西北大学
硕士学位论文
互联网新闻英语文体特征探析
姓名:姜薇
申请学位级别:硕士
专业:外国语言学及应用语言学指导教师:季建芬
20100620
摘要
英语新闻是一种涵盖面非常广泛的综合体,主要是指以最快的速度把信息传播给大众的一种体裁。随着社会的迅猛发展,以及电脑和互联网的广泛应用,越来越多的人借
助网络获取信息资料及新闻。由此逐渐产生出互联网新闻英语文体,它逐渐形成了一种
极其重要的新闻英语文体的次文体,并把它称为“第四新闻媒体"。迄今为止,文体学
家对于报刊新闻英语做了大量的研究,但遗憾的是,对于互联网新闻英语文体特征的研
究往往只涉及某一方面,还未形成层面体系。因此,语言学家迫切需要从文体学角度出
发,对网络新闻英语进行全面立体的描述及研究,在科学技术快速发展的今天,帮助我
们更为深刻地了解新闻英语文体,高效地掌握全球信息。
本文的主要目的是:1.依据新闻英语文体理论,首先从排版、词汇、句法以及篇章四大基本层面对互联网新闻英语进行详细研究;2.分别将互联网新闻英语与报刊杂
志新闻英语、广播电视新闻英语进行分析比较研究,揭示互联网新闻英语不同于其他新
闻次语体的文体特征;3.本文将从版面编排、新闻风格、目标读者、语言特点几个方
面对不同新闻英语网站进行文体分析及研究。该研究的具体出发点如下,并且整个研究
将围绕其展开:
1.作为新闻英语的次语体之一,互联网新闻英语文体特征是否完全遵循新闻英语文体理论,如果不完全一致,其具体异同点如何体现?
2.互联网新闻英语与其他新闻英语次语体(报刊杂志新闻英语,广播电视新闻英语)相比较,其文体特征有何异同?
3.遵循互联网新闻英语文体理论前提下,不同新闻英语网站(人民日报网络版、泰晤士报在线、镜报网络版)的新闻报道是否存在一定的文体差异,引起这些差异的原
因究竟是什么?
4.导致互联网新闻英语与新闻英语,及其他新闻英语次语体存在文体特征差异的本质原因是什么?
通过分析与研究,该论文结果总结如下:
首先,互联网新闻英语在编辑排版方面,由于其网络空间的特殊性,互联网新闻英语的标题及视昕等环节都体现了利用网络作为载体的与众不同之处;在词汇、句法与
篇章方面,互联网新闻英语在遵循新闻英语基本文体特征前提之下,采用多种形式的词
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Abstract
widerangeandmainlyreferstoagenrespreadingEnglishnewsisastylethatcoversvery
theinformationtothepublicinthefastestspeed.WiⅡlthedevelopmentofsociety,computer
andintemetalewidelyused,andthenmoreandmorepeoplegetinformationandnews
andgraduallyformsanewthroughthismedium.Inthiscase,OnlineEnglishNewsappeared
sub—styleofEnglishnews,named“TheFourthNewsMedium'’.
Sofar,stylistshavedonealotforthestudyofnewspaperEnglishnews,butunfortunatelycomprehensiveandsystematicresearchonthestylisticfeaturesofOnlineEnglishNewsWas
seldomreferred.Therefore,thereisanurgentneedforcomprehensiveandmulti-dimensional
descriptionandresearchonOnlineEnglishNewsfromtheperspectiveofstylisticanalysisSO
astohelpUSunderstandthisnewEnglishgenremoredeeplyandobtaintheglobal
informationefficiently.
