An Analysis Of Power Asymmetry In London Olympic Discourse

The present study mainly applies Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to thecritical analysis of discourses related to London Olympics. Through the perspective offive discursive strategies of DHA and Intertextuality, power asymmetry in speeches isuncovered, which will improve readers’ consciousness of language and power.Research data in this thesis are about three events in London Olympics, that is,the events of Ye Shiwen, Chinese track cycling women race team and Chen Yibing.As for the first one, data are chosen from the press conference after the competition,comments in ABC and reports and apology letter in Nature. For the second one, thedata are UCI announcement and China’s petition letter; and with regard to the thirdone, data are collected from athletes’ and judge’s speeches, media discourses andcompetition rules. In the chosen samples, the author selects22extracts for analysis.Besides, to have a comprehensive and detailed analysis, five discursive strategiesput forward by Ruth Wodak are applied, including referential strategy, the strategy ofpredication, the strategy of argumentation, the strategy of perspective and the strategyof intensification and mitigation, with Julia Kristeva’s Intertextuality as the auxiliarymethod. This thesis studies how the dominant groups control the rights of speech andhow the dominated groups lose the rights deserved are unveiled. In addition, commonfeatures of the three events, causes of power asymmetry and counter measures arediscussed in the end. The research shows that power asymmetry does exist in thediscourses of athletes and institutions, and the rights of speech of athletes should beprotected and the rights of speech of organizations should be limited and regulatedaccordingly.This study has some practical implications. First, it helps to cultivate readers’critical awareness and enhance critical mode of thinking. Second, this study maycontribute to English teaching, especially in reading and writing. Third, this presentstudy can improve readers’ skills in cross-cultural communication.