A Corpus-Based Intertextuality Analysis Of The Reportage On Shanghai World Expo

This paper qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes the English reports in China Daily on Shanghai World Expo at its different stages from the perspective of intertextuality analysis on the basis of corpus linguistics so as to answer the following research questions:1) What are the similarities and differences in the reports on Shanghai World Expo at its different stages? 2) How are news texts echoed, drawn on and brought together in the reportages on Shanghai World Expo at its different stages?The research employs the corpus-based approach. Therefore three mini-corpora are involved: Pre-Expo Corpus (PREC), Expo Corpus (EC) and Post-Expo (POEC). All the relevant news reports are retrieved from the archives of China Daily website: http://www.Chinadaily.com.cn. The time span is supposed to be set from December 2002 to January 2011. A detailed contrastive analysis of PREC, EC and POEC is conducted from various aspects, consisting of thematic analysis, lexical analysis and quotation analysis. The research results show that: (1) thematic analysis: The words more frequently employed are used to convey the brief information about Shanghai World Expo, and they show the same theme, though the respective foci on different stages are also presented; (2) lexical level: This part mainly focuses on the comparative analysis of the concordances. The author selects three key words: pavilion, China and visitors, the results show that though different foci are gained, the reports on different stages serve one another, thus further imply the intertextual relations; (3) quotation level: By employing the function of Concord, the quotations in the reports of different stages can be retrieved, based on which, the analysis to the resources of the quotations is conducted. The result manifests that the attitudes of different organizations and people towards Shanghai World Expo as well as China are different, however, most of which are positive.Based on the comparative analysis, the implications are obtained: (1) It is a beneficial attempt in the application of corpus linguistics to intertextuality, the findings testify the effectiveness of the theoretical framework; (2) The foreign language learners are supposed to pay attention to promoting intertextual reading in the media; (3) It will be instructive in cultivating the intertextual awareness of the teachers and students in the foreign languages teaching and learning.