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A Critical Discourse Analysis of Grammatical Metaphor in Financial News Discourse

Author: MaRanRan
Tutor: KangGuangMing
School: Shandong Agricultural University
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: critical discourse analysis grammatical metaphor financial news discourse appreciation of renminbi American broadsheets
CLC: H315
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2013
Downloads: 16
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Abstract

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) aims to reveal the relationship between language,power and ideology through analyzing linguistic phenomenon, especially the prejudice,discrimination and distortion of facts, which people have been accustomed with. News report,as an important way for modern people to observe society and obtain information, has drawnmany CDA scholars’ attention due to its huge influence on shaping public opinion. Recentlyaffected by the financial crisis, issue of appreciation of renminbi (RMB) becomes the focus ofdomestic and foreign newspapers. Considering that research on financial news discourse isrelatively less, the present study takes news reports about appreciation of RMB by theAmerican broadsheet as the research object.The study mainly adopts the qualitative method to conduct critical discourse analysis toten news reports selected from three American broadsheets—New York Times, WashingtonPost and the Wall Street Journal. By drawing on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model andthe analytical tool of Halliday’s Grammatical Metaphor (GM), the author mainly explores thefollowing questions: Which kind of grammatical metaphor is preferable in news reports on“appreciation of RMB”? How do they play function in the news reports? What is the ideologyhidden in the metaphorical forms? And what are the political factors that affect the reports onthis issue?The analysis is conducted in three steps: description, interpretation and explanation.Firstly, the linguistic features of the discourse are probed through analyzing the ideational andinterpersonal grammatical metaphor. Secondly, the interaction between reporters and theirreaders are explored in terms of the four questions:“What’s going on?”,“Who’s involved?”,“In what relations?”, and “What’s the role of language?”. Thirdly, the social context isdiscussed so as to explore the power relations and ideology in the discourse.The research findings show that on the surface of fair and objective, financial newsdiscourse is also influenced by the ideology and thought of certain interest group. In the tennews reports selected, various kinds of linguistic devices have been employed to construct anAmerican government image of peace and democracy and to conceal its hegemonic ideas andpolitics.The findings provide implication for the development of China-American relations andfor the making of monetary policy in our country. It is clearly showed to us the real aim ofAmerica in forcing RMB appreciation and we should make proper monetary policy whichconforms to the actual situation in China, and maintain our monetary independence and development. This study also provides enlightenment for College English reading teachingpractice, i.e. teachers should not take language as a pure information transmitter to teach,more attention should be paid on the role of ideology which intervenes in the political,economic and cultural life.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one introduces the background, researchquestion, purpose and significance, methodology and organization of this study. Chapter tworeviews the studies of critical discourse analysis and grammatical metaphor carried out both athome and abroad. Chapter three briefly states the theoretical framework and analytical tooladopted in this study. In chapter four the ten news reports are analyzed by drawing ongrammatical metaphor, and Fairclough’s three-dimensional model is used as framework tomake a discussion. Chapter five summarizes the whole thesis, providing findings to theresearch questions raised in chapter one and presenting the implications of the study. Theauthor also points out the limitations of this study and gives suggestions for further research.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Grammatical Metaphor in Financial News Discourse

Abstract

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