title: An analysis of obituaries in staff magazines.
abstract: In the literature, extensive attention is given to the content, structure, and style of obituaries in newspapers. Analyses of the demise of colleagues in internal business communications are however nonexistent. This article discusses a bottom-up analysis of 150 obituaries published in Flemish staff magazines--obituaries that mostly focus on the deceased's career and professional qualities. Following analysis, the data were divided in obituaries that are continuous texts and obituaries with a letter format. The differences between the two types lie at different levels: format, content, structure, and language use. Obituaries with a letter format are characterized and determined by three paradoxes: the sender-receiver paradox, life-death paradox, and happiness-sadness paradox.
authors.affiliation: a KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts , Subfaculty of Language and Communication , Antwerp , Belgium.
authors.forename: Priscilla C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Heynderickx
authors.affiliation: a KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts , Subfaculty of Language and Communication , Antwerp , Belgium.
authors.forename: Sylvain M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dieltjens
mesh_terms: D001680:Biographies as Topic; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D007802:Language; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D014956:Writing