Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis

The present essay makes an attempt to examine two written texts from two diverse registers. The first text （hereinafter called 'Text A'）is a news discourse taken from the CCTV English news website. Another one （hereinafter called 'Text B'）is an introductory section of a journal article extracted from Journal of Language Teaching and Research. The two texts will be analyzed respectively and compared with register，language function，lexico-grammar （Halliday，2004）and cohesion proposed by Halliday and Hasan （1976）. The scripts of these two target texts will be enclosed in Appendix for reference.

Text A is identified as a journalistic genre. Journalistic style is mainly supposed to report what people care and what will happen in the whole society. As the news is taken from CCTV English news website，it is a piece of internet news. Internet news is very recapitulative and informative. Within a very limited passage length，it gives readers the general ideas and even some details and comments about what has happened and what is going on. Studying on its lexical density and contextual

structure，we can learn how effective it delivers its information.

According to Halliday （2004），there are three parameters consist of register，which are field，tenor and mode. For field，the subject matter of Text A is about the positive effect of establishment of the Asian free trade zone，which can be easily seen from the headline of the news 'Establishment of Asian free trade zone positive on trade：expert'. In order to support and justify the field of Text A，its lexis and transitivity should be identified，both of which are included in ideational function. Ideational function means we use language to talk about our experience of the world，including the worlds in our own mind，to describe events and states and entities involved in them. （Thompson，2008：30）. In Text A，the proper terms and nouns like 'Asian free trade zone'，'Free Trade Agreement （FTA）'，'founding'，'positive impact'，'growth of foreign trade among Asian' can be found to support the subject matter of the field. In addition，Transitivity system is used to record what people say and see in the way of process and point out participants and circumstantial elements. There are six process involved in the transitivity system- material process，mental process，relational process，behavioral process，verbal process，and existential process. Through analyzing

"Establishment of Asian free trade zone positive on trade：expert"，it is found that there are three processes mainly used in the discourse：material process，verbal process and relational process. Material process means the process of doing something，such as，made，come into operation，use，launch，etc. Verbal process means the process of communication，with the words like，said，made the comments，etc. Relational process reflects the relation between things，with words like，is，are，have，etc. Furthermore，it is also can be found that material process is used most frequently because the journalistic writing is characterized by its narrative feature. News is supposed to inform people what has happened in the world，and in using the material process，news can present us a vivid live spot. When it comes to tenor，it refers to the participants and the relations between them in the discourse. （Halliday，2004）In Text A，it can be inferred that the tenor is an expert's comments on establishment of Asian free trade zone. Since the title of the internet news includes 'expert' and the expert's name and occupation are appeared in the discourse：Masahiro Kawai and dean of Asian Development Bank Institute （ADBI），those evidences can support the tenor. In light of lexico-grammar，

tenor and interpersonal meaning control mood，modality and personal address. （Halliday，2004）Interpersonal function means we use language to interact with other people，to establish and maintain relationship with them，to influence their behavior，to express our own viewpoint on things in the world，and to elicit or change theirs. （Thompson，2008：30）. Here we mainly pay attention to modality. Modality is the judge made by the speaker towards the validity of a proposition，or the obligation that you want others to take，or the inclination that you have. There are 5 modal verbs in this report and the writer mainly uses the following words：'would' and 'should'. The writer uses 'would' and 'should' to indicate the expert holds a positive attitude towards the establishment of Asian free trade zone.

