elements, their frequency of occurrence in NatGeo articles, and their role in ensuring the appeal and persuasiveness of these articles. The six categories of rhetorical devices examined in this study are personification, simile, personification, repetition, rhetorical question, and hyperbole.
They are all included in the lexical rhetorical group. This study employs Galperin's theoretical framework (Galperin, 1977) to examine rhetorical devices in the articles. Between 2021 and the first half of 2023, 50 NatGeo articles serve as the study's data. To provide more accurate information on rhetorical devices used in magazine language, they are lexically characterized and studied using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
The results indicate that six rhetorical devices appear in varying proportions. It seems that grabbing readers' attention is the primary objective of rhetorical devices in articles. However, every style has a specific function. Repetition has the lowest amount, whereas metaphor makes up a far bigger percentage than any other.
This study only makes up a small portion of the body of research on rhetorical devices. Its findings may be used to teach and learn English rhetorical devices generally, and rhetorical devices in articles specifically, as rhetorical devices are useful in literature, linguistics, and education. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS CONVENTIONS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1. Aims and objectives.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study.
Review of prior studies on rhetorical devices .1 Definitions of Rhetorical Devices .2 Functions of Rhetorical Devices. Classification of rhetorical devices .1 Phonetic rhetorical devices .2 Syntactical rhetorical devices .3 Lexical rhetorical devices. Reliability and Validity. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Frequency of occurrence of commonly-used rhetorical devices in NatGeo articles. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further research.
69 vi CONVENTIONS - [NatGeo1-50]: NatGeo articles are numbered from 1 to 50. (details in Appendix) - [Met]: metaphor - [Sim]: simile - [Hyp]: hyperbole - [Per]: personification - [Rhe]: rhetorical questions - [Rep]: repetition - Italic words are used for emphasis, examples or the use of technical terms. - Underlined words mark the use of what is being demonstrated. vii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.
Frequency of Occurrence of Rhetorical Devices in NatGeo articles. 36 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4. Distribution of Rhetorical Devices. INTRODUCTION The current chapter discusses the main ideas of the thesis and offers the study's justification.
The primary justifications for carrying out the study are stated at the start. The research questions are then used to state and further define the thesis's objectives. The chapter also goes into the significance and range of the current investigation. An explanation of how the thesis is structured comes near the end.
Rationale By serving as the foundation for the majority of our social and political knowledge, magazines today are an essential component of human existence. Bell (1991) identified three main kinds in newspaper text: news, commentary, and service information. Lists like sports scores, TV shows, share prices, and weather forecasts are included in the service information category. The most common text kind in newspaper discourse is news, which provides information about the most recent news occurrences.
The text of an opinion expresses the publication's personal viewpoints on a subject. Newspapers are regarded as a reliable source of information for readers to stay up to date on current events. Newspapers are regarded as a trustworthy source of information that keeps readers up to date on current events. They are well- known as a non-electronic form of media everywhere.
They are currently available in this period online, on their individual news portals. Newspapers are not only an inexpensive source of current information, but also a wealth of linguistic knowledge (Shahnaz & Imtiaz, 2014). Different ideas and grammatical styles make up newspaper articles. In order to convey the content to readers, writers use a variety of technologies and communication techniques (Rahmat, 2019).
Newspaper opinion has been approached from a variety of perspectives in media studies (Elyazale, 2014). The content presented in different magazines represents the information 2 and ideas of specific interests. Each magazine therefore has its own goals and readership. One of the most well-known publications in the world is National Geographic, whose mission is "to illuminate and protect." Because the articles stand alone as narratives, National Geographic's method of conveying information differs from that of other periodicals.
The dissemination of geographic information broadly construed to cover the locations, people, and cultures of the world was the initial aim of National Geographic, according to Magazine Publishers of America (2006). In order to accomplish its goal, National Geographic (NatGeo) employs a number of rhetorical strategies to make its stories succinct, factual, and vivid as well as to provide readers a rich imagination and a wealth of associations to arouse their interest in reading. An essential feature of the magazine is its frequent and extensive use of rhetorical devices, which is a useful technique for making stories appealing. By "creating vivid pictures" for the readers to visualize and arouse their pleasant feelings while reading, rhetorical methods are used in the magazine to attract and catch their attention.
