Distribution and Use of Image-evoking Language Constructions in Written News

Linguistic exposures are image constructions and some of the most distinctive mechanisms in the discourse community of journalism.

By exposing the journalistic writers add focus, detail and substantiation to their stories. Linguistic exposures are tools that evoke images in the readers’ minds and help establish and improve the basis of interest and understanding.

We are combining linguistic and statistical methods to investigate exposures in the news of five Danish national papers in order to determine how widespread it is, and with what force and impact the techniques are used.

Our study contributes to existing knowledge by focusing on form rather than content. We investigate the creative use of specific structural elements of the language as the prevailing contact establishing tools of journalistic discourse. Our data are based on news from Berlingske Tidende, B.T., Politiken, Ekstra Bladet and Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.