Commentary on Clark, Kate. “The Linguistics of Blame” In Toolan, M. Ed. Language, Text and Context london: Routledge, 1882, 208-224
Blame and action need not always be straight forward. The way sentences are constructed can have a great impact on the way an ostensibly objective report is viewed. It is mentioned in the article that through the analysis of the most widely circulated paper (the Sun) in Britain from the dates10/11/1986 to 3/1/1987, certain trends appear, especially in newspaper reports dealing with rape. The phrase ‘stuff happens’ is brought to mind while any study of language in reporting takes place, with the further analysis of what makes the ‘stuff’ happen. The ‘stuff happens’ comment was mentioned in relation to the recent war in Iraq, however it also holds true in other forms of reporting.
The tone of a sentence is determined by the ‘voice’ with which it is written. Active voice strongly places all of the ‘blame’ for the action on whomever performed it, while passive voice, mentioning the perpetrator, de-emphasises it’s role in the action. Middle voice is what is used in the phrase ‘stuff happens’. The perpetrator of the happening is not specified, and this leads to a sub-conscious assumption that stuff happens by itself – nothing causes it to happen, and this can happen greatly in ‘objective reporting’ especially that dealing with war and other violent crimes.
This article is specifically dealing with the crime of rape and its portrayal through word choice and sentence structure. As shown through the examples given, ‘fiends’ and ‘monsters’, attack unavailable women, which is shown through the choice of description of wives, mothers, loving daughters etc. Men who commit these same crimes without being labeled as inhuman, attack ‘availiable’ women, shown by the fact that they are blonde, divorcees or prostitutes.
This links to the complaint that men view women as either saints or prostitutes, and this view is perpetuated through media. The language of the analysed time was far more obviously sensationalised than modern reporting, which aims to be very objective and remove bias, however under analysis, this is not the case. Middle voice is still used to imply that crimes just happen, that they are unavoidable and excuses are still built into the naming of victims and perpetrators. Careful observation will show that the crimes described in the most gritty manner will be perpetrated by inhuman monsters rather than the quite understandable attacking of available women. The mere demonising of the woman ‘clare’ who spoke up about the NRL football sex scandal goes to show this. Doubt is built into paragraphs in order to make the reader doubt not only the validity of her claims but also her personal character. It is far past time that the victim stops being blamed for crimes not committed by them.
