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  • Genre in Times of Change: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of a Remote Newfoundland Real Estate Listing

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  • In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, Canada’s rural population increased faster than any other G7 country (Statistics Canada, 2022). However, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador was a distinct outlier, seeing a 6.4% decrease in rural populations during the same period. This was the most drastic decrease in rural inhabitants of all Canadian regions, and was most pronounced in the province’s smallest communities. These statistics are no surprise to the inhabitants of these rural Newfoundland outports; since the 1992 Cod Moratorium, Newfoundland faces a continuing period of socioeconomic hardship and population decline. While Lynch (2007) investigated the phenomenon of outmigration from the province’s rural outport communities towards both urban centres and other Canadian provinces, current research does not account for the phenomenon occurring post-pandemic. While other rural regions see population growth, those in Newfoundland continue to plummet.
     

    Newfoundland’s population decline has been analyzed from a linguistic viewpoint, noting a redirection of regional discourse towards a perpetuation of tourism development (Stoddart, 2016). While tourist discourse represents one apparent strategy for combating population decline, the linguistic implications upon the genre of real estate listings have not yet been investigated. This paper contributes to this growing body of literature, drawing upon the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Encompassing the Interpersonal, Experiential, and Textual metafunctions, this paper analyzes the discursive strategies used within the real estate genre to persuade buyers towards properties found in remote Newfoundland regions with dwindling populations. $569,000, 5 Beaver Pond Road is a real estate listing for a home in Harbour Breton, Newfoundland. Published on Realtor.ca in the fall of 2022, this listing remained unsold six months later, even after a price reduction of $70,000. This paper draws upon the theoretical framework of SFL to reveal notable persuasive linguistic choices made by the author as they attempt the uphill battle of attracting buyers to this rural Newfoundland property.

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