Themainpurposesofthisthesisale:
Firstly,thethesisisintendedtogiveadetailedstudyofOnlineEnglishNewsbasedon
thefourlevelsoflayout,vocabulary,syntax,anddiscourse,accordingtostylistictheoriesof
Englishnews;
Secondly,thethesisisorientedtomakeacomparativeanalysisofthefollowingthreeEnglishNewsgenresofOnlineEnglishNews,NewspaperEnglishNews,Radio&TV
makethedifferencesbetweenthemwi廿ltheaimofrevealingthestylisticEnglishNewsand
featuresofOnlineEnglishNews,whichisprovedtobedifferentfromtheothertwonews
sub-styles;
amongseveralmajorEnglishnews‘Thirdly,thisthesisisbrieflysketchingthedifferences
websitesfromthelevelsoflayouts,newsstyle,targetaudience,languagefeaturesSOasto
betteraccesstoglobalinformationthroughthecarrierofintemet.
Thethesisisinspiredbyandderivedfromthefollowingquestions:
1.AsoneofEnglishnewssub-genres,whetherstylisticfeaturesofOnlineEnglishNews彻lyfollowEnglishnewsstylistictheoriesornot?
2.ComparingOnlineEnglishNewstoothersub-genresofEnglishnews(newspaper
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tentativeexplorationandtheauthorhopesthatmorescholarsCallbeinspiredtodofurther
researchesonthissubjectandtheauthoralsohopesthattheresultsofthestudycallbeneficial
inprovidingreferencesandguidanceforthefutureresearchersandEnglishlearnersontheir
explorationintothestylisticfeaturesofOnlineEnglishNews.
Keywords:stylisticfeatures;Englishstylistics;EnglishNews;OnlineEnglishNews
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西北大学硕士学位论文
Introduction
Stylisticsis“thestudyofstyle”(Wales,1989:437).ItshistorycailbetracedbacktoancientGreece;however,itWaSonlyinthe1960sthatstylisticsgotwellestablished鹤a
discipline.ItsmodemdevelopmentscallberoughlydividedintotwoaSpects:general
andliterarystylistics.Literarystylisticstendsto“,咖,.toakindofstylisticswhosestylistics
focusofinterestisnotprimarilyliterarytexts,buttherefinementofalinguisticorstylistic
analysis"’(D.Burton1980:47).Itputsmoreweightontheanalysisofoccasional
characteristicsoflanguage;itestablishesstandardsoflanguagevariant;itanalyzesfeaturesof
differentlanguagesindetails;andwhat’Smoreimportantisthatitpointsoutstylisticfeatures
ofdifferentstylesoflanguage.Asanindependentsubject,stylisticsputsforwardstheoretical
framewhichiscomparativelymter罂aded,anddescriptivewayoflanguagewhichisstricter.
111eycallsci'vethepurposeofteachingandlearningforeignlanguages.Stylisticsoffersa
feasiblewayoflookingattexts,ausefulsetofmeta-linguisticterms,andsomeeffective
methodsfordoingpracticalanalysis.Thismasteryofthesethreeaspectsisveryconductiveto
theteacher’steachingworkandhelpfulforthestudentsintermsofthedevelopmentoftheir
abilitytofind,analyzeandsolveproblemsintheprocessoflearningfbrei印languages.This
hasproventobefruitfulandvalidinWesterncountries.
Thesty7leofnewsreportreferstotheliterarystyleofnewspapeLmagazine,radioand"IV
suchkindofmassmediathatisusedinthenewsreport.Inmodemsociety,newsreporthas
becomeaninseparablepartofpeople’Slifeandoneofthemostfamiliarliteraryforms.And
partsofthemhavebecomethestandardsoflanguage.Withthefastdevelopmentofscience
andtechnology,newsreportasanimportanttoolinfluencespeople’Slifeandlanguagealot,at
thesametime,itCanchangepeople’Sattitudetowardssomeevents.Newsreportalsoisail
importantmaterialforstudentstostudy.Therefore,itisnecessarytostudyandlearnthe
stylisticfeaturesofnewsreport.
Accordingtodifferentmedi如Englishnewsisdividedintoseveralparts---newspaper
Englishnews,magazineEnglishlleWS,radioEnglishnews,TVEnglishnewsand….
