Hypertextual construction of events: cognitive-discourse study

Abstract

The article views hypertext as an instrument of constructing events treated as cognitive-discourse formations, giving access to the conceptualization of the world. Different in format, quality and hypertext British print digitalized newspapers The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail and electronic newspapers The Telegraph, The Mail Online have been used as data sources in this research. The complex cognitive-discourse methodology with the techniques of image-schematic analysis and hypertextual analysis has been applied to specify the peculiarities of hypertextual event construction on the front page of British newspapers. It has been found out that the primary function of newspaper hypertext is to distinguish events by the way of their construction. In the broadsheet edition of The Daily Telegraph, the front page hypertext provides a clear distinction between the announcement of events and their main representation. The hypertext of the main web-page of The Telegraph contains only event announcements that can be distinguished according to the genre of their construction. On the front page of the tabloids The Daily Mail and The Mail Online the distinguishing function is partly neutralized as the announcement of events and their main representation are merged and blurred.

According to the topological principle, the hypertextual patterns of announcing events on the front page of the broadsheet The Daily Telegraph and the tabloid The Daily Mail have been singled out. The conducted research has shown that the broadsheet and the tabloid differ in the amount of space on the newspaper page allocated for event announcements as well as for verbal and nonverbal components specifying event construction. Asymmetry in the verbal and nonverbal event representation increases from the quality newspaper The Daily Telegraph to the electronic tabloid The Mail Online where the nonverbal component dominates. The latter, as a rule, is used for constructing the external events, less important for the British society, whereas the verbal component is employed for representing more important internal events. The study has shown that unlike the print nonlinear newspaper hypertext, the electronic one is multilinear and gives access to a considerable number of events. It has been demonstrated that the front page newspaper hypertext constructs events of different relevance according to the coordinates UP – DOWN and LEFT – RIGHT. Resonant events appealing to the reader’s rational view are constructed in the UPPER part of the front page. Social daily events are constructed briefly from CENTER to BOTTOM of the front page and produce an emotive and evaluative reaction.