Download A critical stylistic analysis of a report on the Tibet issue

A critical stylistic analysis of a report
on the Tibet issue
Mao Ye, University of Huddersfield, UK
1. Introduction.
The focus of this article will be on a report that concerns the Tibet issue with regards to the
basic argument of whether or not Tibet should be independent. Using the transitivity system
and other tools of critical stylistics, my analysis explores how reports from the stance of
Beijing and Tibet affect the reader’s point of view using ‘hidden’ ideologies. Even though
there are explicit ideologies that one can immediately notice, this article illustrates less
obvious instances of ideological consequences to explain what they are and how they work
in news reports.
2. Data
2.1 Background
The Tibet issue that occurred in 2008 regarding whether or not Tibet should be independent
attracted my attention when I was reading the news on the BBC website. A report, entitled
“Tibet Issue” (see Appendix), presents an interesting investigation with the question-answer
format about this worldwide argument. The first half of the report is based on various
official Chinese sources to outline Beijing’s stance on the Tibet issue including some
influential newspapers, such as People’s Daily (the top Party’s press) and Xinhua News
Agency (the top Party’s news press) in China. In contrast, the other half is based on
information that Thubten Samphel, the Dalai Lama’s director of information, gave to the
press. He outlined the exiled Tibetan government’s stance on the China-Tibet issue. One can
notice even with a quick glance that the ideologies of both sides are explicit. Beijing believes
that Tibet is part of China historically whereas Tibet believes that although they are now a
part of China, they have not always been. In order to contrast the opposite point of view on
the same issues, the news report set up the format of identical questions and relevant
quotations as the answers from Chinese official sources and from the Dalai Lama’s director.
This article deals with the first four questions in the report using critical discourse analysis
tools revealing a number of implicit ideological consequences which are meant to support
Beijing’s and Tibet’s opinions to convince readers what they read must be truthful and just.
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2.2 Four Questions
Question1: Is Tibet part of China?
Beijing: For more than 700 years, the central government of China has continuously
exercised sovereignty over Tibet, and Tibet has never been an independent state. No
government of any country in the world has ever recognised Tibet as an independent state.
(People's Daily, April 2008)
Tibet: It is beyond dispute at various periods of its long history that Tibet came under
differing degrees of foreign influence: the Mongols, the Gurkhas of Nepal, the Manchu
emperors of China and the British rulers of India all played their parts. At other periods in
the plateau's history, it was Tibet which exercised power and influence over its neighbours including China. It would be hard to find any state in the world today that has not been
subjected to foreign domination or influence at some era in its history. In Tibet's case the
degree and duration of foreign influence and interference was relatively limited.
Question2: What was Tibet like before the Communists established control in 1951?
Beijing: Even in the first half of the 20th Century, Tibet remained a society of feudal serfdom
under a theocracy, one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe. The
ecclesiastical and secular serf owners controlled the personal freedom of the serfs and
slaves who made up more than 95% of the population of Tibet. By resorting to... extremely
savage punishments, including gouging out eyes, cutting off ears, tongues, hands and feet,
pulling out tendons, throwing people into rivers or off cliffs, they practiced cruel economic
exploitation. (Xinhua News Agency, March 2008)
Tibet: Traditional Tibetan society - like most of its Asian contemporaries - was backward and
badly in need of reforms. However, it is completely wrong to use the word "feudal" from the
perspective of medieval Europe to describe traditional Tibetan society. Tibet before the
invasion, in fact, was far more egalitarian than most Asian countries of that time. Hugh
Richardson, who spent a total of nine years in Tibet as Britain's last and independent India's
first representative, wrote: ‘even communist writers have had to admit there was no great
difference between rich and poor in [pre-1949] Tibet.’
Question3: What has happened since then?
Beijing: Since its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet has undergone profound social changes,
including democratic reform, reform and opening up, and has achieved remarkable social
and economic progress. (China's Foreign Ministry Handbook, July 2007)
Tibet: An internal Chinese military document states that from 1952 to 1958, the People's
Liberation Army crushed 996 rebellions and killed over 10,000 Tibetans in the north-eastern
region of Kanlho. Golog, another Amdo area, saw its population halved from an estimated
140,000 in 1956 to about 70,000 in 1964. Referring to this area, the late Panchen Lama [the
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second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama] told Beijing's
leaders: ‘if there was a film made on all the atrocities perpetrated in Qinghai Province, it
would shock the viewers. In Golog area, many people were killed and their dead bodies
rolled down the hill into a big ditch. The soldiers told the family members and relatives of
the dead people that they should celebrate since the rebels had been wiped out. They were
even forced to dance on the dead bodies.’