Meanwhile,stillwiththedevelopmentofsociety,computerandinteractspreadquicklyand
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西北大学硕士学位论文
ChapteroneLiteratureReview
1.1PreviousStudyonEnglishNews
Accordingtothedifferentmassmedia,EnglishNewsisdividedintoseveralbranches---Newspaper&MagazineEnglishNews,Radio&TVEnglishNews,NewsAgency
EnglishNewsere..Duringtheteachingpractice,moreandmorepeoplerealizethatthe
ofEnglishnewsisoneofthemostimportantmeallstoimprovingthereadingskillsofreading
students,andlearningtheoutsideworld’Sinformation.ThestyleofEnglishnewsasaspecific
subjectoflinguisticsresearchisafunctionalstylisticswhichisveryconciseanddirect.So
howtohelpEnglishlearnersmasterEnglishnewsquicklyandefficientlyhasbecomea
researchhotspot.ButthelimitationofEnglishnews’researchisthatmostofresearchesfocus
ontheEnglishnewsreports.Forexample,fromtheperspectiveofdiscourseanalysis,Francis
didacomparativestudyamongnewsreports,editorialsandreader’Sletters,whichwere
selectedfromnewspaper;HuangGuowensummarizedthreedifferentcapitalizationsofthe
newswhenhedidanalysisonEnglishnews;ZhangJian,GuoKe,ChenZhongzhuanalyzed
thestructurecharacteristicsandlanguagefeaturesfromtheperspectiveofStylistics;Yang
XueyanexploredthestylisticfeaturesofEnglisheditorials.
1.2PreviousStudyonOnlineEnglishNews
Atthebeginning,scholarsbothathomeandabroad,suchaSQinXiubai,ZhangDelu,
QianYuan,0’DonnellandTodd,allofthemtookthestylisticresearchofnewspaper&
magazineEnglishnewsaStheirresearchfocus.WhentheradioandTVemerged,some
scholarsshiftedtheresearchfocusofstylisticsfromnewspaper&MagazineEnglishnewsto
radio&TVEnglishnews,andmadecomprehensivestudiesofradio&TVEnglishnews.Due
todifferentwaysofmedia,scholarsnoticedthatnewspaper&magazineEnglishnewsand
radio&TVEnglishnews,whichexitbomsimilaritiesanddifferences.
Withthedevelopmentofworld,akiIldofnewstyleemcees---OnlineEnglishNews,
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西北大学硕士学位论文
1.4BasicElementofNews
Newsisareflectionofobjectiveissueswhichexistinourdailylife.111eoriginofnewsisthefact.111efactisprimarypart,andnewsisthesecond.Butonethingisclear:although
thefactisoriginofilews,itdoesn’tmeanthatanyfactsCanbenews.Newsfactowns
characteristicsitself,includingthreebasicelements:舶shfact,changeablefactandtypical
fact.
Newsisinformationthatpublishedinnewspapersandbroadcastedonradioandtelevisionaboutrecenteventsinthecountryorworldorinaparticularareaofactivity.There
areusuaHyfivebasicelementsinnews:who,what,why,whenandwherewhichthepublic
aremostlyconcernedof,andwhichthereporterssticktoinWfivebasicelementsritingthe
news.Anadditionalelementmaybe‘'how'’whichgivespeoplesomedetailedinformation
abouttheprocessoftheevent.Intheearlytimeofnineteenthcentury,newsreportersregarded
thesefive“W”asthebasicrulesofnewswriting.TheywereproducedbyJohninAssociated
Press.
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西北大学硕士学位论文
itsstylists.ThestudyofEnglishnewsstyleemploysthetheoriesofstylisticsandlinguisticaLs
theoreticalflame.
