REVISITING A REGISTER ASSUMPTION FROM SFG PERSPECTIVE: THE CASE OF GHANAIAN NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS

Abstract

The study tests the register theory’s position of extensive similarity in the dominant linguistic features of texts with similar contexts in the face of scholarly claims about the existence of significant linguistic differences in the language of state and private newspapers in Ghana. The data comprised three-month publications of Ghanaian newspaper political editorials published in four leading state and private newspapers. Using SFG’s transitivity as a tool for analysis, the research examines the patterning of the dominant linguistic element as the test of the assumption. The findings indicate that the Material process formed the dominant linguistic element, and its patterns of similarity extend to the dominance of the Transformative Elaborating Material process across the state and private newspapers. The study concludes the editorials of both groups characteristically possess extreme similarities in the patterning of their dominant linguistic features to be considered registers.