omma “,” is used in two headlines to replace the word “and” while two quotation marks are also used for quoted speech or special terms. Table 8 Layout Headline Layout Single columnDouble columnMulti-columnTotalPercentageSingle line/191028.6Double line/33617.1Multi-line31421954.3Total3181435100Percentage8.651.440100100All the layouts of the headlines in China Daily are uniform British style----with only the first letter of the first word in the headline capitalized, while the rest of the words are just in lower-case. As is shown in Table 8, it seems that China Daily favors double-column (18 headlines, 51.4%) and multi-column (14 headlines, 40%) layout. As a result, double-column with multi-line layout takes the biggest share of 14 headlines, 40% in all. 1.2 Structure: The writers hold that the structure of news stories also represents the language style of a newspaper. Therefore, the writers also examine the basic structure of the news stories selected. We find that China Daily frequently adopts the most traditional and effective story structure -- inverted pyramid style, with 22 stories, or 62.9% of the total, simply employing the inverted pyramid style as is shown in Table 9, even though many English newspapers in English-speaking countries may not so frequently turn to the inverted pyramid style, according to Professor Robert Dardenne, a Fulbright professor at Shanghai International Studies University (personal communication, 1999). Of course, as if it is a reflection of the Chinese news story style, pyramid style and the mixture of both inverted pyramid and the pyramid style are also used in China Daily, respectively comprising 22.9 percent and 14.2 percent of the total. Table 9 Structure Type Structure Type No.PercentageInverted Pyramid Style2262.9Pyramid Style822.9Mixture of the Inverted Pyramid and Pyramid Style514.2Total35100Table 10 Lead Type Lead TypeNo. PercentageSummary Lead1234.3Quotation Lead1131.4Main Fact Lead1131.4*Combined Lead12.9Total35100*refers to a lead which introduces two equally-weighed events at once The basic structure type can be typified in the use of different kinds of leads for the news stories. The largest use of summary leads (34.3%) in Table 10 seems to be corresponding to the use of inverted pyramid style. According to Professor Dardenne, normally a news story employing an inverted pyramid style starts with a summary lead. However, the frequent use of quotation lead and main-fact lead is a bit surprising to the two writers. Besides, leads also show a typical Chinese characteristic, with 13 news stories actually beginning with the word “China.” Besides the structure type, the writers consider that the use of attribution is also representative of the language style, particularly for a newspaper like China Daily, because the use of attribution adds to objectivity and fair coverage of news stories. Table 11 Attribution Attribution TypeKey Words UseStory No.ClearSpecific sources mentioned28VagueAccording to an official6UnclearIt is reported that…1Total 35According to Table 11, China Daily tends to use clear and specific sources for its attribution. A number of 28 stories, or 80% of the total, have very clear attribution of sources with definite names of a person and/or an institution. Of course, still seven stories (20%) use vague attribution (according to an official…,) and unclear attribution (It is reported that…). Besides, while it is true that China Daily does use various words to express the word “say,” for example, “note,” “add,’ “tell,” “stress,” “describe,” “comment,” “point out,” “express,” “disclose,” “reveal,” “urge” and “declare,” an immense collection of “said” is also used in 35 stories. A total of 170 “said” have been counted in the 35 passages with the average use of “said” of 4.9 words per story. This, to some degree, reflects the preference of China Daily for a simpler word as well as its preference for a more objective stance of reporting. 1.3 China English Based on the writers’ observation, China Daily adopts the British way of spelling for the newspaper. It sticks to the British spelling such as “centre” “colour” “favourable” “programme” “tunnelling” “counselling” “metre” “neighbour” “labour” “metre” “tatolled” as was found in 35 stories: However, despite the British spelling style, distinctive use of China English can also be found in the samples selected, which is most representative in the employment of what the two writers phrased as Compound Wording, referring to the wordings that are typical of the Chinese culture and that express, or even simply translate from the Chinese connotation which do not have the equivalence in English. They appear very frequently in China Daily’s coverage of China’s economy, politics, society and culture etc. But the writers find that this is particularly noticeable when China Daily covers political topics in China, the system of which is so much different from the West. CPPCC (March 15th of 1993), for instance, stands for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which may not have equivalence in the West. Here, the China English in China Daily mainly deals with the titles of Chinese institutions and other terms or jargons which actually are literal translation from Chinese. Readers of the China English may require some background knowledge of China to fully understand the intended meanings in this case. The following are the lists for part of the typical China English expressions (with simple backgroundings) that the two writers culled from the 35 samples during the past 18 years. China English terms: *Second-line advisers (experienced old leaders now as the counselors for operations) *Cultural Revolution (the chaotic ten year of 1966-1976 in China) *State-run enterprises (enterprises owned by the nation) *Urban economic reforms (reform of economics in the cities in China) *Family planning (policy of birth control for 上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页
Tags:
|