A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On South China Sea In Chain Daily And New York Times

Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA)is a contemporary approach to the study of language and discourse in social institutions, which draws heavily on the notions and methods associated with Systemic-Functional Grammar developed by Halliday. It reveals the underlying ideologies and power relation hidden in discourse and to examines the constructive effect of discourse upon ideology. From the perspective of CDA, the present thesis intends to make a detailed analysis of the representation in news discourse to demonstrate the inseparable relationship between language use and ideology in certain situational and social context.The dispute of South China Sea began from the 1970s and lasted forty years long. During this period, the disputation of South China Sea extends from territorial dispute to politics, economy, military and diplomacy during the development of China and expansion of international influence.This thesis analyzes 12 pieces of news reports from China Daily and New York Times on the same events related to South China Sea. The study mainly analyzed the ideological orientation in news discourse by Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Halliday’s Systematic Functional Grammar through qualitative and quantitative studies.This thesis mainly analyzes three levels. At the textual level, transitivity and modality are explored. Reporting Modes and news sources are examined at the discursive level.Analysis at the third level focuses on investigating the textual choices in the light of social and cultural contexts. Through the systematic analysis, the ideological difference of news reports exists in different levels and the dialectical relationship between language and ideology has been discussed.