A contrastive rhetoric Rhetorical Study of Discourse Structure in Chinese and English News Reports

A contrastive rhetoric Rhetorical Study of Discourse Structure in Chinese and English News Reports

Dissertation in part fulfillment of the degree of Bachelor of Arts

by

Supervisor: Specialty: Sub Institution:

A.Prof. ZHOU Ying

English

School of Foreign Languages

Hebei University of Science and Technology

June, 2014

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摘 要

目前，许多学者一直以来致力于研究英汉篇章的结构特征并试图发现其异同,卡普兰经典研究之“跨文化教育中的文化思维方式”为对比修辞研究开辟了新的道路,但是其关于英语篇章结构呈现直线型与汉语篇章结构呈现螺旋型的假说也受到了广泛的质疑。

此后,许多学者循着卡普兰的研究思路进一步深入探究英汉篇章结构的差异,细化了对比研究的切入点进行研究。本文在借鉴前人研究思想和所获成果的基础上,根据对比修辞结构理论,以经济评论类篇章为语料对英汉篇章结构的异同进行分析与探讨。得出了英汉文章的篇章结构与修辞在以上一些方面确实存在差异,但是这些差异并不显著的结论。

基于这一宗旨,本文提出了以下两个研究问题: (l)英汉文章的篇章结构是否存在显著性差异?

(2)卡普兰关于直线型和螺旋型的假说在英汉的经济类文章中是否成立? 最后，作者提出可将此研究运用到新闻语篇翻译及新闻写作教学中。

关键词： 篇章结构；卡普兰假说；对比修辞结构理论

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Abstract

A host of scholars have been dedicated to exploring discourse features of English and Chinese texts and trying to find out the differences. Kaplan's classical study of \”has opened up a new route of contrastive rhetoric study, although his hypothesis that English discourse pattern features linearity while Oriental discourse pattern features circularity is disputable.

Since then, many scholars follow the Kaplan's research ideas delve further into the differences between English and Chinese discourse structure and refine the comparative study of the entry point. This paper in reference to previous research thinking and the obtained results based on, according to the contrastive rhetoric structure theory, in economic review texts as the corpus of English and Chinese discourse structure similarities and differences for analysis and discussion. Articles in English and Chinese text structure and rhetoric in some aspects differences do exist, but these differences were not significant conclusions are drawn..

(1) Are there any significant differences of discourse pattern between Chinese and English articles?

(2) Does Kaplan's hypothesis hold true in Chinese and English economic texts? At the end of the paper, the author proposes that the results of the study can be applied to the teaching of news translation and writing．

Key Words: discourse pattern, Kaplan' s Hypothesis, Rhetorical Structural Theory,

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Acknowledgement

I feel grateful to all the teachers and students who have provided assistance to me in the process of writing this thesis.

Firstly, I would like to show sincere gratitude to my supervisor professor Zhou Ying, it is her patient modification and constant advices that guide me to finish this thesis. At the same time, I get a lot in the process of writing this thesis. I know more about English major?s graduation thesis and have a further knowledge of the application of textual function in English discourse.

Secondly, my sincere thanks also goes to all my teachers who have taught me, for their instructive lectures in linguistic studies have greatly influenced my research.

Finally, I also give my special thanks to my roommates and classmates who have helped and encouraged me about my study.

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Contents

摘 要............................................................................................................... iii Abstract ................................................................................................................. iv Contents ............................................................................................................... vii I. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1

1.1 Background of the Research .................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Questions and Its Significance ................................................. 1 II. Literature Review .............................................................................................. 3

2.1 The contrastive rhetoric Rhetoric Study .................................................. 3 2.2 Discourse Structure .................................................................................. 4 2.3 The Information Model ............................................................................ 5 2.4 The Point Position .................................................................................... 5 III. Research Methodology .................................................................................... 7

3.1 Research Questions .................................................................................. 7 3.2 Data Collection ........................................................................................ 7 3.3 Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 8 IV. Results, Findings and Discussions ................................................................... 9

4.1 Contrastive Rhetoric Researches between English and Chinese Discourse................................................................................................................ 9

4.2 General Frequency of Rhetorical Relations ............................................. 9 4.3 Top Relations of contrastive rhetoric Rhetoric Distributions used in Both Chinese and English Economic Reviews ............................................................. 11 V. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 13

5.1 Major Findings of the Research ............................................................. 13 5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study ..................................... 14 References ............................................................................................................ 15

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