2.1.2TheoriesofEnglishNewsStylistics
Inthe1980s,becausethedivisionbetweenstylisticsandtraditionalrhetoricisSOvaguethatstylisticresearchismainlybasedontheoriesoftraditionalrhetoric.Traditionalrhetoric
mainlyfocusesongeneralrhetoricalmeansoflanguage,speechart,influenceandattraction
oflanguageforman,whichisthestudyoflanguagenorm.Butitoverlookstherelationship
amonglanguageexpresselements.Therefore,traditionalrhetoriccannotshowtherulesof
andprofoundly.Duringtheperiodoftime,stylisticslinguisticexpressionthoroughly
emphasizedthenaturalresulttexturallanguage,butneglectedtheculturalbackgroundof
basedonthelanguage.From1980sto1990s,stylisticstudyofEnglishnewsismainly
theoriesoftraditionalrhetoricandartisticstylistics.Andfromtheaspectofinfluencefor
readers(audiences),itstudiedtherhetoricalfeaturesofEnglish
Generative-transformgrammarisanothertheoreticalbasisforstylisticresearch.Dualism
isthefoundationofgenerative-transformgrammarthatpaysmuchattentiontoontological
researchandnaturalresultoflanguage.DualismreferstothatthecontentsandformCanbe
separated.Contentisthechoiceofmeaningwhereasstyleisperformanceofform.Through
thecomparativestudyoflinguisticagreementandstylisticvariant,weCallscethevalueof
stylistics.
Ontheaspectofwaysofstylisticanalysis,thereexistthecombinationof
dualism.Generative-transformgrammar’Sfundamentalgenerative-transformgrammarand
sentence.Anditthinksthatthelogicalmeaningofsentencecanbereplacedbyanalyticunitis
andtheirco。relationsagroupofassignedtopicstorepresent.Thesebasicassignedtopics
constructthedeep-structureofthissentence.Meanwhile,thosebasicassignedtopicsCanUSe
differentwordsorthesamewordswhichowndifferentcombinationstoexpress,whereas,do
notchangetheiroriginalmeanings.Thedifferentwaysofexpressionconstructthe
preface—structureofthissentence,whicharestylevariants.Butthetexturalanalysisisrare
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西北大学硕士学位论文
Englishnews,magazineEnglishnews,radioEnglishnews,TVEnglishnewsand....Meanwhile,still谢tllthedevelopmentofsociety,computerandinternetspreadquicklyandwidely,andthenmoreandmorepeoplegetinformationandnews.Inthiscase,OnlineEnglishNewsappeared.Gradually,itformsanewsub—styleofEnglishnews,named“TheFourthNewsMedium”.IfwewanttohelpstudentslearnthestyleofEnglishnewsanddescribeitthoroughlyandaccurately,weshouldnotonlygiveastudyofnewspaperEnglishnewsorTVEnglishnews,butalsogiveastylisticresearchofOnlineEnglishNewswhichisdifferentstylefromothers.Atsametime,wealsoneedtomakeacomparativestudyamongOnlineEnglishNewsandnewspaper&magazineEnglishnews,radio&"IVEnglishnews,SOwecanmasterthespecialstylisticfeaturesofOnlineEnglishNewsandgetathoroughunderstandingofnewsstyle.Inaddition,tolearnstylisticfeaturesofOnlineEnglishNewsisgoodtoimprovestudents’readingskills.Ⅵmat’Smoleimportant,ourworldtendstobeglobalizednowadays,students
Cantakeuseofthesevarietiesofnetresourcestoseetheworld,makethemselvesbecomeaversatilepersoninthefuture.
2.2MajorlevelsofStylisticAnalysis
Differentlinguisticselementsplaydifferentstylisticrolesinstylisticsanalysis.Thefollowingsectionwillmainly
introducethreelevels:thegraphologicallevel,lexicallevelandsyntaxlevel.
2.2.10nGraphologicalLevel
Bygraphologyis
meanttheencodingofmeaninginvisualsymbols.Deviationatthislevelseemstobemuchmoreinteresting,buthasbeensadlyneglectedinliterarydiscussioninthepast.GraphologocaldeviationCanoeetlrinanysub—areaofgraphology,suchastheshapeoftext,thetypeofprint,grammetrics,punctuation,indentation,etc.
First,thedifferentshapeofa
pieceofliteraryworkcall
bedesignedinanunconventional
waySOthatitmaybesuggestiveofacertainliterarytheme.Toillustratethispoin_t,letuslook
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西北大学硕士学位论文
isaskingwhat
haveIdonethat
Youwouldn}have
(E.E.Cummings)
Thisisashortpoemcontainingonly8linesand26wordsandiscomposedexclusivelyof
everydaywordsandexpressions.Nevertheless,itisnoteasytounderstandatafirstreading.
