CONSTRUCTING CHANGE OR STATUS QUO. AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSITIVITY CHOICES IN POLISH NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
CONSTRUCTING CHANGE OR STATUS QUO. AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSITIVITY CHOICES IN POLISH NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

Summary/Abstract: This paper falls into the realm of critical discourse studies by exploring the relationship between particular discourse structures and their meaning as set against a particular socio-political context. To do that it takes the popular analytical tool of transitivity taken fromHalliday’s systemic-functional grammar to examine particular configurations of processtypes as employed by three Polish daily newspapers: Trybuna Ludu [People’s Tribune]- the official voice of the communist authorities, Trybuna [Tribune] - Trybuna Ludu’sideological successor, and Gazeta Wyborcza [Electoral Newspaper] - the opposition’snewspaper. The time period considered is that between 1944 and 1991, which encompassesa number of defining moments in Polish history, as well as the period of communism andthe breakthrough period of political transformation. The analysis mainly looks at processtypes in headlines featured on the front pages of the three dailies, against a specific historicalbackdrop and considers their critical potential. As such, the analysis aimed at establishinghow particular, dynamic historical/political circumstances were represented through thetypes of processes in headlines. The results show that the discourse patterns were not onlymotivated, but also related to social structures in the form of power relations or certainideological effects. Thus, the analysis is not only revealing when it comes to the notions ofagency and control within a specific local context, but also proves the constitutive power ofdiscourse which can both reproduce or change the social world, thus being itself the ‘agent’of change, but also, and oftentimes instrumental in preserving a status quo.

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