Critical Discourse Analysis of a News Report on the Belt and Road from The Guardian

【摘要】本研究選用The Guardian关于“一带一路”的新闻报道作为基本研究语料， 结合话语分析理论， 对The Guardian相关新闻报道进行批评性话语分析。

【关键词】批评话语分析；“一带一路”；《卫报》

【Abstract】The article chose the news report about Belt and Road Initiative from The Guardian as the basic material of study. It made critical discourse analysis for those news with the help of the theory of discourse analysis.

【Key words】critical discourse analysis； Belt and Road； The Guardian

【作者简介】钟珍（1992.9- ），女，汉族，福建武平人，福州大学外国语学院16级硕士研究生，专业：英语语言文学，研究方向：文学、批评话语分析。

1. Introduction

Critical discourse analysis （CDA） has been drawing more and more linguists attention since its birth in the late 1970s. As a method of text analysis， it aims to explore the hidden ideology through analyzing the linguistic features and social background of the discourse， and further reveal the relationship between language， power and ideology.

When visiting countries in Central Asia and Southeast Asia in September and October of 2013， President Xi Jinping proposed the initiative to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road， known as the Belt and Road Initiative， which has obtained the high attention of mass media at home and abroad.

The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper associated with a complex organizational structure and international multimedia presence and it is one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world， exerting influence on the Europe or even the world.

The objectives of the research are as follows： first， the research is conducted to be an initial attempt to analyze the topic of the Belt and Road Initiative from a critical perspective， and it will prove whether the application of CDA in the analysis of the related topic is effective or not. Second， the research will be used to prove the validity of the claim that language use in news discourse is value-laden and ideology-encoded.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1 Faircloughs Three-Dimensional Model

Fairclough proposes three stages in conducting critical discourse analysis： description， interpretation and explanation. He argues that all three stages are interconnected， each serving a particular purpose， all combined aims at uncovering the ideologies hidden in the discourse （1989）. Description is the stage which is concerned with the formal properties of the text， such as properties of vocabulary， textual structure. It is the first level of analysis， with text the object. Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text and interaction， with seeing the text as a product of a process of production， and as a resource in the process of interpretation. Explanation is concerned with the relationship between interaction and social context， with the social determination of the process of production and interpretation and their social effects. The conception of discourse and the three stages of critical discourse analysis are illustrated in the following figure in his book Discourse and Social Change in 1992 to describe formal properties of the text， to interpret the relationship between text and interaction， and to explain the relationship between interaction and social context.

2.2 Hallidays Systemic-Functional Grammar

Halliday （1978， 1994） claims that all languages perform simultaneously three metafuncftions， which are termed as “ideational function”， “interpersonal function” and function”.

To put it in general， the ideational function is about the speakers experience of both the real world and the inner world； the interpersonal function is a mediation of personal roles and social relationships. It focuses on the communicative function of language and refers to peoples communication with each other by the means of language， through which people to establish and keep a kind of social relationship with others； the textual function focuses on the demonstrations of the relationship between the transfers of information with the speakers communicative situation， and it refers to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text， which distinguishes from random list of sentence.

3. A Critical Discourse Analysis of the News Report

3.1 Descriptive Stage

According to Faircloughs three-dimensional model， description is the first stage. This thesis will apply Hallidays SFG to describing the seemingly-natural linguistic features， which implies underpinned ideology and power relations implicitly.

3.1.1 Transitivity

Transitivity， the foundation of representation， is one of the most vital analytical tools of ideational function. Halliday holds that the world of experience can be construed into a manageable set of process types by transitivity system； furthermore， he also identifies six process types in English language and their respective foremost participants as well as their categorical meanings. Thus， it means that there are six different process types can be chosen to express the same reality. And since transitivity system makes options available， the choice of process type indicates the writers or speakers point of view， which may be ideologically significant.

By counting carefully， the frequency of each process type employed in the news report is illustrated as follows：

Table 1 obviously shows that the distribution of process types is uneven. The material process， which has the top proportion， occupies， 52%， the most prominent position. The verbal process， accounting for 32%， has been the second one used in the sentences. Following with verbal process， metal process and relational process rank the same as the third， 8%. And there is none for behavioral process and existential process to be used.

Since material process and verbal process rank in the top one， we are going to explain it only and briefly. First， material process is a process of doing. Since the purpose of utilizing material process is to describe authentic actions and events， and the Belt and Road Initiative is a big issue that well worth describing. Generally speaking， a material process is usually associated with two inherent participant roles： obligatory actor and an optional goal. In this piece of news， we can see the obligatory actors such as “the EU”， “Xi”， “The Guardian” and “China”. However， the Belt and Road Initiative frequently occur as the optional goal. It seems like the Belt and Road Initiative is the main focus of The Guardian and The Guardian tends to understand it from its relationship among different obligatory actors rather than focusing EU itself.

