VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ NGỌC HÀ LANGUAGE USAGE AT LEXICAL LEVEL IN ARTICLES ABOUT MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370 IN TABLOID AND BROADSHEET NEWSPAPERS – CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS NGÔN NGỮ SỬ DỤNG Ở CẤP ĐỘ TỪ VỰNG TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO VIẾT VỀ SỰ CỐ MÁY BAY MH370 TRÊN BÁO LÁ CẢI VÀ BÁO PHỔ THÔNG TỪ GÓC ĐỘ PHÂN TÍCH DIẾN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ NGỌC HÀ LANGUAGE USAGE AT LEXICAL LEVEL IN ARTICLES ABOUT MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370 IN TABLOID AND BROADSHEET NEWSPAPERS – CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS NGÔN NGỮ SỬ DỤNG Ở CẤP ĐỘ TỪ VỰNG TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO VIẾT VỀ SỰ CỐ MÁY BAY MH370 TRÊN BÁO LÁ CẢI VÀ BÁO PHỔ THÔNG TỪ GÓC ĐỘ PHÂN TÍCH DIẾN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis, entitled “Language Usage At Lexical Level In Articles About Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 In Tabloid And Broadsheet Newspapers – Critical Discourse Analysis” has been carried out in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art at the University of Languages and International Studies.
This work is original and all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Hanoi, December 2017 Lê Thị Ngọc Hà LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : iadd luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of many people, and I would like to show my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taught, inspired, challenged and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis. I would like to express sincere gratitude towards my supervisor, Dr. Ha Cam Tam, for her profound and invaluable guidance without which this study would not be completed.
I also would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the lecturers and staffs at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi whose support and consideration has enabled me to pursue the course. Hanoi, December 2017 Lê Thị Ngọc Hà LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : iiadd luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The missing aircraft MH370 is a tragedy that shocked the nation of Malaysia and the whole world. The media plays a big role in compressing the incident into a segment of the newspaper to attract readers‘ attention towards the shocking news. News reported by the media affected in the way how the readers view the incident.
This study is a critical discourse analysis of two UK online news agents on the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 from March 8, 2014 to May 8, 2014. A critical discourse analysis was made to portray the representations of lexical items from two different types of newspaper – broadsheet and tabloid. With the purpose of discerning the underlying opinions and attitudes of the reporters, Van Dijk‘s Semantic Discourse Analysis was used to analyze the news reports. The study just focused on the choices of Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and the use of metaphors.
The researcher made an attempt to illustrate the relationship between language usage and underlying ideas that the writers may want to convey. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : iiiadd luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Meaning CDA Critical Discourse Analysis T The Telegraph M The Mirror LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Most frequent Nouns in The Telegraph‘s articles. 24 Figure 2: Most frequent Nouns in The Mirror‘s articles. 24 Figure 3: Most frequent Verbs in The Telegraph‘s articles.
25 Figure 4: Most frequent Verbs in The Mirror‘s articles. 25 Figure 5: Most frequent Adjectives in The Telegraph‘s articles. 26 Figure 6: Most frequent Adjectives in The Mirror‘s articles. 26 Table 1: The description of event presented in both newspapers.
27 Table 2: The possibility of terrorism presented in both newspapers. 32 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. Rationale of the research. Scope of the research. Objectives of the research.
Significance of the study. Organization of the research. 6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. An overview of Critical Discourse Analysis.
Van Dijk‘s socio-cognitive approach to CDA. Van Dijk‘s Semantic Discourse Analysis. Critical Analysis of News Discourse. Language of broadsheet newspapers and tabloid newspapers.
Reviews of related studies. 16 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY. Background information of the data. 20 Data collection procedure.
21 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data analysis procedure. 22 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Choice of positive words.
Choice of negative words. Limitations of the study. Recommendations for further studies. I Appendix 1: List of articles from The Telegraph.
I Appendix 2: List of articles from The Mirror. I Appendix 3: A sample of analyzed articles. II vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the research Media is a modern tool that is used by people to gain information.
The use of media in collecting information on what is happening around the world has also play its role in shaping the perspective of readers regarding the events that the media is reporting. The media have been described as powerful sites for the production and circulation of social meanings. The thought and perspective of the readers can be shaped by the construction of thought through the use of language. Media play its role as perspective shaper through the hand of journalists by the grammatical construction, selecting the choice of words and the meanings conveyed within the metaphorical text.
