灾难新闻中数字用语的顺应性阐释毕业论文Word文档格式.docx

1、List of Abbreviations xCHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Objectives of the Present Study 2 1.2 Need for the Present Study 3 1.3 Significance of the Present Study 4 1.4 Overview of the Thesis 6CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1 Number Expressions in Communication 7 2.2 Hedges: Definitions, Classificati

2、ons, and Functions 8 2.2.1 Definition of hedges 8 2.2.2 Classification of hedges 9 2.2.3 Functions of hedges in news reporting 11 2.3 Studies on Numbers in News Reporting 11 2.3.1 Functions of numbers in news reporting 12 2.3.2 Ways to express numbers in news 13 2.4 Subjectivity and Involvement in N

3、ews Reporting 14 2.4.1 Subjectivity and involvement 14 2.4.2 Devices to convey involvement 16 2.4.3 Studies on involvement in news reporting 17 2.5 Adaptation Theory and Its Application 19 2.6 Summary 21CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research Questions 23 3.2 Data Collection 24 3.2.1 Source of the

4、 data 24 3.2.2 Process of data collection 25 3.3 Data Analysis 32CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 34 4.1 NEs in Disaster News: Density and Frequency 34 4.2 The Use of NEs and the Nature of Disasters 37 4.3 The Expressions of Involvement Together with NEs 42 4. 4 Similarities and Differences betwe

5、en NIC and NIE 46 4. 4.1 Comparison of the distribution of NEs in NIC and NIE 46 4. 4.2 Comparison of the use of NEs and the nature of disasters 48 4.4.3 Comparison of the expressions of involvement together with NEs 49 4. 5 Summary 51CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION 52 5.1 Summary of the Study 52 5.2 Major

6、Findings from the Research 52 5.3 Implications of the Study 54 5.4 Limitations of the Study 55 5.5 Recommendations for Future Research 55REFERENCES 57APPENDICES 63List of TablesTable 3.1 NEs in Disaster News 31Table 3.2 Clauses and NEs in Disaster News 32Table 4.1 Density of Overall NEs in Disaster

7、News 34Table 4.2 Frequencies of Overall NEs in Disaster News 35Table 4.3 Density and Nature of NEs in Disaster News 37Table 4.4 Frequencies and Nature of NEs 38Table 4.5 Involvement Markers in Disaster News 43Table 4.6 Density of NEs in NIC and NIE 46Table 4.7 Frequencies of NEs in NIC and NIE 47Tab

8、le 4.8 Density of NEs and the Nature of Disasters in NIC and NIE 48Table 4.9 Frequencies of NEs and the Nature of Disasters in NIC and NIE 49Table 4.10 Involvement Markers in NIC and NIE 50List of FiguresFigure 2.1 The Taxonomy of Hedges （He, 2003, p. 152） 10Figure 2.2 Contextual Correlates of Adapt

9、ability （Verschueren, 1999, p. 76） 20Figure 3.1 The Process in Data Analysis 33List of AbbreviationsNEs: number expressionsNIC: news in ChineseNIE: news in EnglishNIC-X: The Xth news item in the corpus of disaster news in Chinese.NIE-X: The Xth news item in the corpus of disaster news in English.Ns:

10、 expressions made of the plural form of numbers, especially hundred, thousand, etc, e.g., scores of, thousands of, etc. CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTIONPartridge once argued in his Usage and Abusage that a good writer should aim at writing clearly, precisely and unambiguously and should ensure that what he w

11、rote only bore a single and unmistakable meaning for a reader of average intelligence （1947, p. 372）. Naturally, based on this understanding, news reporting including that of disasters, a common and popular kind of reporting in which number expressions （NEs for short） are abundant, should be as clea

12、r, precise and unambiguous as possible. As Schudson stated, “it is a peculiar demand to make of editors and reporters who have none of the professional apparatus which, for doctors or lawyers or scientists, is supposed to guarantee objectivity” （1978, p. 3, as cited in Verschueren, 1985, p. 1）.Contr

13、ary to what Partridge and Schudson believed, other scholars saw the other side of the coin. Chen Keping pointed out that vague language commonly occurred in messages, news reports and news stories in newspapers （as cited in Wu, 1999, p. 91）. On the other hand, vagueness is one of the features of lan

14、guage. In order to illustrate the coexistence of precision and vagueness in news, a sample is cited as follows.Dec 2, 7:53 AM EST Quake Jolts Northern PakistanISLAMABAD, Pakistan （AP） - A moderate earthquake jolted Pakistans capital and the northwest Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of da

15、mage or injury. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 4.9 and was centered in the Hindu Kush Mountains of neighboring Afghanistan, a sparsely populated region where earthquakes are common. The epicenter was 220 miles northwest of Pakistans northwestern city of Peshawar, said Tahir Has