i VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHẠM THỊ PHƯƠNG HÀ REPORTING ON AMERICA-NORTH KOREA’S DEBATE OVER PYONGYANG’S NUCLEAR CRISIS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ NHỮNG MÂU THUÂN GIỮA MỸ VÀ TRIỀU TIÊN VỀ VẤN ĐỀ HẠT NHÂN CỦA BÌNH NHƯỠNG M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 60.15 HÀ NỘI - 2009 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ii VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHẠM THỊ PHƯƠNG HÀ REPORTING ON AMERICA-NORTH KOREA’S DEBATE OVER PYONGYANG’S NUCLEAR CRISIS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ NHỮNG MÂU THUẪN GIỮA MỸ VÀ TRIỀU TIÊN VỀ VẤN ĐỀ HẠT NHÂN CỦA BÌNH NHƯỠNG M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 60.D HÀ CẨM TÂM HÀ NỘI - 2009 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration……………………………………………………………………………….iii Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………iv List of figures, Charts and Tables……………………………………………………….vi List of abbreviations…………………………………………………………………….vii List of Appendices ……………………………………………………………………. Rationale of the research ……………………………………………………………. Aims and Objectives of the research …………………………………………………. Significance of the research ………………………………………………………….
Scope of the research ………………………………………………………………… 2 5. Organization of the research …………………………………………………………. Some background information of the study …………………………………………. 3 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ………………………………… 5 1.1 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) ………………………………………………… 5 1.2 Key notions of CDA ……………………………………………………………….3 Methodology of CDA ……………………………………………………………… 7 1.4 A CDA framework for analysis of Communicative events ……………………….5 Faiclough’s framework for analyzing media discourse …………………………… 11 1.6 Principles of CDA ………………………………………………………………… 13 1.7 Systematic Functional Linguistics in CDA …………………………………………13 1.8 Review of previous studies …………………………………………………………14 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY ………………………………………………………….18 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 Design of the research …………………………………………………………….2 Data selection and sampling …………………………………………………….3 Methodology of the research …………………………………………………….1 Haliday’s systematic Functional Grammar …………………………………….3 Fowler and Kress ……………………………………………………………….2 Data analysis and discussion ……………………………………………………….1 Analysis of headlines …………………………………………………………….1 The International Herald Tribune (IHT) ……………………………………….2 About North Korea ………………………………………………………….2 About North Korea ………………………………………………………….2 Analysis of full-text stories …………………………………………………….
IX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis vi LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES Figure 1: A framework for critical discourse analysis of a communicative event Table 1: Process types, their meanings, and key participants Table 2: America’s roles in percentage in the IHT Table 3: North Korea’s roles in percentage in the IHT Table 4: North Korea’s roles in percentage in QDND Table 5: North Korea’s roles in percentage in QDND Table 6: Negativiation of North Korea’s activities in the IHT Table 7: Neutralization of Iraq’s activities in QDND Table 8: Presuppositions regarding North Korea’s nuclear programme and its connection to terrorism. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations Meaning CDA Critical Discourse Analysis CL Critical Linguistics QDND The Quan Doi Nhan Dan IHT The International Herald Tribune SFG Systemic Functional Grammar US The United States NK North Korea TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis viii LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 Headlines from The International Herald Tribune Appendix 2 Headlines from Quan doi Nhan dan Appendix 3 News reports from the International Herald Tribune Appendix 4 News reports from QDND TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale of the research Critical Discourse Analysis, which sets the basis for this paper, is discourse analysis ‗with an attitude‘ (Van Dijk, 2001: 96). It has remained attractive to both linguists and social analysts.
However, it cannot be denied that, it takes much time and devotion to understand it thoroughly; especially in Vietnam where focus has been mainly on linguistic and discourse features of different types of discourse rather an on functional ones. In addition, it is also necessary to supply an explanation for my choice, which stems from several reasons, to analyze media discourse. To begin with, media texts are ready and accessible sources for research, studying and teaching. Next, speech communities‘ use of language and their attitudes towards language are not only represented in but also influenced by media discourses.
Besides, the formation and expression of culture, politics, ideological benefits and social life are not only reflected in the media but also influenced and created by them. And finally, media discourses, in my point of view, can help us understand a lot about social meanings and stereotypes embedded in, produced and reproduced through discourse and communication. Over the last several decades, there have appeared in the mass media stories about North Korea‘s nuclear programme and American‘s reaction over this issue. This has caught much attention of the whole world because up to six powers are involved; namely Russia, China, Japan, Korea, America and North Korea.
It is considered ―a game‖ mastered by Pyongyang and up to now, despite of efforts, no solution has appeared practical; even a third world war is not exclusive. All the above mentioned reasons serve to explain my choice of the research topic and my decision to conduct the research entitled “Reporting on America-North Korea’s debate over Pyongyang’s nuclear crisis: A critical discourse analysis”. Aims and objectives of the research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis 2 The general goal of this research is to investigate the ideological function of language in representing the world. The main objective is to probe into the ways in which language is employed by two media institutes to produce discourse over the nuclear issue.
