The Lexical Features And Cohesive Devices Of News English

News plays an important role in people's daily life. It is with news that we get to know what is happening around us, in other parts of the country, and throughout the world. Apart from the need of acquiring information, now so many English learners are reading English newspapers and listening to English newscasts to study English. Being a variety of English, news English does have its own linguistic features. In order to read English news more efficiently and accurately; it is necessary for English learners to have the essential knowledge of news English, such as the lexical features and the lexical cohesive devices.Based on the previous studies, with examples taken from English newspapers both at home and abroad and also from the Internet, this thesis aims to explore the lexical features of news English and their stylistic effects; and also the lexical cohesive devices employed in news English and their functions.As regards the lexical futures of news English, the findings of this research suggest that set expressions, short words, abbreviations, neologisms, borrowed words, jargon, allusions and euphemisms are frequently used, which always cause certain stylistic effects. Set expressions are largely employed for their brevity and flexibility as well as the strong flavor of journalese; short words and abbreviations can increase the readability of news reports with their colloquial flavor; neologisms, borrowed words and jargon can enliven news English, making the language more colorful and vigorous; allusions can make news reports more vivid and thought-provoking with their cultural connotations; euphemisms are implicit in meanings, thus widely accepted by readers. Generally speaking, all these lexical features contribute much to a vivid and economical style of news English.As regards the lexical cohesion of news English, the findings suggest that a great number of lexical cohesive devices are employed in news English, especially repetition, synonyms, antonyms, superordinates and cohesive chains. By repetition, the theme of the news report can be strengthened; synonyms, superordinates and hyponyms cohere with each other to avoid unnecessary repetition, and also help to make news reports more concrete and precise; cohesive chains interact with each other to form a semantic unit of the news text. In short, various lexical cohesive devices contribute much to the coherence of English news texts.