A Comparative Study On Thematic Progression Patterns In English And Chinese Disaster Coverage Texts

This thesis focuses on analyzing the Thematic Progression(TP) patterns in English and Chinese disaster coverage texts.The concept of TP is put forward by Czechoslovak linguist Frantisek Danes(1974) to explain the relationships between clauses in the whole text.Each clause of written text in any language can be divided into Theme and Rheme.In a given linguistic circumstance,the Themes and Rhemes of clauses will produce certain relations,which are variable with the development of text;the Theme becomes Rheme or the Rheme becomes Theme.These relations and variations produce the TP and make the whole text coherent.TP pattern is one of the most important devices in analyzing texts.By combining the thematic structure with coherence,TP tells the dynamic distribution of Themes and Rhemes in text and analyzes the method of development of a text.This thesis makes a comparative study on English and Chinese disaster coverage texts.The aim is to figure out whether the disaster coverage texts in both languages exploit the same TP patterns; whether or not the incidence of a certain TP patterns in two languages is alike;whether the orders of TP patterns according to the proportion from high to low are identical,and which TP patterns take the first three positions;how the TP functions for cohesion and coherence of the disaster coverage texts.In Chapter One,the author explains some concepts about TP:text and texture, Theme and Rheme,TP and TP pattern,and introduces the significance of this research, data collection and procedure of analyzing data.The data is selected from popular newspapers on websites:New York Times and Guangming's Daily,from which 30 scripts are chosen.Chapter Two reviews the related studies on TP patterns at home and abroad.It firstly introduces the studies on Theme,and states that the thesis will adopt M.A.K. Halliday's identification of Theme.This chapter has a survey of the theoretical study on TP pattern.F.Danes puts forwards five TP patterns;Huk and Van Dijk have their own TP patterns.At home,Xu Shenghuan,Zhu Yongsheng,Huang Yan,Hu Zhuanglin and Zhang Jin & Zhang Keding propose their TP patterns.Chapter Three is about the research method and theoretical framework.Adopting synchronic comparative research method between two languages,the author analyzes the TP patterns in English and Chinese disaster coverage texts.Based on the previous studies,the author presents seven TP patterns(T=Theme,R=Rheme):1) T-T;2) T-R; 3) R-R;4) R-T;5) T+R-T;6) T+R-R;7) Irregular pattern(IP).Chapter Four is the main part of this thesis.In this chapter,the author presents the comparative statistic results after analyzing the data.Comparative analysis shows that there are three identical points in the disaster coverage texts in both languages:1) coverage texts in both languages exploit the same TP patterns;2) TP patterns that take the first three positions are the same in English and Chinese;3) except IP,the other six patterns function for the cohesiveness of the disaster coverage texts.Comparative analysis also discloses two different points in disaster coverage texts in both languages: 1) the incidences of a certain TP pattern in two languages are different;2) the orders of TP patterns in English and Chinese disaster coverage texts according to the proportion from high to low are not identical.This thesis also finds three new TP patterns and three cases of IP,and that the Ellipsis Themes in Chinese are more than those in English.Chapter Five interprets why there are similarities and differences in employing the TP patterns in English and Chinese disaster coverage texts and why the Ellipsis Themes in Chinese are more than those in English,and explains how the TP functions in cohesiveness of disaster coverage texts.Chapter Six is the conclusion and the limitation of the thesis.Disaster coverage text,as an important type of journalistic text,has its own features which are different from those of other types of texts and the Thematic Progression patterns will be different from those of other styles in some way.For the readers,analyzing the TP patterns can help the readers to comprehend texts effectively; for the correspondents,grasping the way of organizing the coverage can make it easy to compose the whole event,so as to produce a more powerful social effect.The findings of this thesis are helpful not only in knowing the differences and similarities between English and Chinese TP patterns,but also in comprehending and composing disaster coverage and the related teaching activities.