Question4: Who was behind a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the
Dalai Lama fled to India?
Beijing: In face of the ever-growing demand of the people for democratic reform, some
people in the upper ruling strata of Tibet, in order to preserve feudal serfdom and supported
by imperialist forces, staged an armed rebellion all along the line on 10 March 1959 in an
attempt to separate Tibet from China. (Xinhua News Agency, March 2008)
Tibet: The '59 uprising against Chinese rule was a people's movement to resist all the
changes the Chinese Communist Party were introducing in Tibet. In the 17 Point Agreement
signed between Tibet and China in 1951, the Chinese Communist Party promised that in
return for Tibet coming to the fold of motherland, China would not change Tibet's traditional
social system or tamper with the powers of the Dalai Lama. Both these promises were not
kept, and the introduction of collectivisation and other aspects of the social system in Tibet
forced the Tibetans to rise up.
3. Methodology
3.1 Introduction
As a necessary element in a clause, the verbal element, or predicator, plays an extremely
important role in presenting information ‘on what is being done (actions), what is happening
(event), or what simply is (states)’ (Jeffries 2009:58). In this article, the transitivity model of
representing actions/events/state, is applied as the main focus for my analysis. Other
linguistic aspects, namely assuming and implying, naming and describing, exemplifying and
enumerating and hypothesising are used too to demonstrate the relevant ideological
consequences within the text (Jeffries 2010).
3.2 Simpson (1993)’s Model of Transitivity
Grammatically, the notion of transitivity summarises the distinction of a verb as to whether
it is to be followed by an object or not. A verb followed by an object is seen as transitive and
one not followed by an object as intransitive. Nevertheless, the description given above of
transitivity is not completely accurate since in many cases a single verb might require more
than one object and a single verb might contain the identities of both transitive and
intransitive. Halliday’s (Halliday 2004:282-284) transitivity system presents the importance
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of verb choice in a clause as Jeffries commented ‘one part of the Hallidayan model of
language which has taken up by CDA analysts as useful for unearthing textual ideologies is
his version of transitivity […] He saw verb choice as central to each clause, and as dictating
many of the other choices that follow. This choice, he concludes, was partly based on the
particular view of an event or action (or state) that the speaker/writer wished to convey.’
(Jeffries 2010:60). In this article, the model of transitivity I will apply to my analysis is
Simpson’s later model (Simpson 1993) which is both clear and applicable. According to the
kinds of process or state verbs that seem to be described, the transitivity model is
encapsulated into four categories. Table1 below shows these details.
Category
Participants
Sub-categories
Material
Actor, Goal
Intention
(MAI)
Action
Supervention
(MAS)
Processes
Event
(MAE)
Verbalization
Speaker, Verbiage,
Processes
Goal
Mental
Experiencer,
Cognition
(MC)
Processes
Experienced
Reaction
(MR)
Perception
(MP)
Relational
Intensive
(RI)
Processes
Possessive
(RP)
Circumstantial
(RC)
Table 1. Simpson’s transitivity model (Adapted from Simpson 1993: 88-92)
In the analysis, the verb choice of the answers from both Beijing and Tibet will be classified
according to the table above. Identifying the property of these specific verbs, I will illustrate
the linguistic effect of these choices then explain how the hidden messages work to enhance
the ideological viewpoint to readers/hearers through these implicit approaches.
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3.3 Other Linguistic Models
On top of the transitivity model, there are other linguistic approaches to reveal how these
implicit implications are conveyed to readers/hearers. This includes, namely, presupposition,
nominalization, modality, negation, and exemplifying and enumerating.
Presupposition is the most frequent instances observed in the news report apart from the
instances of transitivity. Jeffries gives the definition ‘the term presupposition is used to refer
to assumptions that are built-into the text, and though they are therefore sometimes seen
as semantics, rather than pragmatic, they do remain rather elusive as they are not directly
by the text, but are the background upon which it is built’(2009:60). The ideological effect of
this would minimize the possibility of doubting the potential questions built-into the text by
presuppositions. There are various cases in the new report that will be explored in detail,
and the triggers of presupposition being used include the definite article in existential
presupposition, cleft sentence, iterative words and comparative structure. I will demonstrate
how these ideological messages embedded influence readers/hearers in relevant sections.
