新闻英语的词汇特征及其词汇衔接手段_任进.docx

《新闻英语的词汇特征及其词汇衔接手段_任进.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《新闻英语的词汇特征及其词汇衔接手段_任进.docx（60页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、 The Lexical Features and Cohesive Devices of News English Ren Jin Supervisor Professor Wu Xianyou A Dissertation Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of M. A. in English Language & Literature SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CHONGQING NORMAL UNIVERSITY April, 2008 Acknowledgem

2、ents My deepest gratitude and heartfelt respect go first to my supervisor, Professor Wu Xianyou, whose insightful guidance, constructive criticism and sustained encouragement are essential to the accomplishment of this thesis. Without his painstaking work and attentive supervision, the completion of

3、 this thesis would have been impossible. I am extremely grateful to him for his thought-provoking lectures on stylistics as well. * Special thanks should be extended to the teachers of my M. A. courses. They are Professor Wu Nian, Professor Xie Yingguang, Professor Zhang Rongjian, Professor He Wei,

4、Professor Dong Hongchuan, Professor Guo Jukun, Associate Professor Jiang Xianju, and Associate Professor Yang Jie. Their earnest teachings and invaluable suggestions are of great help for me to frame my knowledge as a postgraduate. I am also greatly indebted to my parents who have kept me going with

5、 their love and support, without which it is impossible for me to pursue my study, let alone the present thesis. 重庆师范大学硕士学位论文 Abstract Abstract News plays an important role in peopled daily life. It is with news that we get to know what is happening around us, in other parts of the country, and thro

6、ughout the world. Apart from the need of acquiring information, now so many English learners are reading English newspapers and listening to English newscasts to study English. Being a variety of English, news English does have its own linguistic features. In order to read English news more efficien

7、tly and accurately; it is necessary for English learners to have the essential knowledge of news English, such as the lexical features and the lexical cohesive devices. Based on the previous studies, with examples taken from English newspapers both at home and abroad and also from the Internet, this

8、 thesis aims to explore the lexical features of news English and their stylistic effects; and also the lexical cohesive devices employed in news English and their functions. As regards the lexical futures of news English, the findings of this research suggest that set expressions, short words, abbre

9、viations, neologisms, borrowed words, jargon, allusions and euphemisms axe frequently used, which always cause certain stylistic effects. Set expressions are largely employed for their brevity and flexibility as well as the strong flavor of journalese; short words and abbreviations can increase the

10、readability of news reports with their colloquial flavor; neologisms, borrowed words and jargon can enliven news English, making the language more colorful and vigorous; allusions can make news reports more vivid and thought-provoking with their cultural connotations; euphemisms are implicit in mean

11、ings, thus widely accepted by readers. Generally speaking, all these lexical features contribute much to a vivid and economical style of news English. As regards the lexical cohesion of news English, the findings suggest that a great number of lexical cohesive devices are employed in news English, e

12、specially repetition, synonyms, antonyms, superordinates and cohesive chains. By repetition, the theme of the news report can be strengthened; synonyms, superordinates and hyponyms cohere with each other to avoid unnecessary repetition, and also help to make news reports more concrete and precise; c

13、ohesive chains interact with each other to form a semantic unit of the news text. In short, various lexical cohesive devices contribute much to the coherence of English news texts. Key Words: news English, lexical features, lexical cohesive devices, stylistic effects, coherence i 重庆师范大学硕士学位论文 中文摘要 中

14、文摘要 新闻在人们日常生活中扮演着重要角色。人们通过新闻来了解身边以及国内 外的新事物和新动态。除了获取最新信息，很多的英语学习者通过阅读英语报刊 , 收听英语新闻来学习英语。新闻英语是英语的变体之一，具有独特的语言特征。 为了能更有效更准确地理解新闻英语，英语学习者有必要掌握相关的基本知识， 如词汇特征及词汇衔接手段。 本文在已有的研究基础上，从国内外的英语报纸及互联网上选取大量例证， 旨在研究新闻英语在词汇层的典型语言特征及其文体效果，以及新闻英语中所使 用的词汇衔接手段及其在新闻语篇中的作用。 研究发现，新闻英语中频繁出现新闻套语、短词、缩略词、新词、借词、行 话，典故用语以及委婉语。新

15、闻套语简洁灵活，极具新闻文体特色；短词和缩略 词口语化程度高，增强了新闻的可读性；新词、借词以及行话为新闻增添新鲜感， 显示出新闻英语的活力：典故用语文化内涵丰富，生动具体，发人深省；委婉语 语义含蓄，易于接受。总的来说，这些词汇特征共 同赋予了新闻英语生动、简练 的独特风格。 新闻英语的词汇衔接手段灵活多样，常见的有重复、同义词、上义词以及衔 接链。词项重复可以起到强调，突出新闻主题的作用；同义词及上下义词之间彼 此呼应既避免了不必要的重复，同时也有利于新闻报道的细致具体；衔接链之间 彼此呼应，相互作用，促进了语义的完整统一。总的来说，词汇衔接手段形式多 样，有效地促进了新闻英语语篇的连贯。