3.1.2 Lexical Choices and Classification

The analysis of lexical choices is processed as follows. The top 3 nouns is collected to be made a rough analysis. It turns out that the occurrence of “the Belt and Road Initiative” and “Xi” to be at a rather higher degree than other nouns. When further analysis is made， it is shown that another word “China” is also at a very high occurrence. Some nice example can be found in this news report.

（1） The EU has dealt a blow to Chinese president Xi Jinpings bid to. . .

（2） Xi made his latest bid for global leadership on Monday. . .

（3） Xis comments came on the second and final day of a high-profile summit. . .

（4） However， in a snub to Xis rallying cry for cooperation

（5）. . . to Xis signature foreign policy initiative.

（6）. . . Hammond offered a resounding endorsement of Xis “bold and visionary project”. . .

（7）. . . Speaking at Beijings Mao-era Great Hall of the People on Sunday night，

Xi said his “project of the century” would. . .

（8）On Monday he said his plan was “open to all like-minded friends … ”.

There are 25 sentences of this news in total， while 8 sentences are about Xi which occupy 32 percent of the whole text. From the above-mentioned examples， we can see that The Guardian seems to create an atmosphere that the Belt and Road Initiative is mainly about Chinas own benefit and it is being “preaching” by Xi himself without much supporters from EU.

3.2 Interpretive Stage

The second stage proposed by Fairclough for CDA procedure is interpretation and it may be conducted through intertextuality analysis. Fairclough also points out that discourse representation is a form of intertextuality in which parts of specific texts are incorporated into a text and are usually explicitly marked with devices such as quotation marks and reporting clauses.

According to Xin Bins point of view， mass media not only can report something， but also can choose whose voice to be heard. （2005） In this news， the views of one high-level EU diplomat， an unnamed diplomat， a spokesperson for the British government， Hammond， some sceptics are reported directly or indirectly. Their opinions are almost containing the same massage： the Belt and Road Initiative is not for us but for China itself， and we feel doubtful. In the latter part of this news， although expressions of an editorial in the Beijing Youth Daily， one Chinese academic and a business professor are reported， however， these opinions seem not that persuasive.

3.3 Explanative Stage

As is mentioned before， the explanative stage of CDA is concerned with the relationship between discursive practice and social context； for media discourse， the relationship between language and ideology is uncovered. Hence， we should take the context into account.

The context of the news report on the Belt and Road Initiative is as follows. In this globalization age， China hopes that the Belt and Road Initiative will be immensely beneficial to other countries. China is built as a helpful， hard-working， and competent nation that seeks regional development and makes valuable contributions to the global investment and trade. However， in the eye of western countries， China is seen as an aggressive， unfriendly， deceitful and threatening nation.

4. Concluding Remarks

Based on Faircloughs three-dimensional framework of discourse and Hallidays Systemic-Functional linguistics， the present thesis examined a news report on the Belt and Road Initiative in The Guardian.

The analysis of the reports is conducted through description， interpretation and explanation. The major findings are as follows. First， the attitudes of The Guardian is complicated： on one hand， it does not agree or praise the Initiative； on the other hand， there exists some prejudice on the Belt and Road Initiative. Second， the study shows that as a tool of text analysis， Faircloughs three-dimensional model of discourse can reveal how the language in news reports is socially produced and constructed. The linguistic features are closely related to social contexts and are construed by particular ideologies. Third， through the power of language， the media influence the ideology of the public by providing information being edited.

However， there are also some limitation of this paper. First， instrument or software for deep and detail analysis on text is not available by now. Thus， most work is done by hand. Second， the research work can not be deep and comprehensive. This thesis can only provide a very limited viewpoint and all of the research procedures are involved with the authors ideology. Thus， this thesis can not be a completely objective study.

In short， CDA offers an interdisciplinary framework based on linguistic and social dimensions for discourse analysis. In case study， when relating linguistic features to social-cultural contexts， the researcher is expected to consider the factors that may affect “context”， which may be social， cultural， historical， or cognitive. The major findings have indicated that there exists opaque prejudice in the new report on the Belt and Road Initiative in The Guardian. Therefore， it is expected that a further research may focus on uncovering how prejudice is shown in linguistic structures and explain the possible reasons behind this from historical or cognitive perspective.

References：

[1]Fairclough，N.Language and Power[M].London&New; York： Routledge，1989.

[2]Fairclough，N.Discourse and Social Change[M].Cambridge：Polity Press，1992.

[3]Halliday，M.A.K.An Introduction to Functional Grammar[M].Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2008.

[4]Phillips T.EU Backs Away from Trade Statement in Blow to Chinas ‘Modern Silk Road Plan[N].The Guardian，2017-05-15.

[5]辛斌.批評语言学理论与应用[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社， 2005.