The answers of question 4 from both Beijing and Tibet used nominalization to support their
own points. Nominalization is similar to presupposition in a way that they both embed
information in a sort of fixed form which makes difficult for further argument. The
information embedded in these nominalized noun phrases as entities ideologically force
readers/speakers to accept the specific point of view that speakers/writers want to convey
without raising any doubts as if they were presented as act process.
In the broad sense, modality concerns with a speaker’s ‘attitude towards’ or ‘opinion
about’ (Simpson 1993: 46). Simpson summarizes four categories of modality. They are
deontic modality, boulomaic modality, epistemic modality and perception modality
(Simpson 1993: 51). In this news report, the instance of modality belongs to the category of
epistemic modality. Simpson explains ‘...epistemic modality is concerned with the speaker’s
confidence or lack of confidence in the truth of a proposition expressed’ (Simpson 1993: 48).
I will give precise explanation later in the analysis.
The significance of negation allows speakers/writers to create a non-existent world
for various reasons. In the news report, in order to support Tibet’s stance, the negation is
used to naturalize the foreign influence upon Tibet by creating an imagining world no
country has receive no foreign influence. In one of the Beijing’s answers, a three-part list is
used to enumerate the changes since liberation in 1952 in Tibet. The aspects of changing
social establishment might not be included in a short three-part list but ‘three-part lists are
frequently symbolic of completeness’ (Jefferies 2010: 70). I will explain further later in the
analysis.
4. Analysis
4.1 Question1
Is Tibet part of China?
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Beijing’s stance:
Beijing would answer yes to this question as the fact that Tibet is part of China. The answer
is short but straight to the point ‘for more than 700 years, the central government of China
has continuously exercised sovereignty over Tibet, and Tibet has never been an independent
state. No government of any country in the world has ever recognised Tibet as an
independent state’. What interesting are the three choices of verbs, ‘has continuously
exercised’, ‘has never been’ and ‘has ever recognised’. With ‘the central government of
China’ as the Actor, the verbal phrase ‘has continuously exercised’ is an Intention process
with the Goal ‘sovereignty over Tibet’. The result of doing this suggests that the act of ruling
Tibet has been an intentional act by China for a long time rather than just by chance. This
naturalises the positive answer and confirms its point that Tibet is part of China by
presenting an active process. Looking at the negative perfect tense verbal phrase ‘has never
been’ in the other coordinate clause of the first sentence, the use of an Intensive Relational
process indicates that it is a statement without any further need for argument. In so doing, it
conveys the point that Tibet, as part of China, is in fact not only now but also was, at least,
over the last 700 years, which makes the statement difficult to challenge since it conveys
certainty.
The second sentence within this answer does the same job as the first clause with an
MAI verb ‘recognise’. The ideological consequence of this process is the way that the
intention of the Actor ‘no government of any country’ works with a negating structure to
emphasise that not one country in the world has the intentional act to recognise Tibet as an
independent state. It includes China in the collection of countries all over the world that do
not recognize Tibet’s independence. This shows a much more powerful stance which is
universal. It gives the message that China is not an isolated country who does not recognise
the independence of Tibet but rather other countries in the world believe the same. By
presenting the ideas in this way, Beijing highlights its point that Tibet is part of China with
the semantic evidence which is explicit and has implicit ideological impact to strengthen its
point in order to convince the reader/hearer.
Tibet’s stance:
With regards to the Tibetan response, the director presented opposite ideas to emphasise
the point that Tibet is not a part of China. Modality, transitivity, and presupposition can be
applied to uncover how implicit ideologies are conveyed, rather than just an exact yes or no
answer. Thubten Samphel said ‘it is beyond dispute at various periods of its long history that
Tibet came under different degrees of foreign influence: the Mongols, the Gurkhas of Nepal,
the Manchu emperors of China and the British rulers of India all played their parts’. Using a
strong epistemic modality, it shows the strength in its commitment (it is beyond dispute etc.)
and makes ‘a firm case for the reality of the scenario it is putting forward’ (Jefferies
2009:198) Here he admitted that Tibet came under some influences in the past, but the
influences from China is not significant at all. This is because the influence from China was
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just, at most, a quarter of the rather limited foreign influence as ‘the Mongols, the Gurkhas
of Nepal, the Manchu emperors of China and the British rulers of India all played their parts’.
