Discourse And Price Reform: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Advice Seeking Draft On Price Reform Of Refined Oil

Drawing on the theories of critical discourse analysis (CDA for short), applyingFairclough’s dialectical-relational approach and employing the analytical tools ofsystematic-functional grammar (SFG for short), the present thesis investigates the discursivestrategies of Advice Seeking Draft on Price Reform of Refined Oil by National Developmentand Reform Commission (NDRC for short). Through systematic analysis, it is found that:(1)On the relationship between governmental discourse and public discourse in the AdviceSeeking Draft, the governmental discourse is dominant and the public discourse is marginaland is controlled by the governmental discourse. The two types of discourses do not carryequal weight in the Advice Seeking Draft.(2) In order to meet the objective of carrying outthe price reform, the writers of the Advice Seeking Draft are more conscious to shape andcontrol the public’s ideas by making use of various discursive strategies and linguistic devices,such as genre chain and intertextuality. To some extent, this Advice Seeking Draft haseducated the public and influenced their judgment.(3) The Advice Seeking Draft is mainlymade up of imperative clauses and declarative clauses. They give the sense that the generalideas of the Price Reform are perfect and there is no need to negotiate, which are a series ofassertions. In addition, there are only four modal operators in total, all of which are high ormedium positive and high negative. In an Advice Seeking Draft, it should be marked bymodalization expressions such as “we believe” or “in our opinions”, but there is no suchexpression in the draft.(4) The higher percentage of marked Theme in the Advice SeekingDraft implies the eagerness of the government to draw the readers’ attentions to something butnot the Subject. In addition, most of the marked Themes in the draft are imperative clauses,whose basic messages are “I want you to do something and “let’s do something”(Peng,2000:37).(5) There are a large percentage of material processes in the draft which shows thatthe writers of the Advice Seeking Draft are more interested in doing something. Furthermore,the Actor of most material processes in the Advice Seeking Draft is not mentioned. By thisway, the Actors are put in a less important position, which can help shift the readers’ attentionsaway from the one that do the actions. In a word, the Advice Seeking Draft is a way for thegovernment to promote the Price Reform of Refined Oil in nature.