| The study mainly discusses how media manipulate the public opinion through language use in news articles,aiming to explore how presupposition verb triggers help to express certain ideological information through text analysis,discourse analysis and social background analysis.It is expected to discover the reason that media use certain presupposition verb trigger to express certain attitude and the power relation between media and the readers.The study regards Levinson’s classification of presupposition triggers and Fairclough’s assumption theory as theoretical foundation.By combining two theories,the study established an analytical framework to analyze presupposition verb triggers from the perspective of critical discourse analysis.The focus of the study lies in the discussion of various interpretations of "the Chinese Dream" in news reports.The distribution and function of presupposition verb triggers are analyzed regarding social background of each news report.The comparison of attitudes that media have towards "the Chinese Dream" is also conducted,in order to explore how western media view "the Chinese Dream" as well as China’s development.As for the method of the study,fourteen news articles with "the Chinese Dream" in the title from six western media are selected as the subjects.Six media includes Telegraph,Guardian,Times,New York Times,Washington Post,and Wall Street Journal.Presupposition verb triggers in news reports are marked and analyzed under the modified analytical framework.Presuppositions that contain the verb triggers are grouped into six themes regarding the content of news reports.The analysis is conducted by correlating verb triggers with each theme.Different political instance of each media is also considered to explore differences of using verb triggers in news reports.By analyzing types and distributions of verb triggers in selected media articles,the author discovers that all types of verb triggers in Levinson’s classification are used.What’s more,a new group of verb triggers called "verbs with(un)desirable meaning" is discovered.It refers to the verb that is used to express a subjective desire towards something rather than judge it with objective standard.Also,by correlating themes of presuppositions and distribution of verb triggers,the author discovers that each theme is realized via one or more types of verb triggers.By analyzing certain verb trigger in expressing certain theme,the author discovers that western media adopt factive verbs,verbs of judgment and verbs with(un)desirable meaning to discuss the capability of Chinese government and decision-making process.By doing so,western media focus on negative aspect of Chinese Dream and therefore manipulate public opinion.By comparing similarities and differences of different media in using verb triggers to express certain theme,the author discovers that media tend to use factive verbs,verbs of judgment and verbs with(un)desirable meaning to express attitudes they are sharing.Media with support for Liberal or Republican Party use more change of state verbs and verbs with undesirable meaning to establish "China as a threat" statement.Media with support for Conservative Party use more implicative verbs to lead readers believe "the Chinese Dream" is a slogan rather than an action.Through the analysis of presupposition verb triggers in western media discourses,the study enriches Levinson’s triggers classification and provides a new perspective in analysis of presuppositions and media discourse.What’s more,the comparison of media with support for different parties reveal attitudes of western world towards China.It is expected to offer a reference in the way China reacts to Western situation in the future. |
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