International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 10, No. 3; 2020 ISSN 1923-869X E-ISSN 1923-8703 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 115 ‘Future Talk’ in Newspaper Editorials: Predictions and Their Role in Argumentative Discourse Farzana Masroor 1 , Muhammad Yousaf 2 , Azhar Habib 2 & Ijaz Ali Khan 3 1 Deaprtment of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan 2 Department of English, NUML, Islamabad, Pakistan 3 Department of English, Govt. College, Sawabi, Pakistan Correspondence: Muhammad Yousaf, Department of English, NUML, Islamabad, Pakistan. E-mail: usaf_pak@yahoo.com Received: December 7, 2019 Accepted: January 13, 2020 Online Published: March 17, 2020 doi:10.5539/ijel.v10n3p115 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v10n3p115 Abstract Newspaper editorials are known for taking a stance while fulfilling their goals of persuading the audience. In this regard, making future predictions is a crucial strategy in the argument structure of editorials. They are considered as risky acts since they are meant to outline future course of action as well as outcomes of such actions for their audience. This research is focused on the analysis of the speech acts of predictions among newspaper editorials of Pakistani, American and Malaysian newspapers. The analysis is focused on the exploration of forms, force and occurrence of these acts. The results indicate the preference of Pakistani and American newspapers in using strong predictions. The Malaysian newspaper meanwhile is found to be less explicit when predicting the future. This is indicated by less use of the strategy as well as adoption of implicit ways to express propositions related to the future. The results affirm the role of editorials as opinion leaders in their respective societies and the differences across cultures can be interpreted with respect to the extra linguistic and contextual factors that control editorial structures and strategies. The findings of the study are useful for future researchers to explore the relationship of language and its communicative purpose especially when fulfilling the goals of persuasion across cultures and contexts. Keywords: argument structures, newspapers, editorial discourse, future predictions, speech acts 1. Introduction The key feature of opinion discourses such as newspaper editorials is the ingenious use of opinions along with facts to carry out the goals of argumentation (van Dijk, 1998). Editorialists in this regard make use of a number of propositions to express their stance including suggestions, judgements and predictions (Huber & Snider, 2006; van Eemeren, 2002). In fact, the most crucial move in the structure of editorials is identified as taking a stance carried out through the strategies dominantly focused not only towards outlining the future course of action but also the outcomes of such measures for the target audience (Masroor, 2013; Masroor & Ahmed, 2017). The aim of this research is to analyse this ‘future talk’ in newspaper editorial discourse that occurs in the form of predictions about the possible future outcomes of the actions taken or about to be taken in the present. This strategy, like the strategy of directing the readers (Masroor & Ahmed, 2017) is related to the future time frame and is a way of controlling the future actions of readers through making certain prophesies. Keeping in view the significance of stance taking in newspaper opinion genres and the role of language to fulfil these goals, this research is focused towards the analysis of linguistic choices as well as force and occurrence of these predictive statements in the argumentative structure of newspaper editorials across cultures. This research makes use of speech act theory to explain the concept of predictions and qualitatively analyses the strategy in the cross-cultural context. The study is significant as it carries out analysis of form, force and occurrence of predictions in a less explored area specifically in argument building in newspaper editorials. The rest of the paper, after delineating the relationship between argumentation and editorials, provides theoretical perspectives, methods and materials of the study, followed by analysis, discussion and conclusions. 1.1 Editorials as Opinion Discourse There is a proximal relationship between opinion building and knowledge about the future. It is common in the