A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports Based On Systemic Functional Grammar ——Taking Reports On The South China Sea Arbitration Case In China Daily And CNN As Examples

In the 1980s,critical discourse analysis,which comes from critical linguistics,start to catch people’s attention.As time goes on,critical discourse analysis is widely used to explore features of news reports.This thesis takes the event of the South China Sea Arbitration Case as a topic,and it selects three pieces of news reports from China Daily and CNN respectively,which aims to answer two research questions,one is to explore language features of news reports from the two official websites,and another is to explain why such features are formed.This thesis takes three meta-functions from Halliday’s systemic functional grammar as theoretical framework;transitivity,modality,theme choice,and news sources are used as analysis tool.Fairclough’s Three-dimensional Model are also taken into consideration.Thus news reports is analyzed at three stages.This thesis finds that the newspapers in China and the United States have different features in terms of transitivity,modality,thematic choice,news source,politics,economy and culture.Firstly,at the stage of text,this thesis is analyzed from the perspective of material process,verbal process and relational process in transitivity.In material process,China Daily gives equal attention to China and the Philippines.While in CNN,the Philippines is stressed.In verbal process,China Daily is mainly from the site of China,displaying China’s standpoint.However,in CNN,verbal process of the Philippines weights more than China.In relational process,China prefers using two modes of relational process.While in CNN,the United States uses no identifying mode.Through attributive mode,the United States makes comment that China does not follow the principles from the arbitrary court.As for modality,China Daily concentrates on modal verbs of high and medium values.China Daily has more certainty of what it reports.However,in CNN,modal verbs are mostly in medium and low values.CNN,in its reporting content,is not so certain as China Daily.In the field of thematic choice,marked theme from China Daily are mostly related to the Philippines.It emphasizes the court members,which causes readers attention on whether these members are qualified.The marked themes from CNN are of different types.Using marked theme,CNN emphasizes China’s military action,instability in disputed area,and the United States’help and contribution.Secondly,at the interpretive stage,news source is discussed.For China Daily,using specific and semi-specific sources is a way for China to show its stance directly.The words display China’s attitude towards the dispute will never be changed.For CNN,quotation is also showing the United States’stance.Through its quotation,the United States is trying to describe and testify China’s military exercises and China’s refusal to the court.Thirdly,at the explanatory stage,social factors such as culture,economy and politics are taken into consideration.China and the Philippines are as the direct involved country in the event,but the interest of the United States is influenced.What the United States does is just for its interest.Through this thesis,it explores the language features in news reports and meanwhile it will help some English learners have a keen eye in proving truthfulness of news reports and find out the hidden thought,and catch reporters’ thoughts accurately in their English news reading.