A Critical Metonymy Analysis For Sino-US Crisis Discourse

Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA)emerged in the late 1970s and,as an approach to the study of discourse,it has aimed to explore the relationship between and among language,ideology and power through analysis of language structures.As a critical conception in Cognitive Linguistics(CL),metonymy is not only a figure of speech but also an important cognitive tool for human beings to learn and understand the word.In recent years,a new trend for linguists to explore is the possibility of the combination of CDA and CL.Thus,Cognition-oriented CDA appears in the latest field research.In this thesis,Critical Metonymy Analysis is exactly a kind of Cognition-oriented CDA.It covers the shortages that CDA excessively concerns social factors but ignores individual cognition,while CL only focuses on cognition parts.Critical Metonymy Analysis brings new vigor and vitality into studies on CDA.There are two research questions in this thesis:What ideologies and power relations are reflected in the news reports on South China Sea?What are the functions of Metonymy in the news reports on South China Sea?Based on CDA and Conceptual Metonymy Theory,this thesis studies the application of metonymy in Sino-US news reports on South China Sea through Social-cognitive approach.The research methodology includes theoretical study and data analysis.The finial aim of this thesis is to reveal ideologies and power relations in Sino-US crisis discourse.The first finding is Critical Metonymy Analysis carries on semantic and cognitive levels and the use of metonymy reveals a strong version of ideology.Then the Critical Metonymy Mode has economic and cognitive functions.This thesis is of significance in both theory and practice.Theoretically,this thesis can be regarded as an attempt to study on the interface between CDA and CL.This research also enriches the research on Critical Metonymy Analysis.Practically,the analyzing mode in this thesis can throw light upon Critical Metonymy Analysis in other genres,such as English teaching and so on.