So, the ideological consequence of using a strong epistemic modality is to weaken the
professed certainty in order to naturalise foreign influences which were supportive in Tibet’s
case. By doing so, he claims that Tibet was not part of China by means of some mutual
influence between them to emphasis the equality between them and lessening the hierarchy
relation with China. Apart from the example of modality mentioned above, a couple of verb
choices are interesting to note. The MAE verbal phrase ‘came under’ in the relative clause
sets up Tibet as the Goal and the foreign influence as the Actor. This way, it puts Tibet in a
position as a receiver of the foreign influence avoiding the intentional act. This seems to
claim that Tibet did not like these influences but it happened anyway. Bearing that in mind,
it seems to confirm that Tibet was influenced without any choice and Tibet would not come
under these foreign influences if there was a choice. Therefore, the first part of his speech
seems to sugar coat the historical truth of the existence of the foreign influence and
minimise the relationship with China in the past to present his point that Tibet is not part of
China.
The second sentence states ‘At other periods in the plateau’s history, it was Tibet
which exercised power and influence over its neighbours-including China.’ There are two
ideological consequences within this sentence. The first being the structure ‘it was Tibet
which exercised…’ as a cleft sentence which is a terminology in presupposition. A cleft
sentence can be seen as a sentence that has been divided into two separate clauses with the
focus being put on one constituent of the sentence. In the sentence showed above, the
subject ‘Tibet’ has been emphasised to add focus on who exercised power and influence
over its neighbours including China. It presupposes that what Tibet has done is true in a way
of embedding a clause which is a process (a potentially open question) into a sentence with
a RI verb to restrain the debate that might be against his point. The other ideological impact
between the lines is the use of an MAI verb ‘exercise’ which has, interestingly, been used in
Beijing’s answer as well. Presenting the act of influencing neighbours-including China by an
MAI verb, it seems to intentionally put Tibet in a position of power, and in other words,
claiming that Tibet was more powerful than neighbouring countries, specifically China as
China was the only country mentioned as an example during that period of time in Tibetan
long history. Therefore, the ideological impact sets up a view that Tibet was much more
powerful than China. This reconfirms that Tibet was not part of China giving the potential
reason that China was not ‘strong’ enough to be in charge.
The following sentence works out with ideologies in negation. He said ‘it would be
hard to find any state in the world today that has not been subjected to foreign domination
or influence at some era in its history’. In this sentence, by using the negative verb phrase
‘has not been subjected to’ in the relative clause, it indicates that ‘at some era in its history’,
any state in the world has been subjected to ‘foreign domination or influence’ in a way that
‘negative construction or lexical item sets up for the reader/listener a particular kind of
regular opposition, by conjuring up not only the absence of an occurrence of a process but
also a positive version in which the process occurs’ (Jefferies 2009:183). Thus it gives the
impression that it is natural for Tibet to be influenced by foreign domination as every state
in the world has undergone the same process during a certain period of time in the past. It
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moves Tibet’s case into a general category in order to try to fade off the potentially further
argument regarding this historical issue. The last sentence of this paragraph, ‘in Tibet’s case
the degree and duration of foreign influence and interference was relatively limited ’,
involves two ideological consequences on transitivity and presupposition. With the use of an
RI verb, the sentence could simply be seen as ‘In Tibet’s case A was relatively limited’ which
would suggest it is a statement without any doubt as the usual RI process indicates. The
head noun (degree and duration) of the subject (A) is pre-modified with the definite article
‘the’ as the determiner. Its ideological presupposition could only be that he admitted the
existence of this influence occurred in a way to show reader/hearer that he spoke honestly
about the history rather than denying it. So, with the complement (relatively limited), it
seems to frame a picture that a reliable person is telling the truth, nevertheless, the focus of
the answer changes to the fact that the influence in Tibet was fairly limited.
By presenting the ideas in these specific ways the strategy of indicating messages
works well to lessen the focus of requiring the explicit simple answer to the question
whether Tibet is part of China. He also illustrated to the reader/hearer the historical issues
to convey his point that the foreign influence was inevitable in the process of any country’s
development and thus the relation between China and Tibet is rather equal as the influence
was mutual. Avoiding a definite answer, he set up a view to convince reader/hearer that
Tibet was not part of China, at least historically, as well as to try to lead to a potential
impression that Tibet should not be part of China now.
