| Projection is a linguistic phenomenon that reports people‘s words and thoughts.In Systemic-functional linguistics,projection expresses a logical semantic relationship,which includes but not limited to reported speech in traditional grammar.The death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in November 2016 has aroused widespread concern in the world.Media from various countries have carried out a large number of reports on this event,but due to the different political positions,different media have expressed different attitudes.This paper selects 20 news discourses about the death of Castro respectively from Sino-US mainstream newspapers China Daily and The Washington Post.By studying the use of projections from three aspects: projecting source,projecting word and projected element,it is expected to discover how Chinese and American reporters express different attitudes towards Castro through projection.A combination of qualitative and quantitative research method is adopted.With UAM Corpus Tool 3.3m as the research instrument,the main findings are as follows:In terms of the projecting source,both sides use a large number of specifiable projecting sources which provide exact sources of projection,and the extensive use of them meets the objective requirement of news reports.However,there are also obvious differences.China Daily quotes more words of leaders or politicians from other countries to express condolences on the death of Castro and praises for his contributions,while The Washington Post quotes more from specialists and ordinary people to present the happiness of Castro‘s opponents at his death and their hatred towards him.In terms of the projecting word,both newspapers use verbs extensively,and nouns are used less frequently.However,China Daily frequently uses positive projecting verbs to shape Castro as a leader who has rescued the Cuban people while The Washington Post uses more negative projecting verbs to figure Castro as a brutal dictator.In terms of the projected element,the projecting clauses take the highest percentage in both newspapers due to the requirements of objectivity and authenticity of news reports.But China Daily largely quotes or reports the positive evaluation of Castro expressed by world leaders,while The Washington Post quotes more original words of ordinary people and scholars,which contributes to the negative evaluations towards Castro.In short,China Daily and The Washington Post express different attitudes and opinions towards Castro by the linguistic means--projection.The former gives more affirmation,while the latter makes more negative evaluation.This paper discusses the language features of projection in news discourse,which enables readers to recognize the differences between Chinese and American newspapers,and at the same time to further understand different slants from different media. |
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