| Since 2012,the president Xi has proposed the term“Chinese Dream”officially,which has always been a hot issue in the field of Communication and Politics.Moreover,editorial news related to“Chinese Dream”has also received extensive attention from researchers in different academic fields.In linguistic fields,the relevant researches are mainly conducted from the perspective of appraisal system.Besides,there are also some researches on“Chinese Dream”about its metaphorical features and its constructive process of national identity based on the theoretical framework of the Systemic-Functional Linguistics.On the basis of these previous studies,this study attempts to conduct an analysis about the modality meaning of“Chinese Dream”news discourse through analyzing the distribution and the realization of the modality features,providing a further explanation about the interpersonal meanings.The present study chooses“Chinese Dream”news discourse published in China Daily News Agency from November 1st,2012 to December 31st,2016 as the corpus.The total number of the samples is 90,with every 30 pieces of news discourse respectively covering“Chinese Dream's basic connotations,path of realization and its relationship with world”.Furthermore,qualitative and quantitative analyses are adopted to try to explain the interpersonal meanings of modality resources in the English news discourse relevant to the key terms of“Chinese Dream”in China Daily.The thesis aims to answer two questions:i)What are the distributions of finite modal operators,modal adjuncts and modality metaphor in the English news discourse about“Chinese Dream's basic connotations,path of realization and its relationship with the world”?ii)What interpersonal meanings do modality resources convey in the English news discourse about the three aspects of“Chinese Dream”?In the English news discourse about the three aspects of“Chinese Dream”,the major findings are as follows:i)Distribution features of modality resources:among all kinds of modality resources,finite modal operators are used frequently.The frequency of modal adjuncts and modal metaphor is relatively low.Firstly,in terms of finite modal operators,news reporters are inclined to use median value modals to weaken personal tendency as much as possible.Secondly,with regard to modal adjuncts,mood adjuncts are used more frequently.In mood adjuncts,the adjuncts of polarity and modality are more frequently used than any other kinds of adjuncts.Finally,concerning the modal metaphor,each kind of news discourse tends to use subjective explicit compared with objective explicit.ii)Different forms of modality resources reflect different interpersonal meanings:first,a large number of median value finite modal operators are used to effectively express the news reporters'expectations for“Chinese dream”.At the same time,it can also leave the space for readers to think.Second,concerning modal adjuncts,the frequent use of the adjuncts of polarity and modality can convey the clear information to help readers understand the true intentions of the reporters.Third,speaking of modality metaphor,the subjective explicit metaphor is adopted frequently,because some of the news reports are about the speeches of the leaders or the spokesmen on Foreign Ministry.Reporters just retell these words,so there are more subjective metaphors.The key terms relevant to“Chinese Dream”are one of the important content of the China's external discursive construction.This study is to provide a reference for the construction and communication of other terms with Chinese characteristics.In addition,this study also might be employed in teaching,as understanding the interpersonal meanings of modal resources in the English news discourse relevant to“Chinese Dream”helps students to understand better the author's intentions in reading related political news. |
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