Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mohammad Alipour ¹
• Parastoo Jahanbin ¹
• Kamran Mehrgan ²

¹ Department of English Language Teaching, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

² Department of TEFL, Masjed Soleiman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Masjed Soleiman, Iran

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate proximity in Persian newspaper editorials. Following Hyland's (2010a) proximity model comprising organization, argumentative structure, stance, engagement, and credibility, we focused on a detailed analysis of proximity features in editorials. To this aim, 120 newspaper editorials from four Persian newspapers were culled in 2018. We applied a bottom-up analysis method to detect the proximity features and analyzed them both quantitatively and qualitatively. The outcomes revealed that stance and engagement markers were the most recurrent proximity elements in the corpus. To have successful reciprocal interaction, Persian authors applied proximity markers in their editorials. Moreover, they employed proximity markers to maintain both proximities of membership and commitment at the same time. It was also found that the cultural, social, and political factors influence the way that authors employ such linguistic elements. The findings of this study can have implications for students of journalism in Persian.

Keywords

• Editorials
• proximity
• Argumentative structure
• engagement
• stance