4.2 Question2
What was Tibet like before the Communists established control in 1951?
Beijing’s stance:
It is reasonable that Beijing needs evidence to prove the influence of the establishment of
Communist control rather positive in Tibet. Thus, Beijing’s answer is likely frame a picture
that Tibet was extremely backward before the establishment of Communist control in 1951
and the establishment greatly helped Tibet’s development. The first sentence of its answer is
‘even in the first half of the 20th Century, Tibet remained a society of feudal serfdom under
a theocracy, one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe.’ In this sentence,
on top of using a MAI verb, the striking ideological effect is the instances of presupposition.
The triggers of logical presupposition being used here are the iterative word ‘remained’ and
the comparative structure ‘one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe’.
Similar to the other instance of an MAI verb I have mentioned above, it often results in
conveying the ideology that the Actor has the intention of the act. In so doing, it suggests
that Tibet as the Actor intended to ‘remain a society of feudal serfdom under a theocracy’
which can lower down the level of Tibet’s social development before 1951 and criticise Tibet
as being at such low social level. As one of the triggers of logical presupposition, the iterative
words work out the presupposition of some earlier or later occurrence. In this sentence, the
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iterative word remained presupposes that, before the first half of the 20th century, Tibet
had kept its society like that for a while, which, again, adds a more negative impression to
demonstrate how backward Tibet was by the ideological consequence of the presupposition.
The other trigger of logical presupposition I found here is the comparative structure, ‘where
the basis of the comparison is presupposed’. (Jefferies 155:2009). Saying that ‘one even
darker and more backward than medieval Europe’, this indicates that the society of Tibet
was overwhelmingly awful since it was even worse than the situation of presupposition that
the medieval Europe was dark and backward enough. Implying that Tibet’s society was even
worse than medieval Europe, the time adverbial (even in the first half of the 20th century)
doubles the strength of its emphasis of the statement that in such a modern world, Tibet,
still kept an very undeveloped society system which can make the establishment of
Communist control sensible and even beneficial.
Therefore the ideological consequences of this answer do a good job to implant in
the readers’ mind that no matter how far back we look on Tibetan society, it seems very
backward and that was what Tibet tended to do before the establishment of Communists
control. In doing so, it may direct to a potential agreement that the establishment of
Communist control was necessary and for Tibet’s own good to the reader/hearer.
Tibet’s stance:
Coincidentally, the Tibetan stance to this question produces the similar effect,
presupposition, as Beijing’s answer does. Opposite to Beijing’s answer, Tibet’s point of view
draws the attention to the idea that, Tibet was a peaceful place before the establishment of
Communist control. Based on this explicit point, a couple of ideologies are hidden but
working to support the point implicitly. Comparative structures, triggers of presupposition,
can be found in the first and third sentences in his speech respectively. The first sentence is
‘traditional Tibetan society –like most of its Asian contemporaries- was backward and badly
in need of reform.’ Modifying the head noun society as a qualifier, the insertion ‘–like most
of its Asian contemporaries-’ sets up a comparative structure which could be written as
traditional Tibetan society was backward and badly in need of reforms as most of its Asian
contemporaries. It presupposes that, at that time, most of its Asian contemporaries were
backward and badly in need of reform. The ideological consequence I can see here is that by
using the comparative structure to include other identities who share same features in order
to minimise the focus that traditional Tibetan society was backward and badly in need of
reform as it was a common situation for every Asian contemporary at that time. It would
greatly naturalise the fact of Traditional Tibetan society being backward. The third sentence
is ‘Tibet before invasion, in fact, was far more egalitarian than most Asian countries of that
time.’ Sharing the same ideological trigger as in the first sentence, the ideological effect of
this sentence is slightly different. By using the comparative structure ‘Tibet…was far more
egalitarian than most Asian countries of that time’, it presupposes that most Asian countries
of that time were already egalitarian to a certain extent. ‘Tibet before invasion’ here
indicating before the establishment of Communist control, was at an extremely high degree
of being egalitarian and was far better at that period of time compared to other
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contemporaries. Thubten Samphel’s speech comments on the nature of the traditional
Tibetan society in a positive approach altering the perspective of being backward to the
comparative case to suggest that Tibetan society was superior before 1951 and the reform
was redundant, even destructive.
