| Review of the relevant literature shows that since its inception in1974when Prague linguist Danes posited the notion of thematic progression, studies of thematic progression theory have been the interest of researchers of linguistics. Related researches have been mainly done in fields such as language teaching, translation and interpretation practice, comparison between thematic structures in English and Chinese, so on and so forth. Thematic progression theory applied in the discourse analysis of English news reports can effectively facilitate readers’ comprehension of news reports discourse as well as reporters’ composing of well-organized news reports. However, discourse features in English news reports have rarely received enough attention from the perspective of thematic theories. Updated corpus of English news reports still remains untouched. Therefore, the new trend of language use in aspects of thematic structure and thematic progression patterns remains to be explored.This study aims to explore the discourse features presented in English news reports on the basis of thematic theory of Halliday and thematic progression pattern theory of Danes. Specifically, it intends to identify the types of thematic structure and thematic progression patterns in English news reports discourse and to see how they are structured as dynamic information to achieve a comprehensive understanding.The data consisting of25English news reports are randomly chosen from the most famous English reading media in China---China Daily from May2010to May2012. The research questions to be addressed are:(1) What are the characteristics and regularities of the use of certain thematic structure or patterns of thematic progression in English news reports?(2) What are the functions of certain thematic structure or patterns of thematic progression in English news reports?(3) How do the patterns of thematic progression fulfill the textual function and help form well-organized English news reports discourse?By analyzing and discussing the characteristics of thematic structure and thematic progression patterns in English news reports discourse, the results indicate the following aspects. From the perspective of the thematic structure, it is found out that (1) most clauses in English news reports have complete thematic structure;(2) simple themes take up the absolute majority in themes in English news reports;(3) interpersonal themes are less regular than textual themes since the former may implicate personal feelings, judges and values;(4) marked themes more frequently occur in news reports in order to achieve specific effect. From the perspective of patterns of thematic progression, it is found out that (1) the most frequently used pattern is parallel pattern that can clearly list the information around one core content;(2) the second is linear pattern that is effective describing the process of events in linear order, or the progression of topics;(3) the third is concentrated pattern that is used to conclude or emphasize;(4) the least used one is crossing pattern, which is a flexible pattern of thematic progression making the discourse more mixed and compact. In addition, it is found that most of the progression are not achieved by repeating exact the same theme or rheme but depending on the seven logical relations. In this way discourse can be highly cohesive and coherence, while in different forms of expression.This study has implications for reflecting the new tendency of research and application of thematic progression theory, and also demonstrates that theme structure and thematic progression patterns play significant roles in structuring discourse and realizing coherent and cohesive in English news report. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future studies are finally provided. Owing to the limitation of corpus and research methodology, it is suggested to diversify the corpus and improve the research methodology to promote the further study of thematic progression theory. |
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