中英文财经新闻报道中人际意义实现的对比研究 —以中国《财经》杂志和英国《经济学人》为例

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Definition ofFinancial News

Financial news, as an important channel to know about economic activities, can date back to  the  15th  century,  when Venice  Newspaper,  one  of  the  earliest  newspapers,  was  to provide  business  intelligence.  Actually,  it  is  only  in  a few  decades  that  financial  news reports have become the main content of the news media. 

As  for  the  definition  of  financial  news,  there  is  no  acknowledged  one  so  far.  It  is generally believed that  financial news is one kind  of  specialized  news relative to  social news,  entertainment  news,  sports  news and  so on. It came into being  with  the emerging capital  markets  and  is  the  product  of  the  development  of  market  economy.  People normally  comprehend  financial  news  from  both  a  broad  sense  and  a  narrow  sense. Financial news, in a broad sense, refers to all the social and economic activities and the economy-related  fields,  including  production,  consumption and  various  relevant  fields. Financial  news,  in  a  narrow  sense,  focuses  on  capital  markets,  financial  markets and factor  markets  relating  to  investment,  observing  and  reporting  financial  activities  from the perspective of financial capital markets and investors. (Zhou Hui, 2008)

One  definition  that  I  agree  with  is  given  by  Professor  Li  Benqian  (2006)  in  the School of Journalism of Fudan University who defines financial news as the latest reports on  economic activities, phenomena and  decisions.  Specifically speaking, there are three types  of  financial  news  objects  according  to  Professor  Li:  the  first  type  is  relevant decisions,  reports  and  arrangements  made  by  the  government  agencies.  Although  the subjects  of  the  trends and  facts  are  not  directly  involved  in  the  market,  their  behavior exerts  profound  influences  on  the  markets; the  second  type  is  industry  trends  and phenomena. In the modern society, companies are the most important subjects of market economy. Thus, industry reports are company reports to a large extent; and the third type is capital and financial fields, which can be further classified into insurance, stocks, funds, bonds, banks and so on.

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1.2 Rationale of the Present Study

As  we all know, it  has  become increasingly crucial  for  people  to acquire  information in order  to  make  wise decisions.  Magazines,  as  one  of  the  main  forms  of  information sources,  are  of  great  importance  and significance  in  our  daily  life,  which  can  provide people with a wide range of news reports about what is taking place nationwide and even worldwide.  One  important  type  of  news  in  the  magazines  is  financial  news,  which conveys business information, reflects economic trends and influences people?s economic life.

Among  the  various  sub-varieties  of  news  discourses,  financial  news  discourse  is selected  as  the  subject  of  the present  study  due  to  its  significance  and  distinctive characteristics.  People  often  rely  on  financial  news  reports to  get  information  on important  government  policies,  industry  trends,  capital  and  financial  markets  so  as  to make  decisions  about  economic  activities  and  eventually  succeed  in  them.  Apart  from being  informative, financial news  reports  are  also  ideological,  as  they  are  socially  and culturally  constructed. It is by no means right to believe that  financial  news reports are merely  unbiased  reflection  of  the  financial  events.As  a  matter  of  fact,  ideology is explicitly fused into the wording of the financial news reports, which takes account of the standpoints and attitudes of the nation towards international events as well as the nation?s social-cultural factors. As a consequence, financial news reports are worthy of systematic and profound analysis in order to reveal different nations? ideology.

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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Studies on Interpersonal Meaning

In  modern  society,  communication  and  interaction  among  people  are  inevitable.  By communicating  and interacting  with  each  other,  people  establish  and  maintain relationships.  In  the  meanwhile,  people  also  try  to use  language  to  influence  others? opinions and attitudes. Under such circumstances, the meaning of language is referred to as interpersonal meaning.

According  to  Thompson  (2008),  Language  is  used  to  interact  with  people,  to establish  and  maintain  relations with  them,  to  influence  their  behaviors,  to  express  our viewpoints on things in the world, and to elicit or change theirs opinions. It embodies the relationship  between  the  speaker\writer  and  the  listener\reader  and  confined  by the context where the language is used.

2.1.1 Studies on Different Approaches to Interpersonal Meaning

Although  Systemic  Functional  linguists  take  the  lead  in  the  study  of  interpersonal meaning,  interpersonal meaning is  not  merely  restricted  within  the  framework  of functional  linguistics(Li  Zhanzi,  2002:1).  It  has  also  been observed  and  researched  by various linguists in other fields for a long time.

The  concept  of  interpersonal  meaning  was  first  proposed  by  the  Russian  linguist Bakhtin (1984), who holds that “meaning is the effect of interaction between speaker and listener  via  the  material  of  a  particular  sound  complex. It is  like  an  electric  spark  that occurs  only  when  two  different  terminals  are  hooked  together.”  (Bakhtin, 1984:103). Bakhtin?s statements reveal the interactive nature of meaning construction, which arouses great enthusiasm for the future study of interactive aspect of meaning.