4.3 Question 3
What has happened since then?
Beijing’s stance:
Beijing’s answer for this question is rather short and set in an official tone. Standing on the
point that Tibet has become more developed since the establishment of Communist control,
Beijing said that ‘since its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet had undergone profound social
changes, including democratic reform, reform and opening up, and had achieved remarkable
social and economic progress.’ Apart from the use of two MAI verbs (undergo and achieve)
emphasising the intentional acts by the Actor Tibet, it is worth mentioning that the
ideological consequences of the use of a two-part list. Two-part lists, connected with
conjunctures such as and, imply that the most important or common items of a certain
category are being presented in the list. In this compound sentence, sharing the same Actor
‘Tibet’, the two MAI verbs followed with different Goals set up a two-part list (Tibet has
undergone..., and has achieved...) with an indication that the most important events that
happened since the establishment of Communist control have been listed here. These acts
were Tibet’s intention which supports the idea that the establishment was welcomed by
Tibetans as it is an intentional act. Moreover, by doing so it avoids drawing possible
attention to the aspects such as chaos caused by reform and refusal of the new society’s
system to emphasise the rather beneficial aspects of the changes (profound social
changes…, and had achieved remarkable social and economic progress) which had happened
by then. Within the first clause of that sentence, the other instance of exemplifying by a
three-part list (including democratic reform, reform and opening up) works out the hidden
ideological consequence too. By the exemplifying mark including, it is explicit that the list is
not complete and it is quite possible to extend the list where other items might fit in.
Nevertheless, the certain type of list, three-part here, could generate the ideological effect
that seems to conclude the whole topic by presenting part of the category. Jefferies
comments ‘more significantly, perhaps, the ubiquitous three-part list seems to imply
completeness, without being comprehensive, and often appears to supplant real content,
particularly in contexts where positive image-making is seen as important’ (2009:112). Used
as the post-modifier of the head noun changes, this list would imply to the reader/hearer
that, since 1951, all the changes that happened in Tibet have been listed here, attempting to
minimize the range of issues that might be against Beijing’s stance. In addition to the postmodifier profound social, the whole clause seems to claim that all the changes in Tibet were
only positive reform and opening up. Presenting its answer like this, Beijing could be able to
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convince the reader/hearer that the liberation was good for Tibet not only by the explicit
speech but also by these ideological influences.
Tibet’s stance:
Compared with Beijing, Tibet’s answer is long and emotional. Holding the viewpoint that the
establishment of communist control was a disaster for Tibet, Thubten Samphel said, ‘an
internal Chinese military document states that from 1952 to 1958, the People’s Liberation
Army crushed 996 rebellions and killed over 10,000 Tibetans in the north-eastern region of
Kanlho’. I have highlighted these three verbs used in this sentence at levels of main clause
and subordinating clauses. The main verb (states) with the Actor (an internal Chinese
military document) can be seen as Event Process which stops further debate towrads the
Goal, a compound clause, which is the main complain of this sentence. In this compound
clause, following the Actor (the People’s Liberation Army), the two compound verbs
(crushed and killed) can be seen as Intention Processes with the Goals (996 rebellions and
over 10,000 Tibetans). The result of doing so is to enhance the effect that the cruel pictures
the reader/hearer could imagine and that the People’s Liberation Army intended to commit
a massacre in Tibet after the establishment. It seems to create the vivid scenes that the
People’s Liberation Army enjoyed beating Tibetans without any humane empathy since the
use of the Intentional Process verbs. Additionally, these two acts are at the subordinating
level which makes it difficult to argue with the Event Process verb ‘state’ in the main clause
at a higher hierarchy level. Apart from the explicit speech about the slaughter, this sentence
seems to make a statement which can heighten the shock to the reader/hearer with
cruelness to prove that the establishment of Communism were nothing but terrible for
Tibet.
4.4 Question4
Who was behind a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama
fled to India?
