A Cultural Comparison Of English Business News Reports In Mainland And Hong Kong From Transitivity Perspective

Hong Kong,as part of China,shares the same cultural root with mainland.But during the 150 years of colonial ruling of Great Britain,it experienced a series of changes in ideology of society.After the return to motherland,there is more and more communication between mainland and Hong Kong,which improves the economic development of two places.On the other hand,it also brings various conflicts.Thus,the culture differences of two places have become a hot topic for scholars to discuss.News media can lead and embody the mainstream ideology of society.By studying the linguistic characteristics of mainland and Hong Kong news reports,scholars can explore the cultural roots embodied in language.In this paper,six English financial reports were selected as samples respectively from China Daily and The Standard.Based on Hofstede’s value dimensions and Lian Shuneng’s idea on thinking mode,this dissertation makes a comparative study of the transitivity in news discourses,aiming to reveal the linguistic characteristics of mainland and Hong Kong business news reports and the cultural differences between two places.Through this dissertation,the author hopes to provide a reference for cross-cultural business communication between the two places.The major findings are as follows:In the business news reports of mainland and Hong Kong,material,verbal and relational processes account for the majority.Mental processes are used less frequently,while existential and behavioral processes are rarely used.Generally,Hong Kong news reports use more material and verbal processes than mainland,while the proportion of relational processes in mainland news is larger than that in Hong Kong news.The reason is that Hong Kong prefers individualism and analytical,objective,logical and empirical thinking,while the mainland inclines to collectivism and holistic and subjective thinking.In addition,through the deeper analysis of material and verbal processes,it is found that Hong Kong news reports show lower power distance and divergent thinking,while the mainland culture shows higher power distance and convergent thinking.