2. Modality and attitudinal meanings 6

2.1 The definition of modality 6

2.2 Modality system 6

2.3 Linguistic modal expressions 7

2.4 Modal orientations 9

2.5 Modality values 10

3. Corpus analysis 11

3.1 The frequency of modality occurrence 11

3.2 Explicit subjective orientation 11

3.3 Explicit objective orientation 12

3.4 Implicit subjective orientation 15

3.5 Implicit objective orientation 17

4. Conclusion 20

4.1 Major findings 20

4.2 Limitations and suggestions 21

References 22

Appendix 23

List of tables

Table 1 System of types of modality 7

Table 2 Realizations of modalization and modulation 8

Table 3 The classification of modal adjuncts 9

Table 4 Orientations of modality 11

Table 5 Values of Modality 11

Table 6 Polarity of Modality 12

Table 7 Distribution of modal expressions in the news selections 13

Table 8 Distribution of projecting clauses of mental process 14

Table 9 Distribution of projecting clauses 15

Table 10 Distribution of nominalization 16

Table 11 Distribution of finite modal operators in the news samples 18

Table 12 Distribution of mood adjuncts in news samples 21

Table 13 Distribution of passive verb predicators in news samples 22

Table 14 Presence of modality orientations in the news samples 24

1. Introduction

With the development of globalization, the mass media is playing a more and more important role in transmitting information. Since English is the most widely used language in the world, the impact of America and western countries on news is stronger than China’s. It is possible that the national image of China is discursively constructed by the foreign reporters so as to help Japan win supports.

1.1 Literature Review

1.1.1 Studies on news report 

News reports, a common style of news discourse have received much attention from scholars and linguists at home and abroad. News is the latest event which attracts people's attention and is experienced by people in practice, while news reports are statements which are constructed by true proposition. In other words, news is the truth. News reports are statements of proposition and reflect reporters’ self-awareness. Reporters' different stands, views, emotions and values can influence the elaboration of the same news. Hence, it will further interfere in readers’ judgments and make them believe what reporters intend to present. Analysis tools like general stylistic analysis, discourse analysis or critical discourse analysis as analytic tools are adopted to analyze news reports.