A Critical Discourse Analysis Based on Textual and Interpersonal Metafunctions

This study aims at comparing the application of metadiscoursal markers in English and Persian daily papers. The focused markers are linguistic components of the text which do not increase the informative content, but they aim to actualize Halliday’s textual and interpersonal metafunctions. The primary question of the study is about the gap between English and Persian papers in terms of their application of metadiscoursal markers. In the first step, some of the most applied markers from five groups of Text Connectives, Illocution Markers, Hedges, Emphatics, and Attitude Markers were found in both English and Persian editorials. Then, the numbers of occurrences of these markers in both language corpora consisting of 54 randomly chosen texts (12,000 words in each) from some English and Persian daily papers was saved. Subsequently, using a two-way chi square, the total x2 obs was confirmed to be significant. As a result, the null hypothesis claiming absence of difference was definitely disapproved. On the other hand, in order to show the share of each marker group in the total x 2 rate, one-way chi square analyses were applied to the subcategories. Our results showed that only two of the markers’ subgroups were statistically significant. This variation is mostly because of the different motivations existing in the discussed societies. Regarding the second research question (Is Persian a reader or writer- oriented language as compared to English), it was proved that, Persian writers, as opposed to their English writing counterparts, are more inclined to be writer-oriented in their works.