Rhetorical devices prove their effectiveness in expressing the author's ideas and intention in terms of language and linguistic functions. The use of rhetorical techniques is common in a variety of contexts, including the arts, literature, communication, public speaking, and everyday life. Numerous linguists and researchers have studied rhetorical or stylistic devices, but in a diverse range of ways. The language employed in magazines, particularly the rhetorical strategies utilized in digital ones, has not been the subject of many comprehensive studies, though.
I would like to conduct a thorough analysis of the data to help anyone who is interested in learning more about rhetorical strategies in magazines: A study of Rhetorical devices in articles from National Geographic magazine. Aims and objectives 1. Aims The aim of this research is to offer a general view on some rhetorical devices in terms of articles from National Geographic magazine. Besides, this research has a tendency to investigate into the effectiveness of rhetorical devices in its articles.
Objectives In order to achieve these aims, the researcher tries to fulfill these objectives: - Identify common rhetorical devices used in articles. - Find out the contributions of rhetorical devices in terms of making articles persuasive and attractive. Research questions The researcher creates the following challenges in the form of questions after taking into account the background information provided in the preceding section: 1. What rhetorical devices are commonly used in English articles from National Geographic magazine? 2.
How do rhetorical devices contribute to the persuasiveness and value of the articles? 1. Scope of the study This study focuses on the findings of some commonly used stylistic devices namely Simile, Metaphor, Rhetorical questions, Hyperbole, Repetition and Personification in articles from National Geographic magazine. These rhetorical devices are examined lexically. Moreover, the frequencies of occurrence of each rhetorical device in articles are also expected to be clarified.
The contents of articles vary from history and culture, science, destinations to activities, travel experience, and so on. Methods of the study This study is mainly based on the theory of Galperin, IR (1977). To achieve the aims of the study, this study adopts a mixed method design. The quantitative method is used by means of descriptive statistics to calculate the percentage of frequency of each type of rhetorical devices that occurs in the articles.
The qualitative method is then utilized to analyze specifically demonstrative examples extracted from NatGeo magazine. Significance of the study To some extent, the research is hoped to make a humble contribution to the teaching and learning of English rhetoric in general and rhetorical devices in magazines in particular. Therefore, learners of English could understand the crucial role of rhetorical devices in literature. Besides, the data and the analysis of this research are expected to be worth reading for the readers who take interest in reading English magazines.
This research would provide learners with precious experience of how to write a magazine. As a result, their experience could facilitate their competence of learning language so that they are able to learn more effectively and successfully. Organization of the study The thesis consists of 5 chapters: Introduction; Literature Review; Methodology; Findings and Discussion; Conclusion and Implications. Chapter 1: Introduction - provides the rationale for the study, the aims and objectives of the study and research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the organization of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature Review - presents the previous studies which are closely related to the thesis. This is the chapter in which reviews theories related to some common rhetorical devices introduced by Galperin's (1977), mainly lexical rhetorical devices. An overview of National Geographic is also introduced briefly. 5 Chapter 3: Methodology – describes research design, research methods, research procedures, description of samples, data collection and data analysis applied to conduct this study.
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion – presents the findings of linguistic features of lexical and syntactical rhetorical devices, their frequency of occurrence of these rhetorical devices in NatGeo articles and their role in making articles appealing. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications - gives the summary of the significant findings, draws conclusions and implications. The limitations and some suggestions for further research are also discussed in this part. Summary An overview of the research, including the justification, the goals and objectives, the research questions, and the study's scope, is intended to be provided in the first chapter.
This section also presents the framework of the thesis and the significance of the investigation. This can help readers understand the main ideas of the thesis and the historical background of the research. LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter's goal is to critically evaluate relevant, trustworthy studies in order to establish the theoretical foundation for the thesis. This chapter begins by analyzing earlier research in relation to the thesis in order to identify the research gap that needs to be filled.
The main terms are then defined. Following that, several common rhetorical strategies used in NatGeo magazine are described and illustrated.