An Intertextual Analysis Of The News Reports On The Taiwan Issues By The American Media

The present study, adopting the theory of intertextuality and the analytic devices of Critical Discourse Analysis, makes an analysis of the news reports on the Taiwan issues by the American media, ranging from February to October in 2006. In this period, the American mainstream media reported on the Taiwan issues with great frequency, and the feature of intertextuality is obviously identified in these reports. Since the data should focus on a certain subject, the author chooses this topic.This study analyzes the specific and generic intertextuality in the new reports so as to find out how the news reporters express their ideas by means of intertextuality. The author first conducts a specific intertexual analysis of the news reports, in which reported speeches are taken as the main focus for analysis. News sources, reporting modes and reporting verbs are the three perspectives of the analysis of reported speeches. Then the author makes a generic intertextual analysis of the news reports from the perspectives of subject position, public discourse and private discourse, and dialogized heteroglossia respectively.In terms of methodology, this study enriches the analytic methods of discourse analysis by combing the theory of intertextuality and the analytic devices of CDA. Since intertextuality has long been confined to the analysis of literary works, this study extends the research field of the theory of intertextuality by applying it to the analysis of news reports. This study may be used for reference in English teaching. It is conducive to the improvement of the students'reading comprehension ability and writing ability. It may not only enhance their critical language awareness, but also help them take correct attitudes towards the western media.