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2.2 Studies on Contrastive Discourse Analysis at Home and Abroad

Contrastive  discourse  analysis  is  a  combination  of  contrastive  linguistics  and  discourse analysis, which mainly deals with systematic comparison of two or more languages with  discourse  analytical  approaches.  Compared  with contrastive  linguistics  and  discourse analysis that have grown immensely in the past decades, contrastive discourse analysis is a relatively new linguistic branch (Nie Zhe, 2006).

A number of foreign scholars have made great contributions to contrastive discourse analysis. For instance, Hartmann (1980) introduced a term “contrastive textology” for the theoretical construction of contrastive discourse analysis.

In  2001,  Basil  Hatim  follows  Hartmann?s  idea  and  strongly  holds  that  “doing discourse  analysis  without  a contrastive  base  is  as  incomplete  as  doing  contrastive analysis  without  a  discourse  base  and  that  translation  is an  optionally  appropriate framework  within  which  the  entire  enterprise  of  languages  in  contrast  may  be  usefully dealt  with”  (Hatim,  2001:123).Hatim  makes  an  attempt  to  establish  links  among contrastive linguistics, discourse analysis and translation theory and tries to find out areas of common interest in his book Communications across Cultures: Translation Theory and Contrastive and Text Linguistics in which he carries out a contrastive discourse analysis between English and Arabic translation.

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CHAPTER THREETHEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................. 19

3.1 Halliday?s Model of Interpersonal Meaning ............ 19

3.1.1 Mood System .............. 19

3.1.2 Modality System ............... 22

CHAPTER FOURCONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ................ 39

4.1 Contrastive Analysis of Mood System .......... 39

4.1.1 Contrastive Analysis of Types of Mood ............. 39

CHAPTER FIVECONCLUSION REMARKS .................. 85

5.1 Summary of Major Findings ................ 85

CHAPTER FOUR CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Contrastive Analysis of Mood System

According  to  Li  (2002:25),  Mood  is  the  core  of  exchange  and  the  major  element  for analyzing  interpersonal meaning  within  the  Systemic  Functional  Grammar  framework, which  can  best reveal  the relationship between  the speech  participants. Therefore,  what follows is a contrastive analysis of the types of Mood and metaphors of Mood in Chinese and English financial news reports and interpretation of interpersonal meaning of various types of Mood.

4.1.1 Contrastive Analysis of Types of Mood

Mood  system  expresses  basic  speech  functions  of  statement,  question,  offer  and command,  which  are  defined by  two  primary  speech  roles:  giving  or  demanding information  or  goods  &  services.  Generally  speaking, statement  is  expressed  by declarative Mood, question by interrogative Mood and command by imperative Mood.

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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION REMARKS

5.1 Summary of Major Findings

Although numerous scholars have conducted discourse analysis of English financial news reports,  few  researches  have been  conducted  on  Chinese  financial  news  discourses  and even  less  was  made  on  the  contrastive  analysis between  Chinese  and  English  financial news reports from the perspective of interpersonal meaning. Therefore, the present thesis attempts  to  explore  the  realization  of  interpersonal  meaning  in  Chinese  and  English financial news reports based on Systemic Functional Grammar. On basis of the integrated theoretical framework of Halliday?s model of interpersonal meaning, Martin?s appraisal theory and Hofstede?s Culture Dimension, the present study aims to examine linguistic resources employed by the journalists to interact and construct relations with the readers in Chinese and English financial news reports respectively and find out their similarities and differences when realizing interpersonal meaning. 

In accordance  with the research  questions of the  present  study,  we have  concluded the following findings:

Firstly, in terms of Mood system, it is found that financial news reports mainly play three kinds of speech roles, namely, giving information, demanding actions and creating dialogue between the journalists and the readers. By exploring how various Mood types and metaphors of Mood are applied to fulfill those speech functions in both Chinese and English financial news reports,  the  similarities and differences in realizing interpersonal meaning  are  revealed.  To  be  more specific,  the  similarity  lies  in  the  overwhelmingly frequent use of declarative Mood to provide abundant and latest financial information for the readers, which is in line with the communicative aim of financial news reports. As for the differences,  Chinese  journalists  mainly  play  the  non-reciprocal  role  of information-provider by use of a wealth of declaratives while English journalists tend to employ more interrogatives to create a dialogic atmosphere and engage the readers in the dynamic interaction with them. In addition, the journalists in the Chinese financial news reports  prefer  to use  exclamatives  to  arouse  attention  from  the  readers  while  the journalists  in  the  English  financial  news  reports are  prone  to  use  imperatives  to  solicit actions in a direct and straightforward way. The reason for different Mood choices is that China  is  a  large-power-distance  culture  where  there  is  a  high  level  of  class  distinction whereas Britain is a small-power-distance culture where equality is emphasized. 

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