16、 关键词：新闻英语，词汇特征，词汇衔接手段，文体效果，连贯 重庆师范大学硕士学位论文 Contents Contents Abstract . I 中文摘要 . . II Contents . Ill Chapter 1 Introduction . 1 1.1 Aims and Significance of This Research. . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Data Collection and Methodology . . . . . 2 1.3 Layout of This Thesis . . . . . . . 2 Chapter 2 Literature R

17、eview . 4 2.1 Fundamentals of News . . . . . . . . .4 2.1.1 Definitions of News . 4 2.1.2 Functions and Basic Requirements of News Reporting. . 4 2.2 News English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.3 Previous Studies on News English. . . . . . . . 5 Chapter 3 Theoretical Foundation . . . 7 3.1 Stylisti

18、cs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 3.1.1 Style . 7 3.1.2 Stylistics . 9 3.1.3 Stylistic Analysis . l 3.1.4 Potential Style Markers: Lexical Choice . 11 3.2 Lexical Cohesion . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.2.1 Text and Texture . 12 3.2.2 Cohesion and Coherence . 12 3.2.3 Halliday & Hasans Lexical Cohesion

19、. 16 3.3 Summary. . 19 Chapter 4 The Lexical Features of News English. . . . . 21 4.1 Set Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.2 Short Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 III f - 重庆师范大学硕士学位论文 Contents 4.3 Abbreviations . . ，出 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.3.1 Clipped words . . . . . . 23 4.

20、3.2 Acronyms & Initialisms . . . . . 24 4.4 Neologisms . . . . . . . 26 4.4.1 Existing Words with Extended Meanings . . 26 4.4.2 Coinages . . . . . . 27 4.5 Borrowed Words . . . . . . . * . . . .*.31 4.6 Jargon . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . 3 2 4.7 Allusions . . . . . . . . 33 4.8 Euphemisms . . .

21、 . . . . . . . . . 35 4.9 Summary . . . . . 36 Chapter 5 The Lexical Cohesive Devices of News English . . . . 38 5.1 Sample Analysis 1 . . . . . . . . 38 5.1.1 Repetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3S 5.1.2 Synonyms or Near Synonyms . 39 5.1.3 Superordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 5.1.4 Ant

22、onyms . . . . . . . . 41 5.1.5 Cohesive Chains . . . . . . . 42 5.2 Sample Analysis 2 . . . . . . . 43 5.2.1 Repetition . 43 5.2.2 Synonyms or Near Synonyms . 44 5.2.3 Superordinates . 44 5.2.4 Cohesive Chains . 44 5.3 Summary . . . . . 45 Chapter 6 Conclusion. . . . . . . 46 References . . . . . .

23、. . . . . 48 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 IV 重庆师范大学硕士学位论文 Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 1 Introduction With the development of highly-informative society and widespread cooperation and communication among countries, mass media take the responsibility of information transference. New

24、ideas and events turn up at any moment and they are best spread in mass media which include newspapers, magazines, radios, TV, etc. Many of us have formed the habits of reading newspapers, listening to newscasts, and watching news programs on TV, etc. Through news, we get to know what is happening a

25、round us, both at home and abroad. We have come to realize that news plays an important role in peopled daily life. Moreover, English news, nowadays, has become the window through which all the people in the world get to know the world. Apart from the need of acquiring information, now so many Engli

26、sh learners are reading English newspapers and listening to English newscasts to study English. However, non-native speakers of English, though confronted with easy access to English newspaper, find it difficult to fully understand its language, i.e. news English, compared with what they have learnt

27、 in textbooks. There may be some reasons, and one of them is that non-native speakers of English are short of essential knowledge of news English, which is a variety of English and has its own linguistic features. So it is both necessary and significant to make a relatively systematic and objective

28、study of the linguistic art of news English. This chapter serves as the introduction of this thesis by providing the necessary information. The author will first introduce the scope and aims of this research and its significance, then the way to collect data and the research method. And the last par

29、t of this chapter is the layout of this thesis. 1.1 Aims and Significance of This Research The research of this thesis is narrowed down to study the lexical features and lexical cohesion of news English. There exist three main reasons for doing this research. First, all living languages are constant

30、ly changing, and the changes that are constantly going on can be first seen in their vocabulary: old words die out, new words are added, and those existing words often carry some new meanings. All these changes are constantly seen in news reports and may well confuse a great number of English learne

31、rs. Second, in order to fully understand news reports, readers are well advised to 重庆师范大学硕士学位论文 Chapter 1 Introduction know some particular linguistic features of news English and their special stylistic values, especially those lexical features and lexical cohesive devices. Third, although many scholars have investigated news English a lot, little work has been done on a systematic study of the lexical features and lexical cohesion of news English. So the aims of this research are in the following; (1) To explore the lexical features o