Lecture 8 News report(3)文体学新闻报导

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8.2 Semantic Features
• Compared with other varieties of language, news report has distinct semantic features as follows: • 1. Wide range of coverage • News report can cover any event in any field, whether specialized or non-specialized. There is virtually nothing that cannot be a news focus.
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• This way of writing is called ‗Highlighting Method’, and the order in which newsworthy facts are orgabnized is called ‗logical order‘. The order of importance is measured by reader appeal. • This is the essential difference between journalistic writing and ordinary narrative prose.(The narrative prose writer usurally follows time order and gradually builds a climax. )
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• functional tenor: • The general function of all newspapers is to send news to the masses accurately and quickly. • Different newspapers differ greatly: • -- formal and official: targetted at welleducated readership. The focus is on accuracy and objectivity. • -- light, humorous and entertaining: to appeal to common readers with interesting events, anecdotes, stange events, etc.
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• In terms of sequence, news report always tells the most important things first. • The events are seldomly arranged in time order. Instead, they are in the order of their ―newsworthiness‖, with the most noteworthy flashed before the reader in the headline and the guide/ lead, as contrasted with the body of the story.
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• --- by reference to previous subject matter, as is shown in [7.1] on P111 • A Philippine Airlines plane… • The Airbus A320… • The plane… … and several people were taken to a hospital… • Some have only anxiety reaction…
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• 2. Stress on objectivity • ―To tell the truth‖ is the principle and goal of news report. • Therefore, on the surface, news report appears to be partial or neutral in tone and stress facts. • However, news report can still convey the attitude, the viewpoint and even prejudice of news reporter or editor through the arbitrary choice of material, as well as careful choice of words.
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• The basic structure of the headline is a sentence, simple or complex ([7.6] on P112). It is very important to make headline novel, simple, unique and immediate so as to arouse readers‘ interest in reading on. for that purpose, headlines are most noted for: • 1) frequent occurrence of minor sentences, including
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An Analysis on Field, Tenor and Mode
• Field: varied—politics, military affairs, economy, culture, medicine, science entertainment … • Mode: oral or written • Personal Tenor: jounalist vs masses , distant
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• 3. Meaning contraction and deductive method • The need to convey the most meaning within the least space and time makes meaning contraction necessary and important device in news report. • It employs deductive method, i.e. first providing the general knowledge and then the particular and detailed information.
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8.1 General Features
• Whether in oral or written form, due to limited time and space, news report has to use as little time or space as possible to convey as much information as possible, for that purpose, it has to • --- compress the information and select the most important part and
Lecture Eight
News Report
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• News report refers to a general variety of language which functions to inform people what is happening in the region, country and the world by mass media. Nhomakorabea18
• • • •
More examples: China Launches (a) Space Satellite Navy Harrassment Probe (was) Stymied (The Number of ) Homicide (Now Stands) 3 Times National Average
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• 4. Clarity and Simple way of transition • On the whole, the transition in newspaper is clear and simple for smooth reading and understanding of readers. • This is achieved • --- by directly expressing the meaning and • --- through the obvious relatedeness between paragraphs within a story, or • --- with the use of connectives such as also, on the other hand, meanwhile, etc.
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8.3 Distincitive Text Structures
• 8.3.1. Three-part structure and sequence of logical order • The prominent characteristic of news report in terms of text structure is its threepart structure: • --- headline; • --- introduction / guide / lead • --- the body. • See example [7.1] on P111
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• 1. Headline • Any news must contain a headline. Sometimes, a subtitle is added to the headline as an optional element. • See examples [7.2]--[7.4] on P112