| Political news is indispensable to people's life. Political news discourse is a tactful and skillful application of language. A thoroughly comparative analysis of the political news on paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine by the Japanese Prime Minister from two prestigious newspapers, People's Daily and the New York Times reveals that language in political news discourse is a reflection and a result of mutual adaptation between linguistic choices and context.The theoretical framework of the present study is based on Jef Verschueren's linguistic Adaptation Theory. In accordance with the theory, the present thesis studies the variability, negotiability and adaptability of language in political news discourse. It is to uncover the close relationship between linguistic choices and context and explore how linguistic choices and context are mutually adaptable.The study ranges from the micro-linguistic features, to the macro-social settings and thus strives to be a comprehensive analysis. Based on the description of the linguistic features in the political news discourse and the study of linguistic and communicative contexts, with a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis,a detailed and full explanation of the relationship between linguistic choices and context are achieved. It is found that the language use in political news discourse is not arbitrary but choices made among many options. Political news discourse is an end product of choice-making. The reporters select the adaptive possibilities from the linguistically possible resources. Moreover, all linguistic choices are dynamic, negotiable and serve communicative functions. They are determined by linguistic and communicative contexts.In the present study, it is found that the similar choices in the two newspapers are abundant use of reported speech and various news sources. These similarities are due to the same linguistic context. The nature of political news discourses stresses to impress the readers with the reliable and authentic information. The different choices are revealed in different wording, distribution of modes of reporting, modality, textual organization and rhetorical device. These differences are due to the different communicative context. The difference in the standpoint between China and America, ideologies of the reporters,motivation and emotion of Chinese and American readers and the social group the reporters represent determine the different choices made in the political news discourse. |
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