Critical Discourse Analysis of College Entrance Examination Slogan

By Song Zhibo

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Liberal Arts

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May 2018

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to extend my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Zheng Youqi, for his guidance and useful suggestions of my research. He made comments and recommendations on the research direction of my paper. Mr. Zheng also gave timely guidance to the difficulties and doubts that I had during the writing. Every problem pointed out by him and every thought raised by him has made me benefit a lot. Mr. Zheng gave me continuous and timely help in terms of the format specifications, essay points, or the structure of the article so that I can finally successfully completed the thesis. Next, I would like to thank all the teachers who ever taught me during my academic years in NUIST. Due to their careful teaching, I learned professional knowledge and accumulated a wealth of experience. I also thank my classmates for their help. Finally, I sincerely thank all the professors for their taking time to review my thesis and participating in the defense.

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Critical Discourse Analysis 3

3.1Theoretical Foundation 3

3.1.1Critical Linguistics 3

3.1.2 System-functional Linguistics 4

3.2 The Origin and Development of Critical Discourse Analysis 6

3.3 Classical Propositions of Critical Discourse Analysis 7

3.3.1 Fairclough’s Three Dimensional Analysis Model 7

3.3.2 Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approch 7

3.3.3 Van Dijk’s Propositions 8

4. Critical Discourse Analysis of College Entrance Examination Slogan 8

4.1 The Intertextuality of College Entrance Examination Slogan 8

4.1.1 The Intertuality between Slogan and Literature Works 8

4.1.2 Intertextuality between Slogan and Historical Events 9

4.1.3 Intertextuality between Slogan and Real Text 10

4.2 Discourse Strategy 10

4.2.1 Authorization 10

4.2.2 Moralization 11

4.2.3 Rationalization 11

4.3 The Modal Expression of College Entrance Examination Slogan 11

5. Conclusion 12

References 13

Critical Discourse Analysis of College Entrance Examination Slogan

Song Zhibo

Department of English

School of Liberal Arts

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: With the development of the information age, critical discourse analysis has been an important branch of discourse analysis in recent years. Critical discourse analysis focuses on social issues. It makes description and explanation of discourse structure. This article uses the theory of critical discourse analysis to analyze the discourse of Chinese College Entrance Examination slogan. The College Entrance Examination has always been an important way for selecting talents in China and an important channel for students as well to develop their ideals. Nowadays, the social competition is fierce. The appearance of the College Entrance Examination slogan has played an important role in encouraging students. This article intends to make a critical discourse analysis of the college entrance examination slogan and reveal the hidden ideological significance of it.

Key words: critical discourse analysis, College Entrance Examination slogan, ideology

摘要：随着信息时代的发展，批评话语分析近年来发展成为话语分析的一个重要领域。批评话语分析关注社会问题，对话语结构性进行描述，解释和说明。本文运用批评话语分析理论对中国的高考口号进行话语分析。高考一直是中国选拔人才的重要途径，也是学生实现理想的重要渠道。如今社会竞争激烈，高考口号的出现为学生们起到了重要的鼓励作用。本文意在对高考口号进行批评话语分析，揭示在社会环境影响下出现的高考口号隐藏的意识形态意义。

关键词：批评话语分析，高考口号，意识形态

1. Introduction

In December 1977, the Chinese college entrance examination resumed after 12 years of suspension. The resumption of college entrance examination brought new hope and future to a generation of young people at the time. The fate of many people became reversed after the examination. Up to now, college entrance examination is still an important way to select talents in China. Most students attach great importance to the examination. After years of hard work, students aim to go to their ideal universities by doing well in their entrance exams. With the development of the times, there are more and more participants in college entrance examination while the exams become more and more difficult. Many students easily lose confidence during their preparation. Material determines consciousness, and consciousness has counter effects on material. As one of the forms of consciousness, the slogan is a reflection of social politics, economy, and culture at that time. The slogans of different natures play different roles. Nowadays the social system is increasingly consolidated, so social mobility is more and more difficult. Making breakthroughs in life through the college entrance examination has become the only way for many people to change their destiny. Under the influence of strong competition and limited resources, some people’s concepts and values ​​are distorted. Due to the fact that power has not been effectively restricted, there have been some unfair situations, such as the 100 million for famous schools in ​​independent recruitment, or unjustified favorable scores for college entrance examinations. Some students have to be self-motivated in a crazy way. As a result, there have been some extreme college entrance examination slogans, such as “If you don’t die of learning, you will learn till you die!”, “Rather be injured and bled than fail in the exam!” These radical slogans made the campus a battlefield. An ideal college entrance examination inspirational slogan should be confident and bold, full of trust for education fairness. Today, our government and education departments are working to protect and improve the fairness of the college entrance examination. The college entrance examination slogans appearing in the new environment reflect the welcome change in social reality and students’ attitude. For example, “Every day is a starting point, every day there is little progress, and every day there is a little reward!"

Discourse analysis, also known as DA or discourse studies, is a generic name for different approaches to analyzing written, spoken or signed communication. It focuses on speech units larger than the sentence and takes into account the contexts in which discourse occurs. Discourse analysis explores the organizational and usage characteristics of language by observing the language in actual use and it interprets the constraints in the language from the communicative function of the language and the cognitive characteristics of the user of the language. Critical Discourse Analysis is a new branch of modern linguistics research. It is a language research aimed at studying and interpreting social issues. Critical linguistics is different from the discourse analysis of traditional linguistics. It focuses on the study of the relationship between language and ideology in public discourse. It also links relevant historical and social contexts to reveal the ideological meaning. This article uses critical discourse analysis to analyze the discourse of Chinese college entrance examination slogan to explain its implicit ideological meaning.

2. Literature Review

Critical discourse analysis was developed from the late 1970s. In 1979, Language and Control, edited by Roger Fowler et al, was published, which marks the official start of critical discourse analysis. In 1986, Fowler published Linguistic Criticism, and in 1987 he published “Notes on Critical Linguistics”.

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