Beijing Stance:
In terms of this historical issue, Beijing points out the people’s demand of democratic reform
and makes the explicit assertion that the uprising against Chinese rule was just an excuse to
separate Tibet from China. The long simple sentence is ‘in face of the ever-growing demand
of the people for democratic reform, some people in the upper ruling strata of Tibet, in
order to preserve feudal serfdom and supported by imperialist forces, staged an armed
rebellion all along the line on 10 March 1959 in an attempt to separate Tibet from China.’ In
this simple sentence, the rather long noun phrases, which include modifiers and the head
nouns, generate the ideological consequences by packaging up information by use of
nominals. Jefferies comments on nominal ‘as a result of the normal structure of English
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clauses, nominals are less susceptible to debate or question than other clausal elements,
particular the verbal element. In other words, the nominal part of English clauses and
sentences are ‘’packaging up’’ something that is named by that nominal element, and the
recipient is not encouraged by such a structure to question the relationship between the
parts of that structure.’ (30:2009). Let us take a close look at these noun phrases. The
adverbial of the sentence is consisted of a prepositional phrase ‘in face of’ and a noun
phrase ‘the ever-growing demand of the people for democratic reform’ that packaged up at
least two processes which can be seen as open questions. The pre-modifier ‘the evergrowing’ could be replaced with an act written as ‘the demand is ever-growing.’ or a
question as ‘is the demand ever-growing?’. The post-modifier ‘of the people for democratic
reform’ also can be rewritten as ‘the people demand for democratic reform.’ or ‘do the
people demand for democratic reform?’. Instead of presenting the act processes, the long
noun phrase avoids the potential argument. By modification, it makes presupposition in
order to convince the reader/hearer that what is illustrated here is true too. Again the use of
the definite article the in the pre-modifier creates an existential presupposition that
presupposes the existence of the ever-growing demand rather than using indefinite article
which does not introduce existential presupposition but implies a general situation. By doing
so, the noun phrase works effectively to make the speech less sceptical and to move the
focus to the proposition of the Adverbial as the reason for the uprising against China in1959.
On top of the ideological effect of the pre-modifier, the lengthy post-modifier of the
subject ‘some people’ contributes to offer some hidden messages too. The long postmodifier is ‘in the upper ruling strata of Tibet, in order to preserve feudal serfdom supported
by imperialist forces’. Within the first prepositional phrase, the noun phrase, where the head
noun (strata) is pre-modified by determiner (the) and adjective phrase (upper ruling) and
post-modified by the prepositional phrase (of Tibet). By using a definite article as a
determiner, it presupposes the existence of the upper ruling strata in Tibet to support later
complaints. Including an infinitive verb clause (to preserve feudal serfdom) in the second
post-modifier as a prepositional phrase nominalises a process which could present as a
question with verb element. In order to restrain the potential argument it is performed as a
nominal entity to post-modify the head noun. The third post-modifier, an infinitive verb
clause, again, nominalises the potential question of whether the people were ‘supported by
imperialist forces’ into a less sceptical nominal post-modification. By doing so, the
information of the three ideologies are packaged up into the post-modifier of the head noun
‘people’ and it is not easy to question these ideologies since the distinctions between
entities and processes are less clear. Similarly, the noun phrase determines the object
(rebellion) also packages up two ideas and alters their attention to the proposition which
could be open to discuss. These messages are that the rebellion was armed and the rebellion
was an attempt to separate Tibet from China. In other words, it also presupposes that the
two issues are true. Without the various modifiers, the basic structure of the sentence is
rather simple as ‘in face of demand, people staged rebellion.’ As the only process (staged)
we can see in the sentence, the questions might arise from that are rather limited such as
the arguments that if people staged rebellion and if the demand was the reason for people
to stage rebellion. Imagine all these ideologies in the nominal form in this answer were set
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out as processes, the reliability of would be much weaker as too much uncertainty available
for further argument.
Tibet’s stance:
Thubten Samphel made comments on the issues that the introduction of Chinese
Communist Party and China’s breaking of promises caused the uprising in Tibet. But my
focus is on the first sentence where the linguistic approaches used to produce ideological
effects. He said ‘The 59’ uprising against Chinese rule was a people’s movement to resist all
the changes the Chinese Communist Party were introducing in Tibet.’ In this sentence, the
first noun phrases performed as the Subject/Actor does not introduce any implicit ideology
as the information being packaged up is just a historical event. But the second noun phrase,
the Object/Goal, consisted of a head noun with two modifiers, generates an implicit
ideological consequence to minimize the possibility of arising potential debates as shown
below by using nominal element.