For mode，according to Halliday （2004），it means the way language is organized and channel（written or spoken）of the discourse. In Text A，as is journalistic genre，all sentences in the discourse are declaratives. In addition，with respect to lexico-grammar，mode and textual meaning control cohesion and thematic structure （Halliday，2004）. Textual function means we use language to organize our messages in ways which indicate how they fit in with other messages around them and

with the wider context in which we are talking or writing. （Thompson，2008：30）Then present essay focus on the thematic structure. Thematic structure consists of two parts：Theme and Rheme. People often use the thematic structure to identify the meaning of the sentences. Theme is a functional element，because it is the start point of the information. While Rheme is the development of Theme，which means Rheme is the content of theme. Theme is divided into two kinds：marked Theme and unmarked Theme. In Text A，it can be found that most of the Themes are unmarked Themes. This means most sentences are in the common sequence，which is adaptable to the journalistic writing. News is supposed to offer us the information，thus it is mainly narrative. The headline of this report is "Establishment of Asian free trade zone positive on trade：expert". In this title，"establishment of Asian free trade zone" is selected as the Theme. It is because usually the selection of the Theme is decided by two parts：psychology and cognition. In the common sense，reporters are inclined to put the most important thing to the first place. Certainly，there are few unmarked theme in the report，which is used to highlight the time or the place of the event. The second part of this paper plan to analyze the excerpt （see Appendix B）taken

from the research dissertation named "Current Language Attitudes of Mainland Chinese University Students". Therefore，Text B is classified as a research genre. It aims to introduce a report of a research as well as depicts the objective and the significance of the research. Introduction section in an academic essay or research article is an important part since it should attract the reader. The following part of the paper will analyze Text B with Halliday's model of language and context and make a comparison with the linguistics features with Text A.

Firstly，the registers of two target texts are completely various. Since Text B is an introductory part of the research article，the subject matter of the discourse is the main issue of the article. In the other word，the field of Text B is Chinese university students' attitudes towards English and Chinese. The inference can be proved by special terms and proper nouns，such as，social identity，ethnic identity，attitudes towards a second/foreign language （SL/FL）and the mother tongue，tertiary education，adolescents，etc. In terms of transitivity system，there are three process involved in Text B：material process，relational process and mental process. Similar to Text A，the main process appeared in Text B the writer uses is the material process. The reason is that the function of an

introductory part of a research article is clearly illustrating the background and importance of the topic and reviewing one or two key previous studies，all of which can be found in Text B. Some verbs like plays，caught，influences，increased and describe belong to material process. The relational process includes the verbs like are，is and have. The mental process contains the verbs means psychological process，which are the verbs like believe and know. Contrary to Text A，there is mental process in Text B，as the writer wants to address learning English well is a common sense among adolescents and young adults.

Secondly，for tenor，it can be defined as writer-reader relationship because some aspects of language in Text B can reflect the social status of the author. Thirdly，for mode，since Text B is research register，the way language is organized is declarative. This is the same with Text A. Both of the target texts want to state the fact and perspectives clearly. To speak of，the structure of Text B is well-organized，the cohesion of Text B is good，it is easy to find some discourse markers to make the text smooth，for instance，since，with，and，for this purpose. For thematic structure，the Theme of Text B，most of them are unmarked theme. Taking the first sentence of Text B for

example，it is a declarative sentence. Thus，the theme of a declarative sentence will be a noun phrase （Halliday，1985）. 'Globalization，communication and interaction' are supposed to be the Theme. In addition，Text B is quite different from Text A is that only 4 long and compound sentences are recognized in Text B，there are 10 sentences in Text A and each sentence consist of one paragraph.

功能语言学与语篇分析Discourse Analysis

功能语言学与语篇分析Discourse Analysis Text (written)笔语分析VS discourse (spoken) 口语分析 研究的是language in use，paralinguistic 副语言metadiscourse 元话语 Ken Hyland 燕大网查文章：ELserver / English for Specific （Academic）Purpose 不要Made-up data 要鲜活的语言。 Context包括cultural context，situational context，co-context Halliday + Hason 合著Cohesion in English Macharthy，M（1991）Discourse Analysis for language teachers 韩李德的划分：概念功能ideational function 人际功能interpersonal Text （genre）语体 Ideational interpersonal textual You give me a book. A book is given to me by you. （有标记） A）I have a number of comments to make about your behavior. For a start, you have greatly offended the neighbors by singing rude songs and playing music instruments at all hours of the night. Then there is the matter of the burnt settee and broke window, to name but two signs of damage. I am further concerned that you appear to be keeping racing pigeons in the house, and on top of that all, it is over four months since

Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis The present essay makes an attempt to examine two written texts from two diverse registers. The first text （hereinafter called 'Text A'）is a news discourse taken from the CCTV English news website. Another one （hereinafter called 'Text B'）is an introductory section of a journal article extracted from Journal of Language Teaching and Research. The two texts will be analyzed respectively and compared with register，language function，lexico-grammar （Halliday，2004）and cohesion proposed by Halliday and Hasan （1976）. The scripts of these two target texts will be enclosed in Appendix for reference. Text A is identified as a journalistic genre. Journalistic style is mainly supposed to report what people care and what will happen in the whole society. As the news is taken from CCTV English news website，it is a piece of internet news. Internet news is very recapitulative and informative. Within a very limited passage length，it gives readers the general ideas and even some details and comments about what has happened and what is going on. Studying on its lexical density and contextual

Discourse Analysis

Analysis of Context and Reference on Written News of "Liu Xiang, Chinese Olympic Gold Medalist Hurdler, Announces Retirement " 1.Introduction Discourse Analysis (DA), is a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event. it involves many research aspects such as context, reference, structure, topic, coherence,etc. And Liu Xiang, who is famous as an Chinese Olympic gold medalist hurdler announces his retirement because of his Achilles injury on Apr. 8th 2015, which causes a sensation in public. Therefore, this paper mainly analyze the written news of “Liu Xiang, Chinese Olympic Gold Medalist Hurdler, Announces Retirement ”. Due to the limited time, this paper only discuss the aspects of context and reference of discourse analysis methods, which can fully reflect the stylistic characteristics of news. And through this paper, the author hope that it can provide a special perspective to analyze news discourse and inspire the readers. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Research abroad In 1952, American structuralism linguist published an thesis "Discourse Analysis”, and analyzed an advertisement with the component distribution method in this thesis. Although it did not cause much repercussions in the field, it did provide a special perspective of discourse analysis. The European discourse analysis began in1960s in Germany. The German linguist Weinrich first proposed the term of discourse linguistics in 1967, and he believed that any study about language is based on the text. Discourse analysis became a discipline in1970s, and a large number of achievement scored during this time. The research content has also increased a lot. It introduced context, register, reference, anaphora, substitution, cohesion, coherence, macro-structure and micro-structure in traditional syntactic analysis, so that the study of language is far beyond the range of sentence. In 1980s, discourse analysis has made breakthrough progress, and discourse analysis came out from the mode of "structuralism", becoming a wide-range discipline that cross field, and developed to the practical content. In 1990s, V an Dick was selected as the first editor of journal “Text”, marking the discourse analysis as a discipline of linguistics. Up to now, there are also some systematic analysis methods, and the most influential achievements includes the speech act theory, the theory of thematic structure, schema theory, etc. Discourse analysis of news is a branch of discourse analysis. The research of news starts earlier in foreign countries, and up to current, the most influential works include: "News as Discourse" written by Van Dijk, etc. Van Dick use his macro theory into the analysis of news discourse, and discusses the structure, theme structure, schema and micro structure of news. He also decomposes news’ structure into five elements, which are the summary, main event, context, effect and evaluation. There are more researches that combines the media discourse with

