ABSTRACT
As the linguist and critical discourse analyst Teun van Dijk asserts, language users, including news writers, have a large pool of lexical and grammatical items at their disposal. However, when referring to a certain phenomenon or a group of people, they may choose certain lexical items over others, and in so doing, might propagate a particular version of a story. Lexical choices are not just descriptors of people and events; they can reflect deeper ideological beliefs and stances. The bill prompted fears about the judicial independence of Hong Kong, which, according to an agreement signed between Great Britain and China, was to retain its own economic and legal system for 50 years after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty. The first of the two texts is a blog from the British broadsheet The Guardian reporting on events as they happened.