The pre-modification ‘people’s’ could be questioned as ‘Was it a people’s movement?’
The post-modification ‘to resist all the changes the Chinese Communist Party were
introducing in Tibet’ as ‘Was the movement to resist all the changes the Chinese Communist
Party were introducing in Tibet?’
On top of this, by the use of the Intentional Relation verb was as the predicate, it is very
likely for a reader/hearer to jump to the conclusion that the proposition of this complex
sentence is reliable since all the chances of debate have been minimised by these implicit
ideological consequences. Further more the only part one might doubt is the process ‘was’,
or ‘was not’, but the nominal part can be definitely believed. So, at the beginning of the
speech, the director has successfully set up the positive picture which is his claim that the
introduction of Communist control is the reason for the uprising which he called the
‘people’s movement’.
5. Conclusion
So far, I have analysed the answers of the first four questions with various CDA tools. My
analysis reveals how implicit ideological consequence might lead reader/hearer to make
certain conclusions that could support the speaker’s point of view in news reports. With
regards to the cases I have presented in this article, I believe that I can prove that the special
ways of writing can work out implicit impact beyond the text to convey its ‘hidden’ ideas
even in the case that the data of both of stances are not from native speakers. Using similar
methodology with similar approaches it is possible that others may come to a different
analysis of the text from a different point of view. What has been presented here is based on
my own understanding of the text and theories. However, with the CDA approaches that I
used I can be sure that my analysis can be accepted as valid even though my own judgments
may differ from others. Therefore, I think that my analysis can show how CDA approaches
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work to understand news reports is not only applicable but very effective in helping to
provide a different insight that may not be immediately noticeable to not only a native
speaker but also those who read it as second language.
REFERENCES
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 3rd edition. London: Arnold
Jeffries, L. (2010) Critical Stylistics: The Power of English. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Simpson, P.(2004) Stylistics. London: Routledge
Simpson, P.(1993) Language, Ideology and Point of View. London: Routledge
The Tibet issue
Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7411011.stm> [Accessed 26th
March 2009]
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APPENDIX
The Tibet Issue (excluding the first four questions)
As the Dalai Lama visits Britain, the BBC outlines Beijing's stance on Tibet, based on various
official Chinese sources.
Who was responsible for the recent unrest in Tibet?
“We now possess sufficient evidence to prove that the Lhasa incident is part of the 'Tibetan
people's uprising movement' organised by the Dalai clique. Its purpose is to create crisis in
China by staging co-ordinated sabotage activities in Tibet. 'Tibet Independence' separatist
forces led by the Dalai Lama takes the 2008 Beijing Olympics as their last straw to realise
‘Tibetan independence’.”
(China's Ministry of Public Security press release, April 2008)
“The Dalai Lama keeps talking about a peaceful way. However, solid facts prove that his
much-vaunted 'middle way' policy and 'peaceful demonstrations' are blatant lies fabricated
by the Dalai himself and the Dalai clique.”
(China's Ministry of Public Security press release, April 2008)
What does the Chinese government think about reports by the Western media about the
recent events in Tibet?
“It is unfortunate that a few Western media outlets, including some from the United States,
are ignorant of the obvious truths and are basing their reports on distorted facts and
unfounded claims.”
(Zhang Yun, Chinese consul general for Los Angeles, Xinhua, April 2008)
As the Dalai Lama visits Britain, his director of information, Thubten Samphel, outlines the
Tibetan government-in-exile's stance on the China-Tibet issue.
Who was responsible for the recent unrest in Tibet?
“In the early 1980s, a liberal policy was introduced in Tibet. This policy dismantled
collectivisation and there were plans to withdraw 85% of the Chinese cadres working in the
Tibet Autonomous Region. This policy was aimed at letting Tibetans govern themselves.
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“However, in 1994, all these liberal measures were withdrawn and a new policy called
‘grasping with both hands’ was implemented in Tibet. This policy continued Tibet's economic
development while reimposing political repression targeted at undermining Tibetan culture
and Tibetan Buddhism. The recent widespread protests in Tibet are Tibetans' resistance to
this hardline policy.”
What does the Tibetan government-in-exile think about reports by the Western media
about the recent events in Tibet?
“The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) thinks that the international media coverage
about the recent events in Tibet is the most extensive. The media reports were, by and large
fair, accurate and balanced.”
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