Circumstances and their Roles in the Development of Editorials

Abstract

The study identified and categorised the features of the circumstantial options in the selected newspaper editorials and interpreted the content expressed by the options. The options were then compared to the opinions expressed in the text. These were done with a view to investigating the roles played by circumstances in the development of editorials. Data for the study were elicited from newspapers. Seven editorials were purposively selected from the 28 editorials collected. The selected editorials cut across different aspects of life, including safety and security, crime, politics, economics and religion. Each editorial was broken down into sentences, but only the main clauses in the sentences were analysed. The findings revealed that some circumstantial options were prominent in the texts. These included location, manner, extent and cause. They also revealed that with circumstances in editorials, editorials can help to articulate a better understanding of the news media, the unique handling of language and text, and the impact on thought and culture. The study concluded that the experiential meta-function in systemic functional linguistics helped to highlight the features of editorials.