| In recent years,cognitive linguists hold that metonymy is a way of thinking and a basic cognitive mechanism.It is an important means of human perception and cognition of the objective world.It enables people to have a more in-depth understanding of metonymy,and expands the scope of metonymy research greatly.For instance,there are a lot of research on the classification of metonymy and its role and characteristics in oral communication or literary works.However,there are less studies on functions of metonymy in English political news discourses,especially the metafunctions of metonymy.Therefore,this thesis studies metonymy in English political news discourses and attempts to answer the following two questions:1.What types of metonymy are used in English political news discourses?2.What are the metafunctions of metonymy in English political news discourses?This thesis analyzes metonymic phenomena in political news discourses from the perspective of three metafunctions combining with the field,tenor and mode in English political news discourses.Thirty influential and representative English news on politics from The New York Times,The Washington Post,Reuters,Times and China Daily newspapers in the recent two years are collected by the author based on the considerations of international influence,popularity,average click-through rate and monthly sales of newspapers.Through the quantitative analysis,the metonymy used in the English political news discourses are classified,and then the three metafunctions of these types of metonymy are examined by qualitative analysis.The organization of the thesis is as follows:Firstly,this paper classifies metonymy into low-level propositional metonymy,low-level situational metonymy,high-level predicative metonymy and high-level situational metonymy.Through analysis,three types of metonymy appear in English news discourses: low-level propositional metonymy,low-level situational metonymy,high-level predicative metonymy.Most of the metonymy used in English political news discourses are low-level propositional metonymy,followed by low-level situational metonymy and high-level predicative metonymy.Secondly,it is found that different types of metonymy used in English political news discourses may reflect the three metafunctions at the same time,or they may have one or two of the three metafunctions.The low-level propositional metonymy has all the three metafunctions: ideational function,interpersonal function and textual function.The low-level situational metonymy has both the ideational function and textual function.The high-level predicative metonymy mainly highlights its ideational function.This study has its significances.On the one hand,the analysis of metonymy used in English political news discourses can help journalists to report on political affairs more objectively and colorfully through metonymy.On the other hand,it can help news readers understand metonymy used in news discourses clearly and effectively.In addition,this thesis enriches the research and development of metonymy.It provides a richer research perspective for analyzing the metafunctions of metonymy in discourses. |
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