On English Soft Environment In Britain Leased Wei-Hai-Wei (1898-1930)

Along with the development of sociolinguistics. an increasing interest among linguists has emerged to explore English soft environment, and studies on this new subject are just on the threshold. In this thesis, the author aims to use Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis theory to make a tentative study on English soft environment in Britain leased Wei-Hai-Wei (1898-1930) by analyzing The Wei-Hai-Wei Lyre.This research on English soft environment can take Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis as theoretical basis since both of them focus on the relationship between language and its social factors in a speech community and the elements of English soft environment correlate with the subjects of critical discourse analysis. English soft environment includes such major elements as the use of English among community members and in public media, English users’language attitudes, language policy and language planning from the government. These elements can be analyzed from the perspective of news discourse analysis, public discourse analysis and advertising discourse analysis, which are three branches of the critical discourse analysis theory.This study is based on the copies of eighty-three issues of The Wei-Hai-Wei Lyre (from December1,1900to March12,1901), the only English newspaper published by the British Military Department in Wei-Hai-Wei, from Bureau of Weihai City Archives. The Wei-Hai-Wei Lyre is introduced in terms of backgrounds, publication and circulation, status and contents, as well as suspension of publication.The contents of the newspaper are analyzed and discussed in detail. An analysis on nine pieces of news from two columns:LATEAST TELEGRAM and LOCAL NEWS is carried out based on Van Dijk’s news discourse analysis from three perspectives:vocabulary analysis (lexical density), word features (simple words, acronyms, modifiers and number words), and syntactical analysis (syntactic structure and modifier clause). Four editorials from the column EDITORIAL are chosen and studied based on public discourse analysis from perspectives of the implications of modal verbs and denotation of personal pronouns. Besides, the author conducts a preliminary research on three advertisements from the paper under the theory of adverting discourse analysis. Moreover, two essays and a amusing dialogue from the supplement is also analyzed and discussed. The author then discusses how The Wei-Hai-Wei Lyre carries and reflects English soft environment in Britain leased Wei-Hai-Wei (1898-1930) by taking critical analysis as a guide, considering language features analyzed above and together with the papers’ news resources,editing, circulation and contents.Two findings are achieved from the above analysis and discussion. One is that in The Wei-Hai-Wei Lyre, news language has the following features:high degree of lexical density; abundance of simple words and acronyms; small amount of modifiers and numerals; syntactic structures fixed on SVO, SVC and SVA. As for non-news, editors express different feelings by the choice of modal verbs, and the abundant use of the first personal pronouns can fill the gap between the editors and readers. The advertisements have short sentences; information is concentrated and there is no use of rhetoric. The other finding is that the author concludes five features of English soft environment in Britain leased Wei-Hai-Wei (1898-1930). Firstly, main English users are British immigrants. Secondly, English is frequently used in all aspects of members’life. Thirdly, the government, public media and individuals try to maintain the use of Standard English. Fourthly, English is not only the carrier of information but also a symbol of identity for English immigrants.Fifthly, new words of Chinese place name are added to English vocabulary.This research has some theoretical significance by discussing the definition and elements of English soft environment, explaining the theory of critical discourse analysis and applying it to the study of English soft environment. It is hoped that the findings of this thesis will provide insights into and useful evidences for further studies of discourse analysis and English soft environment.