| As an important way of disseminating information, news has become a main source for people to know the social dynamics in all works of life. Compared with other themes of news, disaster news has got a much higher news value.It is of great significance for a newsman to report the disaster news objectively and considerately. If they pay all attention to reporting the negative losses and impacts caused by the disaster, the range of the influence will be widened. As a result, people will feel insecure and panic, they will even have trouble resuming to their normal lives. On the contrary, a brilliant newsman will not only objectively report the detailed situation of the disaster but also give a careful consideration to the choices of the words and expressions, hoping to pacify people’s panic and make them regain hope and courage by the light of language.Under the theoretical framework of Hallidayan Systemic Functional Grammar and its theory of interpersonal function, the present thesis analyzes the language use in 30 pieces of disaster news collected from BBC in 2014 and 2015 and further explores the realization of interpersonal functions in disaster news discourse in terms of the mood, modality and appraisal system.The thesis has obtained the following findings:In terms of the mood system, the third person reference is usually employed by the newsman to avoid the involvement of some personal opinions and to emphasize the objectivity of the description; simple past tense is used to describe what had actually happened in the past disaster and what serious results the disaster had caused, reminding the masses of the heart-broken losses caused by the disaster, while present perfect tense is employed to show the current progress in casualty statistics and rescue work, providing the masses with the latest situations about the disaster.In terms of the modality system, the modal verbs related to "probability" are used to express people’s good wishes to the victims trapped in the disaster; the modal verbs related to "willingness or inclination" are employed to express the rescue team’s strong sense of duty and responsibility in their work as well as the foreign countries’ willingness and determination to help the victims out of the disaster.In terms of the appraisal system, the employment of many emotional words and expressions by the newsman helps to make the masses fully figure out what the people feel about the event or how they go through this gloomy and frustrating journey in their life; through the employment of quotations of certain official departments guiding the recue work, we may get to understand the strong obstructions they are facing in the rescue work and then have a new evaluation of their efforts in front of the disaster; besides, the graduation sources which take the form of comparatives, superlatives and quantifiers and are employed in disaster news discourse clearly present the severe degree of the disaster as well as the devastating damages caused by the disaster. This direct description and presentation of a massive and shocking disaster event really arouses the masses’ sympathy, love and care towards the victims and their family members.The study of interpersonal function within certain disaster news discourse can bring some implications for news-writing on the part of the newsman and for news-reading on the part of the masses, and for the practice of EFL teaching as well. |
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