Some media critics such as Chomsky (1989), and Karim (2000) (reviewed in Sheyholislami, 2001:1), put forward an argument that the mainstream media do not merely reflect the truth. Rather, there are certain constraints that prevent the media from representing problems in an objective way, hence leading to a mediated view of issues such as the economy of the media, institutional constraints, news production practices, etc. Significance of the research This paper is to supply those interested a deeper insight into the relations between language and society, more significantly between language use on the one hand and power and ideology embedded into discourse by language on the other hand. Scope of the research Evidentially, it is impossible to cover such a large topic of the America and North Korea debate with lots of news reports.
It seems to be more realistic to do a general content analysis, but not a detailed CDA analysis of such a broad amount of news. My quick survey of related news threads in QDND shows that the Vietnamese media has conveyed an overall proposition of the public sympathy towards the North Korea and criticism of the US‘s hostile attitude to Pyongyang. We have so far witnessed ups and downs between North Korea and America basing on the reaction of each side concerning the North Korea‘s debatable nuclear programme which up to now has not been proved to exist. Because the story has a long history of over five decades with countless news articles and because of the limited scope of the paper, I decided to restrict the data to news stories a short period (from 30/5/2009 to 5/9/2009) when American said that they had indications for Pyongyang‘s missile test which led the tension between the two countries.
Organization of the research The study is divided into three chapters: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis 3 The introduction presents the justification for the research, the goal, significance and scope of the research, research questions, methodology of the research and supplies some background information on the US-North Korea‘s conflict. Chapter 1 states a brief account of the traditions of media studies, the theoretical background for the thesis, a description of the role of Systemic Functional Linguistics in CDA, and a literature review of studies on media discourse. Chapter 2 is the study which describes the source of data as well as the procedures of data collection and data analysis. It also discusses the analytical tools used for analyzing data.
It analyzes the data and discusses the findings of the analysis as well. The conclusion summarizes the findings, draws out implications and makes suggestions for further research. The US and North Korea relations – Some background information It is necessary to give a brief account of the relationship between North Korea and America because I believe that background will provide the contextual basis for a better understanding and a more thorough analysis. North Korea‘s occupation by Japanese ended when the Second World War terminated in 1945.
However, the country was divided to the two sides of the 38th parallel; the North was occupied by USSR and the South by America. Yet the two dominants developed opposite opinions about ruling cooperation on Korea peninsula. Then, a 3-year war exploded ending by declaring authority over the island of both sides. Then the leaders of the North and the South wanted to unify the country but the domination of the two powers were so strong that there was little to be done over unification.
Later on, Russia withdrew their troops out of North Korea and was not concerned much about Pyongyang but the domination of America seemed to remain more and more intense. From then on, the relationship between North Korea and South Korea and between North Korea and South Korea have witnessed ups and downs yet America has always exercised hostile attitude towards Pyongyang. The conflict started in 1987 when North Korea opened its first 5 KW nuclear pile. America immediately called for the United Nations‘ inspections for fearing about the development of its nuclear programme.
North Korea agreed under conditions that America and the West supported them financially and helped them built two light water TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis 4 reactors serving for peace activities and economic developments. Yet, America broke the promise because the reasoned that North Korea had secretly restarted their nuclear programme. Each side had their own claims but the main reason was that they did not believe each other. Since then the two sides have experienced warm and cold periods in their relationships.
This is regarded as the gamed ‗hide – and - seek‘ played by America and North Korea. However, what should be noticed here is that up until now, there is no clear evidence that North Korea does have their own nuclear programme; yet American media keep asserting that they have and they contribute largely in forming a negative attitude towards North Korea. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.analysis 5 CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter presents brief information of the related theoretical background.1 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a term used to denote the theory formerly known as Critical Linguistics (CL). CDA is defined by van Dijk as ‗a shared perspective on doing linguistic, semiotic or discourse analysis‘ (1993b: 131).
Later he further elaborates that CDA is a field that is primarily concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power abuse, dominance and inequality. It is also concerned with examining how these discursive sources are initiated, maintained and reproduced within specific social, political and historical contexts (van Dijk, 1998s:1). Fairclough (1993: 135) states a similar definition of CDA; that is, discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony. CDA sees ‗discourse – language in use in speech and writing – as a form of social practice‘ and considers the context of language use to be crucial (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997: 285).
CDA starts from the perception of discourse (language and other forms of semiotics) as an element of social practices, which constitutes other elements as well as being shaped by them (Chouliaraki & Faiclough, 1999: vii). CDA sees discourse as ‗always involves power and ideologies‘ (Wodak & Ludwig, 1999:12). Recently, van Dijk (2001: 96) gives a definition of CDA in slightly different words.