Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Reports On Diaoyu Islands Issue

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an important approach in critical linguistic field. Fairclough and other linguists spare no effort to make researches in this field and therefore CDA becomes comparatively mature. The significant foundation of CDA is Halliday’s systemic functional grammar and Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework. The most crucial task of CDA is to disclose the ideology and power relation subtly infiltrated in discourses.News discourse is one of the research objects of CDA. Though the analysis of news discourse has been relatively successful, different texts will surely bring us discoveries both for the development of the theory and the comprehension of the real discourses. International political news reports are very typical and valuable data for CDA. As a consequence, a series of reports on Diaoyu islands issue in the Guardian are chosen in the thesis because territory dispute can be seen as an international issue and it will arouse some major countries’attentions. Unfortunately, the reports are sometimes widely divergent from the truth, though they read neutral and fair.There are five samples on Diaoyu islands issue from the Guardian, which are analyzed all together. The analysis is divided into three steps in accordance with Fariclough’s model. At the first stage, there will be a detailed description of the language features of the samples, such as the lexical classification, material process and verbal process, passivization, and thematic choice of the reports. At next stage, an interpretation of the samples will be given, followed by four related questions proposed by Fairclough in his theory. News sources and reporting modes are important parts of the analysis. At the last stage, taking cultural, political and social contexts into consideration, the author provides an explanation of the relation among language, ideology and power in the reports. All the mystery involved will come out in the wash and so Britain’s attitude towards the issue and China is clear at a glance.The CDA of the reports on Diaoyu islands issue is of great importance in that it not only helps disclose concealed ideology and power, but also testifies the existence value of the theory. Moreover, CDA works as a guide to EFL language teachers and learners because it can arouse their critical awareness in reading, and thus help them change from passive recipients to active participants.