Attribute

EXPANSION

An utterance which signifies dialogic space as the writer attributes the proposition to an external source.

Attribute is another expansion strategy. In this move, the writer presents an idea as a version of the truth by (explicitly or implicitly) referring to an external source (e.g., other authors/studies). The attribution can be made to some unspecified sources (see below). The writer essentially have no stake in reporting the idea. This can be contrasted with ENDORSE, where the author shows greater alignments to the attributed idea as a valid and reliable one (hence contraction).

Typically, this move is achieved by “X [third person] says/reports/states/declares/announces” or “According to X”, which shows that the idea is borrowed from the external source. Martin & White (2005) says: “Under the heading of ‘attribution’, we deal with those formulations which disassociate the proposition from the text’s internal authorial voice by attributing it so some external source.”

  • Bolded red text is used to mark a supplementary material reference tags like sources or citation. See this section for more information about how material references interact with attribute.
  • As usual, bolded black text marks the category tag (in this case ATTRIBUTE).
  • Pay special attention to brackets, as they mark the span of tags.

In many cases, ATTRIBUTE occurs where the author explicitly mention the source of information and ackowledge that the original idea is theirs.

  • [ Mr. Mandela ]SOURCE [ said ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY the Group of Eight nations have a duty to help battle the scourge of AIDS.
  • [ Dawkins ]SOURCE [ believes ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY that religion is not an adaptive evolutionary vestige, but in fact a cultural virus.
  • [ Most linguists ]SOURCE [ believe ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY that linguistic structure is most productively studied in its own terms, with its communicative use(s) considered separately.
  • [ Hovenkamp ]SOURCE [ argues ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY that a company could have one hundred percent market share both as a newspaper publisher and distributor, and still have no monopoly power.
  • [ According to [ the authors ]SOURCE ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY, he gave new witches everything they wished as long as they sold their soul to him.
  • [ As the discussant post “Witchcraft and Sexual Deviance ]SOURCE ” mentioned ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY, the church and the public believed that if witches were willing to so publicly flout the word of the Lord, they must also disobey other societal conventions.
  • [ Tickner ]SOURCE [ has claimed ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY that_ regardless of the result, the royal commission was a waste of money and he would proceed with a separate inquiry into the issue headed by Justice Jane Matthews.
  • [ In [ Wong’s study ]SOURCE ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY, another ‘‘geographical imagination’’ of Lucky Plaza is the view that it is a place where the Filipino maids get to know their ‘boyfriends’.
  • In response to [ [ Jackson ]SOURCE ’s assertion ]ATTRIBUTE-SECONDARY that African Americans had progressed a lot in eighty odd years, [ Young ]SOURCE [ interrupted ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY him again and [ informed ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY him, “we are not going to wait eighty more years, I will tell you that.”
  • [ It is generally accepted ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY [ by jurists ]SOURCE that a hierarchy of sources of international law do not exist.
Hear-say as ATTRIBUTE

In some cases, the author can present the idea without specifying the sources (but still present it as something they hear about).

  • [ It is said ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY that he lied about his age as he grew older …
  • The government’s serologist [ reportedly ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY lied about his qualifications.
  • [ It is generally understood ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY that science has developed a highly sophisticated way of representing ideas.
Implicit attribution

Updated on May 30th

Additionally, ATTRIBUTE would include some implicit attribution like the followings:

  • [ Van de Kooi and Knorr (1973) ]CITATION [ measured ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY one office building and five small dwellings over a period from February 1967 to August 1967 in The Netherlands.

→ This can be interpreted as “Van de Kooi and Knorr (1973) (reported that they) measured ~.” So, in the annotation, we will tag measured as ATTRIBUTE (see Hood, 2010, p. 181).

  • [ Anderson (2004) ]CITATION [ offers ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY a number of suggestions.

→ Here, offer + suggestion can be interpreted as abstract representation (called grammatical metaphor) of Anderson suggested many things. So, in the annotation we will put ATTRIBUTE tag on offers.

Compared to Endorse, Attribute keeps a neutral stance on the content attributed.

Attribution using prepositional phrase

Some prepositional phrases signaling (metaphorical) locations, can be treated as ATTRIBUTE, when that location is an external source. This include following examples:

  • [ In [ Wong’s study ]SOURCE ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY, another ‘‘geographical imagination’’ of Lucky Plaza is the view that it is a place where the Filipino maids get to know their ‘boyfriends’.
  • [ In [ recent research on human evolution ]SOURCE ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY , unique abilities for exact imitation contributed signally to our unique evolutionary trajectory.

The span of sources is a work in progress, and may be inconsistent in the guidelines. We wouldn’t want to tag a whole noun phrase like “recent research in human evolution that was done in Europe in June by biologists that were experts in their field”. However, tagging only “recent research” may be too narrow.

Parataxis as ATTRIBUTE

Attribute can occur when an author interrupts reported speech content to attribute the source of that content.

  • These initiatives, [ [ President Gorge W. Bush ]SOURCE declared ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY, would “improve student’s knowledge of America history, increase their civic involvement, and deepen their love for our great country.”
  • Witholding that support, [ [ The court ]SOURCE confesses ]ATTRIBUTE-PRIMARY, “precludes the maintenance of our federal system” of legitimized judicial supremacy. [#REF 4]
Secondary ATTRIBUTE

Shell nouns take secondary attribute.

  • They find support for [ [ their ]SOURCE hypothesis ]ATTRIBUTE-SECONDARY that the hiring process is the easiest organizational point to discriminate against women.
  • Linguists differ in their opinions about [ [ Chomsky ]SOURCE ’s belief ]ATTRIBUTE-SECONDARY that language is for individuals rather than groups.

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