英语修辞与文体论文--VOA新闻分析.doc

湖南科技大学外国语学院课程学期论文课程名称：英语修辞与文体论文题目：Analyzing a News Report : A linguistic Descriptive Approach姓 名：吴真真班 级：英语教育一班学 号：1112010122学年学期：2014-2015-1Analyzing a News Report :A linguistic Descriptive Approach(By Wu Zhenzhen of Grade 2011)Abstract: News reports have a lot of things in common. They have their own special stylistic features and different reports embrace different emphasis on each feature. In this article I will analyze a specific news report by George Grow on 25 November, 2014 from VOA news entitled “New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri” in a systematical way at four linguistic level as far as stylistic description and explanation is concerned. This includes the use of picture, quotation marks and dash, short and powerful words, Arabic numerals, and so on. Headline, paragraphs, lead, and sentences are also analyzed in detailed.Key words: graphological; headlines; lexical; syntactical; text presentation; Summary 1. At the graphological levelThe use of pictures Pictures are an aid to words. In the sample news report“New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri”,a photo of police guarding the area as some buildings are set on fire after the announcement of the grand jury decision, in Ferguson, Missouri, Nov. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/David Goldman) is selected and posted by the editor to show the image of the disaster that can reflect the protesters anger to make it more vivid and convincing, which can also successfully draw attention. Eye-catching headlinesTo produce prominent eye-catching effects, the headline of the chosen new report -“New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri” is printed in bold type, and in large blue fonts that forms a sharp contrast with the news lead in smaller black type fonts.Short paragraphsShort paragraphs can facilitate reading, so apart from headline, the most obvious visual feature is the use of short paragraphs that makes it easy and convenient for the potential readers to follow. As it can be seen, we can easy to know the background and details of the new violence-the place ,the reason and the development of the event.The employment of quotation marks and dash Quotation marks are frequently employed in this news report for direct or indirect quotation of people involved in the news, making the report seem more authentic and the quotation more conspicuous. The punctuation mark dash is used twice in the sample news report: The decision was announced late Monday - more than three months after the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. , The grand jury had 12 members - all private citizens. to make explanation so that to give more specific information. 2.At the lexical levelThe frequent use of short powerful wordsIn the headline the word hit, a short and powerful word is used, which, on the one hand, can drew attention, on the other hand, can save space making the headline brief. Short powerful words can also be seen through all the report, such as shot, killed, led, riots, file, hit, stopped, spoke, called, show, ask, back, set, and so on.The use of Arabic numeralsJournalists have a preference for Arabic numerals:（1 Arabic numerals can be understood universally;（2 Arabic numerals take less time and space to be printed than English equivalents;（3 Arabic numerals can make things more reasonable.Therefore, this news use a lot of Arabic numerals whenever it comes to figures, for example, “18-year-old”, “12 members”, “10 buildings”, “30 people”, and so on. The use of names of people and placeTo make the news appear precise and concrete, lots of names of people and places are given prominence, for instance:Names of places:Ferguson, Missouri , Ferguson Police Department , etc.Names of people:Michael Brown, Darren Wilson, Bob McCulloch, Barack Obama, Jon Belmar, Eric Holder, etc.3.At the syntactical levelSentence types and complexityIn the sample news report, these are altogether 32 sentences, all of which are statements suitable for the dominant function of giving information. Besides, the writer alternate between the use of long and short, complex and simple sentences to make the reading easier and give variety to the rhythm of the article and to break the boredom of reading.The longest sentence that contains 27 words in the sample news report is: He (Michael Brown) came at him at a full charge, and that as Officer Wilson fired shots at him, Mr. Brown stopped and Officer Wilson stopped shooting. And the shortest is: So, frankly, Im heartbroken about that. which can help to express the strong feeling. The are 12 simple or short sentences, 20 long or complex sentences and as a whole, the sentences in the report are relatively long, some of which are long enough to form a paragraph. This help the editor to convey the details of the event and the report to contain as much information as possible.Frequent use of appositional phrasesAppositional phrases are frequently used in the news report to save space and time. “police officer Darren Wilson”, “President Barack Obama”, “Saint Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar”, “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holde”, and so on. Tense in headlineThe headline “New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri” of the chose news report is written in the simple present tense to show the freshness of the news as if the editor is unfolding the scene before the readers eyes, while the simple past tense is used in the body to tell a past fact. 4. At the semantic levelAnalysis of the features of journalistic English at this level mainly focuses on the realization and interpretation of the meaning of the sample news report.The headlineHeadlines play a vital role in drawing readers attention to the news story. In the sample news report, the editor designs on headline. In the straight headline“New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri” , five simple powerful words are used to convey a “where, what”. Brief but containing important and main informationThe leadThe opening paragraph of the news report is the lead-the gist of the whole message, which is an important character of news reporting. In the simple sentence ,we can get answers to the key questions: What: new violenceWhere:Ferguson, MissouriWhy : An American grandjuryruling: no charge of a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed African American teenagerHow:His death led to weeks of angry demonstrations andriotsin Ferguson. 5. Text presentationThe sample report of the news event goes in a logical order: The most important thing comes first, then follow the detailed information in a logical order:(1. summarize the event(2. Describe the event in detail6. SummaryIn this article, I have analyzed a report based on stories from VOAs News Division entitled “New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri” in a systematical way at four linguistic level as far as stylistic description and explanation is concerned. ReferencesLeech, G. N. & M. H.Short. 1981. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. New York: Longman. Black,Elizabeth.2006.Pragmatic Stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Transcendentalism Online. Transcendentalism Online. 2014-11-25董启明.2008.新编英文体学教程.北京：外语教学与研究出版社钱媛.1991.实用英语文体学.北京：北京师范大学出版社Appendix New Violence Hits Ferguson, Missouri By George Grow 25 November, 2014An American grandjuryruling has resulted in new violence in the city of Ferguson, Missouri. The jurors decided not to chargea white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed African American teenager last August. The decision was announced late Monday - more than three months after the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. His death led to weeks of angry demonstrations andriotsin Ferguson.The grand jury had 12 members - all private citizens. Their job was to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against police officer Darren Wilson. The grand jury decidedthere was not probable cause to charge him in the death of Michael Brown.Bob McCulloch is a lawyer for the Saint Louis County government.They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against officer Wilson and returned a no true bill on each of the five indictments.Mr. McCulloch said the police officer claimed he was hit by Michael Brown, and that they struggled. He saidwitnessestold the grand jury that the teenager took aggressive action against the officer.He (Michael Brown) came at him at a full charge, and that as Officer Wilson fired shots at him, Mr. Brown stopped and Officer Wilson stopped shooting. And as Mr. Brown started charging at him again, those were his words, his testimony, Mr. Wilson started shooting again.After the grand jury decision was announced, President Barack Obama spoke at the White House. He called for calm and appealed to police to show care and restraint in controlling peaceful protest.I join Michaels parents in asking that anyone who protests this decision do so peacefully.But the reaction was anything but peaceful back in Missouri. A crowd gathered near the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department. Police officers used smoke and tear gas to break up the demonstration. Some protesters reacted by setting fire to police cars and throwing objects at officers.Saint Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the protesters set fire to more than 10 buildings, and that most were destroyed.Those are businesses that may never co