John,
   I won't repeat the comments from others, which I find highly relevant. To me, it's important that Prime Minister Taro Aso is grammatical subject and actor (person doing the trying), but is not theme. In this case, "Amid dismal approval ratings" is the marked theme stepping off point, something that wouldn't show up in an RK diagram (or any analysis on constituency alone.) There are, in fact, three intonation groups in the sentence. It might be interesting to look at those as deliberate choices. At any rate, "amid dismal approval ratings" colors everything that follows.
   It's interesting that "is trying" is not qualified. It seems like the writer is sure of the attempt, but not sure of the results. We also have "perhaps" as a qualifier for the last group. So the writer is unsure of results and unsure of some intentions. Ending with "election" also presents his actions as approval oriented, a definite construal of the process.
   I would see "is trying to shed" as somewhat schematic.  It can almost be looked at as the whole main verb, which raises the complex noun phrase that follows "shed' perhaps up to the level of participant. (Think of "is shedding", "may shred", "will shred" as alternatives.) "His public image as an aloof, rich politician from a wealthy family" jumps out at you. It is, of course, linked to low disapproval ratings just by being juxtaposed.
   To me, everything depends on seeing alternatives and discussing the nuances. The writer is construing the activity in a certain way, even while trying to maintain an air of journalistic objectivity. Implication? If he can't change his image, he's doomed.

Craig

John Curran wrote:

Following is an article from yesterday’s “The Japan Times”. I gave it to a couple of my adult classes here in Tokyo for discussion; for my students it perhaps was a long rather difficult sentence - but interesting from the current political position:

 

     “Amid dismal approval ratings, Prime Minister Taro Aso is trying hard these days to shed his public image as an aloof, rich politician from an extremely wealthy family, perhaps with an eye toward appealing to voters when the time comes to call an election”.

 

I try to discuss parts of interesting newspaper articles and I encourage the students to finish the rest of the article in their spare time. Unfortunately most Japanese students read with a moving finger and pursed lips and my objective is to try to encourage them to recognize the ‘chunks’ of language from a mainly functional perspective. Chunks of language in the form of noun groups (including their adjectivals), adverbials (Circumstances in Systemic Functional Linguistic jargon) and etc. This is how I went about analyzing the newspaper text:

 

 

    Amid dismal approval ratings,

    prepositional phrase, Circumstance - adverbial (how?),

 

    Prime Minister Taro Aso

    Noun group, subject, Participant (in Systemic Functional language)

 

    is trying

    predicate verb, present continuous verb, action Process (in Systemic Functional language)

 

    hard these days

    adverbials,(Circumstances)

 

    [[to shed his public image as an aloof, rich politician from an extremely wealthy family]]

    Complement (is trying what?)   embedded clause functioning as a Participant in Systemic Functional language.

 

    perhaps with an eye toward appealing to voters when the time comes to call an election

    adverbial – Circumstance modifying the previous clause.

 

 

I read aloud with the students and ask them relevant wh? questions to elicit the ‘chunks’ of language. Comments please on this?  Has anybody the ability to show this in Kellog Reed diagram form in the forum?

I like to see it diagrammed!

 

 John

   

 

  

 

 

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