20 Xi’s speech on China’s V-Day commemoration highlights aspiration for peace (9/5/2015) Xinhua

21 Remember days past to build a better future (9/3/2015) China Daily

22 Foreign troops marching in unity in Beijing parade (9/4/2015) China Daily

23 Xi reduces troops, pledges peace (9/4/2015) China Daily

24 China reduces forces as parade marks 70th anniversary of WWII victory (9/5/2015) China Daily

1。4 Research Methodology

Critical Discourse Analysis will be used to analyze news reports。 Among these studies, Fairclough’s Three-dimension Model will be used to analyze the text, discursive practices and social practices of the news discourse under the analytical discourse method: description, interpretation and explanation。 The “text” dimension refers to the linguistic features of a discourse, spoken or written。 The “discursive practice” dimension includes the production (new texts produced from the existing texts), distribution, consumption (related texts are always connected together to give specific understandings) of text and their inter-textual and inter-discursive relationship。 The “social practice” dimension refers to the outside world that the discourse belongs to, in some aspects, also called as social context。 Intertextual Approach to Reported Speech, such as vocabulary, cohesion, and text structure, will be paid more attention to。 By analyzing the relation between texts, news discourse and social-cultural background, the hidden ideologies behind news discourse will be revealed。论文网

Reporting modes, reporting verbs and news sources will be analyzed。 Reporting modes will be pided into two categories, namely Direct Speech (direct quotations) and Indirect Speech (indirect quotations)。

Reporting verbs will be classified into three categories: positive reporting verbs, negative reporting verbs and neutral reporting verbs。 The analysis of reporting verbs will be based on Geis’s classification。 Positive reporting verbs include “acknowledge, agree, praise, propose, emphasize, note, maintain, etc。”。 Negative reporting verbs include “denounce, argue, assail, label, dispute, etc。”。 Neutral reporting verbs include “say, tell, etc。” 

The analysis of news sources will be based on Xin Bin’s classification, including: a)。 Specified news sources: the original speech speaker is presented by the reporter directly; b)。 Unspecified news sources: the original speech speaker is not presented by the reporter directly, but vaguely, such as “… said the China News Service, a state-run agency”; c)。 Unmentioned sources: such as “It is said/reported/learned …”, “There w ere reports …

II Literature Review

Reported speech is an integral aspect of news discourse。 It is usually used to distinguish what the reporter writes and expressions quoted from others。 Reporters often use reported speech to strengthen the reliability and objectivity of new reports, with its number adjusted according to the styles and contents。 Geis (1987:80) says that “a news report on some event will normally consist of two things: descriptions of events---what has happened, is happening, or may happen---and descriptions of talk---what people have said (or sometimes, what people haven’t said) in connection with what has happened, is happening, or may happen。

However, the objectivity of the news reporting is questioned。 The essential feature of reported speech is reflexivity, that is to say people use reconstructed language to express primary language。 People not only transmit information, but also make comment on it, criticize and even question it。 Reported speech in news not only exerts influence on people but also manipulates people to think critically (Xin Bin, 2005:83)。 It is the news reporter who determines the information or the content to be transmitted。 Geis (1987:10) points out that “perhaps the single most important power of the press is its capacity to say what the important issues at any given time are and to determine whose voices will be heard on any given issue”。 Every piece of news reveals the inner attitudes, intentions of the reporter。 There are hidden connections between language, power, and ideologies (Fairclough, 2003)。 Fairclough (1988: 125) also mentions that “it is through discourse and other semiotic practices that ideologies are formulated, reproduced, and reinforced”。 文献综述