Discourse Analysis on Reality Tv ‘Wife Swap’

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Discourse Analysis on Reality TV ‘Wife Swap’ Cheer D 1. Introduction Discourse analysis interferes faces with the analysis of grammar and the analysis of social activity, somewhere between the work of grammarians on the one hand and social theorists on the other (Martin & Rose 2007:4). By analyzing the text, culture and social context such as power and hierarchy difference could be revealed. In this paper, a study based on reality TV transcription aims to find out the relationship between text and the social context. The transcription is based on an American reality TV show called Wife Swap, which invites two families from different social classes to swap wife for two weeks. After getting along with the new family members and environment for two weeks, they would talk face-to-face discussing their feeling and gains. The selected part of transcription is exactly the face-to-face part. It is supposed that the higher-class family would be more powerful than the lower-class family. 2. Features of Register Register is a theory of language variation according to situational contexts (Halliday et al., 1964, Halliday & Hasan, 1989), which focus on the systematic relation between a context of situation and the language variety used in that context. Field refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place. Tenor refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their statuses and roles. Mode refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation (Halliday & Hasan, 1989). The three features of register influence ideational, interpersonal and textual respectively. In the transcription, the field refers to judgment and feeling based on the two-weeks swapping life. The process firstly displays like critique and
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