Discourse Analysis studies

Representations of ethnic minorities in China’s university media Zhenzhou Zhao a *and Gerard A.Postiglione b a Centre for Governance and Citizenship,The Hong Kong Institute of Education,Tai Po,Hong Kong;b Faculty of Education,The University of Hong Kong,Pokfulam Road,Hong Kong This paper examines the representation of ethnic minorities in China through a review of campus newspapers,a major print medium in which universities exercise power over the discourse of cultural recognition.Three universities attended by minority students were selected.A two-dimensional mode (content and config- uration)is established to analyze ethnic representations.A combination of content analysis and discourse analysis is used to categorize and analyze text and photographs relevant to ethnicity.The study concludes that (1)different discursive practices are employed to construct ‘images’of ethnic groups as ‘Others’or ‘Us’;(2)representations of ethnic minorities and the Han generate three discursive dichotomies between minority and majority:minority groups are distinctive,potentially separatistic,and visible;and the Han people are normative, patriotic,and invisible,respectively;(3)the university media reflects an ideology of ‘state multiculturalism’that constructs a reflexive representation of the relationship between majority and minority. Keywords:university media;ethnic minority groups;representation;China;state multiculturalism;discourse Introduction Many multi-ethnic countries find themselves in a difficult dilemma between national unity and cultural diversity.China,with a large population from 56ethnic groups,is one of them.The distinguishing feature of this socialist country is its directive and top-down approach in identification and categorization,social positioning,and representations of ethnic groups.This approach is referred to as duoyuan yiti geju (pluralistic unitary structure)1by Fei Xiaotong (1992),or ‘Chinese national multiculturalism’in Bulag’s (2003)term.These two interpretations share a similarity in construing ethnic relationships in terms of ‘group ranking’,that is to say,the subjugation of ethnic minority identities to an overarching and honorable identity of the Chinese nation.In this paper,we will argue how the discursive practices in campus print media construct an ideology of ‘state multiculturalism’that reveals the assimilation impetus stemming from the Sinic civilization and Marxism projects and also reflects integrative representations of diverse cultural communities.A systematic analysis of linguistic devices in the university media,the main medium for the purpose of reporting major events and publishing teacher and student essays, illuminates how the lived experiences of different actors (university,staff and students)are woven into this ideological formation. *Corresponding author.Email:zhaozz@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/c62378249.html,.hk Discourse:Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education Vol.31,No.3,July 2010,319á 334 ISSN 0159-6306print/ISSN 1469-3739online #2010Taylor &Francis DOI:10.1080/01596301003786928 https://www.wendangku.net/doc/c62378249.html,

Critical+Discourse+Analysis_Van+Dijk+批判性话语分析

18 Critical Discourse Analysis TEUN A. VAN DIJK 0 Introduction: What Is Critical Discourse Analysis? Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that prim-arily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality. Some of the tenets of CDA can already be found in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School before the Second World War (Agger 1992b; Rasmussen 1996). Its current focus on language and discourse was initiated with the "critical linguistics" that emerged (mostly in the UK and Australia) at the end of the 1970s (Fowler et al. 1979; see also Mey 1985). CDA has also counterparts in "critical" developments in sociolinguistics, psychology, and the social sciences, some already dating back to the early 1970s (Birnbaum 1971; Calhoun 1995; Fay 1987; Fox and Prilleltensky 1997; Hymes 1972; Ibanez and Iniguez 1997; Singh 1996; Thomas 1993; Turkel 1996; Wodak 1996). As is the case in these neighboring disciplines, CDA may be seen as a reaction against the dominant formal (often "asocial" or "uncritical") paradigms of the 1960s and 1970s. CDA is not so much a direction, school, or specialization next to the many other "approaches" in discourse studies. Rather, it aims to offer a different "mode" or "perspective" of theorizing, analysis, and application throughout the whole field. We may find a more or less critical perspective in such diverse areas as pragmatics, conversation analysis, narrative analysis, rhetoric, stylistics, sociolinguistics, ethno-graphy, or media analysis, among others. Crucial for critical discourse analysts is the explicit awareness of their role in soci-ety. Continuing a tradition that rejects the possibility of a "value-free" science, they argue that science, and especially scholarly discourse, are inherently part of and influenced by social structure, and produced in social interaction. Instead of denying or ignoring such a relation between scholarship and society, they plead that such relations be studied and accounted for in their own right, and that scholarly practices