Thedifficultyinunderstandingthepoemiscausedbytheextremityinsyntacticdeviationin
thefirstpartofthepoemandbytheCrraphologicaldeviationasitmanifestsinthe
capitalizationofthefirstletterofcertainwordsandthede-capitalizationofthepronoun£
ThereisalottobesaidaboutthesyntacticdeviationherebutforthemomentletUSsimply
rearrangetheorderofsomewordsandlinesSOastogivesomeideaofwhatthepoemisabout,
realizingthoughthatanyalterationinsyntaxwouldmeansomechangeinmeaning.
apoisonedmolzge
whostillalive
doseStarequietly
outofthetloor
upatMe
isaskingwhat
havefdonethat
Youwouldn}have
Fromthisrearrangement,wemayseethatMeinthepoemisahumanbeingandaddresserof
thepoemfromwhosepointofviewthissceneispresented.ItisperhapsthisMethathas
poisonedthemouse.WemayalsonoticethatWhatihavedonethatYouwouldn}haveisin
factacaseoffreedirectspeech.Forclarity,letuStransferitintodirectspeechbyputtingit
intoapairofquotationmarks.
Isasking“What
havefdonethat
Youwouldn}have”
humanbein眇.NowweItisclearthenthatireferstothepoisonedmouseandYouthe
havecometOthepoint.Accordingtotheconventionofversecomposition,thefirstletterof
eachlineshouldbecapitalized.However,Cummingsherebreachestheconventionbyonly
capitalizingthefirstletteroftheopeninglineandthatoftheclosinglinesothatthetwowords
ll
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西北大学硕士学位论文
2.2.30nSyntacticLevel
fromnormal(surface)grammar.TheseincludeaSyntacticdeviationreferstodepartures
numberoffeaturessuchasunusualclausethemes,unusualphrasestructures.Inthissection,
wewillonlydiscussunusualclausethemeandunusualphrasestructure.Theinitialunitofa
clausemaybecalledit‘"theme”.Apartfromthelaststressedelementoftheclausestructure
whichmostnaturallybearstheinformationfocus,thethemeisthemostimportantpartofa
clausefromthepointofviewofitspresentationofamessageinsequence.Thethememaybe
characterizedasthecommunicativedeparturefortherestoftheclause.InEnglish,the
expectedor‘‘unmarked'’themeofamainclauseis:
1.Subjectofanindicativeclause:Shegotanewdress.
2.Auxiliaryinayes-noquestion:Didshegetanewdress?
3.Wh-elementinawh-question:Whichdressdidsheget?
4.Mainverbinallimperativeclause:Getanewdressforher.
However’theliterarywritercangobeyondthisandmayplaceanyoftherestofclauseelementsinthethematicpositioninordertoachievecertainliteraryeffect.Thethemethus
unusualandthereforecalleda‘marked’theme.Toillustratehowtheliteraryproducedis
writerusesallunusualclausethemetoachievealiteraryeffect,letusciteanexampleinthe
followingparagraph:
Myopinionofthecoaltradeonthatr^忙,.缸.thatitmayrequiretalent,butitcertainly
Mr.Micawberhas,capitalMr.Micawberhasnot.
requirescapital.Talent
(Dickens,DavidCopperfield)
Thesecondsentenceintheabove
paragraphSmadeupoftwoparallelclausesandeachclauseisinitiatedbyanounphrase,whichbyfunctionistheobjectoftheclause.Thefunctionofthe
unusualparagraphtogetherandisthusapowerfuldeviceoftextualcohesion,b)itservesto
formacontrastinmeaningbetweenthetwoparallelclauses,c)itgivesmuchemphasistothe
twowordsshiftedtotheinitialposition.
Itshouldbepointedoutatthisjuncturethatanumberofadverbialsappeartypicallyin
theinitialpositionandthereforeshouldbedisregardedinconsideringwhatthethemeofa
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