【正文】 the welloff society. The government also continued to strengthen the functions of the public service and made effort to build a serviceoriented government. These issues are reflected by the high frequency key words as “government”, “people”, “socialism with Chinese characteristics ”, and “ welloff society” in the fifth period. 4. Diachronic Study of Titles Title is the “eye” of an article from which we can know what the article is mainly about. A good title can convey main context of the New Year’s Editorial and reflect its characteristics. In this part, the paper analyses the titles of the New Year’s Editorials in each period. From the titles, we can gain insights about the social situations in each period. In order to let the readers know the titles of the New Year’s Editorials well, the paper adds an appendix about titles of all the 65 New Year’s Editorials (194920xx) at the end of the paper. The language selection of the titles in the New Year’s Editorials is dynamic. Although the New Year’s Editorial is published every year, the choice of title language changes significantly in different eras. The changes of the title language reflect the main tasks and social situations in different periods. In the first period, the titles of the New Year’s 7 Editorials are mainly about revolution and mission. For instance, the title of 1950 is “完成勝利，鞏固勝利迎接一九五零年元旦 ”. The reason is that the new China has to finish the Democratic Revolution and build a united nation. At that time, the new China was founded just shortly after the win of new democratic revolution and China wanted to consolidate the victory of the economic recovery and economic construction. Therefore, the titles of the New Year’s Editorials are mainly about missions to build the new China. In the second period, the titles of the New Year’s Editorials are mostly about victories and outlooks. After the pletion of the first fiveyear plan, China gained some achievements in the economic field. However, the party’s political thought “l(fā)eftist” ideology extended to the economic sphere. The Great Leap, with the features of “high standards, pompous wind and munist wind”, began in economic field. During this period, the Communist Party had too high evaluation of China and concentrated on unreasonable goals of industrial and agricultural production. It is obviously presented in the title of the New Year’s Editorial in 1959 “迎接新的更偉大的勝利 ”, because the Great Leap started in 1958 and the reports of industrial and agricultural production were very impressive but they were not real, however, the leaders of China did not realize that they were unauthentic phenomena and were proud of the figures in the reports. Then in the next year the leaders of China wanted to reach greater victory. In the third period, China was going in the Cultural Revolution phase, and the whole nation responded to the call of Chairman Mao to join the Cultural Revolution, hence, the titles of the New Year’s Editorials mainly reflected the Cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao’s thoughts, for example, the title of the New Year’s Editorial in 1967 is “把無產(chǎn)階級文化大革命進(jìn)行到底 ”. During this period, the whole nation participated in the Cultural Revolution and took class struggle as the key issue. In the fourth period, the Cultural Revolution was ended but the national economy was destroyed. The main task of the Communist Party of China was to find new ways to develop economy. The title of the New Year’s Editorial in 1985 “和衷共濟(jì)搞四化 ” is a good example. The Communist Party of China and government shifted work centers to realize “four modernizations” and carried out the Opening up policy and made achievements especially in economic field, for example, the coastal cities began to attract foreign investors and became famous economic centers in 8 the word. The year of 1978 was a turning point for China and China entered a new era from this year. In the fifth period, China has made remarkable achievements in economic construction. The Communist Party of China and the government paid more attention to people, and constantly improved people’s living standards, for example, the title of the New Year’s Editorial in 20xx“邁出全面建設(shè)小康社會的新步伐 ” is a good example. Entering the 21 century, China has reached many achievements and entered moderately prosperous society. Nevertheless, China is in the low level of moderately prosperous society and still shoulders heavy responsibilities, for example, the gap between the rich and the poor is still a serious issue. The leaders of China set higher targets for the future and dedicate to build moderately prosperous society in all aspects. Therefore, the titles of the New Year’s Editorials are mostly about moderately prosperous society in all aspects and socialism with Chinese characteristics. In different historical periods, the choice of title language often takes marks of the times, which can reflect the prevailing social and political environment. From the analysis of titles of the New Year’s Editorials in different periods, it is helpful to disclose the close relationship between language and social context. 5. Diachronic Study of Generic Structure Genre is “the use of language associated with a particular social activity” (Fairclough 1992:138). It is widely presumed that genres are embedded in their social historical contexts (Swales 20xx。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)元旦社 論這一語篇類型的語言學(xué)特征呈現(xiàn)出明顯的歷時變化，這些語言學(xué)特征的變化與社會環(huán)境的變化具有密切的關(guān)系，呈現(xiàn)出共變的特征。語言隨著社會的發(fā)展而變化，并反過來影響社會的變化。 畢 業(yè) 論 文 題 目： 話語與社會的變遷 — 基于《人民日報》 元旦社論（ 194920xx）的歷時研究 Discourse and Social Change — A Diachronic Study of the New Year’s Editorials (194920xx) in the People’s Daily Xing Jianping A Thesis Submitted in Conformity with the Requirements for the