A Discourse Analysis Of English Articles Warning About The Risks Of Natural Resources Exhaustion

Abstract

This thesis focuses on investigating into English Articles Warning about the Risks of Natural Resources Exhaustion (EAWREs). The thesis aims to investigate, describe and analyze discourse features of articles about natural resources in respect of layout features, syntactic features, lexical choices and stylistic devices. The study was carried out with 45 samples of EAWREs which are gathered from the well[1]known electronic newspapers in the US and UK in the period of 2008 to 2016. In terms of layout, EAWREs are divided into two main elements: the Summary and the Development corresponding to Nguyen Hoa’s framework of news discourse. With regard to the syntactic features, the conditional sentences, the structures for warning, the direct and indirect speeches and the passive voice were investigated. For the lexical choices, the thesis includes modal verbs, verbs denoting natural resources exhaustion and evaluative adjectives which are dominant in EAWREs. Besides, stylistic devices, which are metonymy, hyperbole and metaphor, were exploited in the thesis. On the basis of the findings, some implications and suggestions for learning and teaching English through discourse in general and for those who are interested in discourse of environmental issues in particular are put forward.