A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Chinese And American News Reports

Critical linguistics, also called Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), is an analysis tool developed by Western linguists Roger Fowler and Gunther Kress since the late seventieth. It is based on the theory of linguistics, mainly Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar as the basis, to reveal the ideology and power relationship hidden behind public discourse. Reporting the events objectively and faithfully is the principle of news discourse. However, fair, objective and unbiased reporting of facts in language hardly exists. The reporters decide what to be reported according to their own understanding of the events, the expectation of the audience and the stance of the news agencies or the government they represent.This paper tries to combine Systemic-Functional Grammar with Critical Discourse Analysis, state how power and ideology is permeated in news discourse and how public discourse influences and manipulates readers. This paper applying Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar analyzes eight selected news reports on Syria unrest from China Daily and The Los Angeles Times, aims to reveal the ideologies hidden behind the news. This thesis makes an analysis of news samples in such aspects:In terms of the ideational metafunction, it analyzes in the aspect of lexical choice, transitivity; in terms of interpersonal metafunction, it analyzes in the aspect of mood, modality; and in terms of textual metafunction, it analyzes in the aspect of thematic choice and intertextuality. The linguistic features in eight selected news discourse all reflect ideologies.The research conclusion is:Firstly, The Los Angeles Times selects a large number of negative words in reports of Syria unrest, but China Daily is more objective; Secondly, The Los Angeles Times selects a large number of low modal verbs which is more frequently used than in China Daily; Thirdly, The Los Angeles Times uses a large number of imperative mood, performs its strong hegemony, while China Daily uses extensive indicative mood; Fourthly, The Los Angeles Times selects the United States government or Syria rebels as the theme, while China Daily mainly selects the Syria government as the theme; Fifthly, The Los Angeles Times quotes a lot of Syria rebel leaders’speaking, China Daily mostly cites the United Nations or the Syria government leaders’speaking, and quotes a small amount of Syria rebel leaders’speaking. In this paper, through the analysis of linguistic features in the news of China Daily and The Los Angeles Times reports on Syria unrest, the author finds out American’s hostility and resentment towards the government of Syria.The theoretical significance of this study lies in that it is of much significance to attempt to make a contrastive analysis of Chinese and American political news reports from the perspective of CDA. It provides a thorough analysis method to develop from the surface structure of language to reveal implicit deep ideology. The practical significance of this study lies in that it offers a new insight into English learning and teaching. it can improve the learners’critical reading consciousness, resist the penetration of Western ideology actively and effectively.