One of media tools is newspaper. Newspaper, or news, in which the medium that people mainly receive their information from is ―Anything that's interesting, that relates to what's happening in the world, what's happening in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience,‖ (Kurt Loder, 1945). However, there are at times different versions of the same event are presented in a wide array of news sources, leaving room for doubt about the value-free and unbiased information journalists provide for news readers. According to Fowler (1991), language of the press is never neutral, and news reports are laden with values and ideologies.
The power of media can influence people‘s cognition and form people‘s attitudes and ideologies. Accordingly, in order to understand the true nature of news reports, namely the social and power relationship, the hidden ideologies, and the way they present people and issues, it is necessary for a language user to be critical in their state of mind. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The incident of the missing airplane MH370 made the incident a newsworthy that had followers from different parts of the world. Unlike any other airplane accidents that had happened in other countries before, MH370 had been facing the world watchers that were following the updates relating to the missing aircraft.
Readers and commentators, and different groups of audiences that followed the news of the tragedy were anxiously waiting for the result of the missing airplane. The involvement of foreign military and search team in the effort to find the missing aircraft attracted the attention of observers around the world. The attention gained from people around the globe regarding the missing airplane of MH370 created speculations of both positive and negative perspective about the incident. The perspective were varies from positive, neutral stand to negative opinions about the cause and effect of the missing airplanes towards both Malaysia and the whole world history as well.
As a results, news reporters make use of their word choices to describe and inform the world readers about the missing of MH370 airplane. The researcher attempted to conduct a study on the features of lexical items, which are expressed through lexical choices and metaphors, used in the news reports that discussed the disappearance of the flight MH370 from the viewpoint of two different kinds of newspaper, namely broadsheet and tabloid, under the light of critical discourse analysis to explore how ideologies of the media institutions construct their representation of reality to their readers. Scope of the research This research focused on uncovering the differences in the underlying opinions and attitudes of writers between broadsheet newspaper and tabloid newspaper when reporting the same event through the choice of three lexical 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com items, namely Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. In addition, this research also investigated the connection between metaphorical expressions and their meanings, which also played an important role in revealing the attitudes of the writers.
The analysis of data was undertaken via semantics theory of Van Dijk. In terms of lexical styles, this study paid attention to the words which carry positive or negative meaning. With regard to metaphors, this study attempted to discover their properties which can help to show the writers‘ opinions. Data for this research was taken from twenty online news articles on the missing flight MH370 which were published on two newspaper agents, namely The Telegraph – representative of broadsheet newspaper – and The Mirror – representative of tabloid newspaper.
The period of time, from March 8th 2014 to May 8th 2014, was chosen as it attracted remarkable attention from the media and had a wide range of news articles relating to the event. Objectives of the research The study aims at: - Investigate the lexical choices of Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives and metaphorical expressions utilized in the articles taken from two different kinds of newspaper, namely broadsheet and tabloid, regarding the disappearance of the flight MH370 - Uncover the attitudes and opinions of the writers when discussing the same event by their choice of words 4. Research questions (1) How is the disappearance of Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 portrayed in tabloid and broadsheet newspapers by means of lexical choices (Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives)? 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com (2) How can the use of metaphorical expressions reveal the writers‘ opinion and attitude underlying in their writing? 5. Significance of the study With regards to theoretical aspect, this study is expected to contribute to the field of CDA with its findings.
In terms of practical aspect, the researcher hopes to raise the awareness of readers towards any kinds of information that is published on news reports. Research methodology With the purpose of discerning the underlying ideologies of the reporters, Van Dijk‘s Semantic Discourse Analysis was applied to analyze the news articles. Based on Van Dijk‘s structures of discourse analysis (1995b), lexical style and rhetorical figures were examined. Lexical style dealt with the choice of positive and negative opinion words, and rhetoric figures indicated positive and negative properties.
Organization of the research The study consists of three parts. They are: Part A - Introduction - presents the rationale, scope, objectives, significance, general methodology, and organization of the study. Part B - Development - constitutes the main part and consists of three chapters. Chapter 1: Literature review First, this chapter gives an overview of CDA.
Then Van Dijk‘s Semantic Discourse Analysis, Critical Analysis of News discourse, and Language of 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. Finally, the overview of related studies is also presented in the chapter. Chapter 2: Methodology and analytical procedures This chapter presents the background to the event. After that, the research approach, data collection, methodology and data analysis procedures are mentioned.