Reported Speech in Chinese and English Newspapers: Textual and Pragmatic Functions

Reported speech is a universal form across human languages. However, previous studies have tended to be limited because they mostly emphasize on the form and authenticity of reported speech, while its discourse and pragmatic functions have largely been ignored. Meanwhile, the studies mainly focus on English, with a comparative perspective with other languages largely missing.

Acknowledging these limitations, this book analyzes the textual and pragmatic functions of reported speech in Chinese and English. The authors build a corpus comprising of twelve Chinese and English newspapers, including China Daily and The New York Times. They examine the classification and distribution of reported speech, the form and function in different news genres and contexts, and the socio-pragmatic interpretation of reported speech in news and other issues. This title can enrich comparative linguistic research, verify the feasibility of combining critical linguistics and corpus technology, and help improve the production and understanding of news reports.

Students and scholars of critical discourse analysis, comparative linguistics, corpus linguistics, as well as communication studies will find this to be an essential guide.

XIN Bin is Professor of the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal University, China. His research interests include pragmatics, systemic functional linguistics, cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis.

GAO Xiaoli is Lecturer of the School of Foreign Languages, Hohai University, China.

SHEN Lei is an associate professor of Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, China. Her research interest is comparative discourse analysis.

WANG Jingping is an associate professor of Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, China. Her research interest is EFL writin