The News Reports On Migrant Workers: A Positive Discourse Analysis Based On Appraisal Theory

Discourse analysis has been paid great attention to by linguists since it was proposed,while having an overview of the emergence and development of discourse analysis, we mayeasily find that critical discourse analysis is the main focus. Critical discourse analysis (CDA),based on deconstructive philosophy, focuses on the inequality of power embodied in the texts,namely, the relation between language and ideology. But actually not all the discourses implyunequal discourse relation.In view of the deficiencies of CDA, Martin proposed the Positive Discourse Analysis(PDA). According to Martin, the analysis of language shouldn’t be restricted to the “badnews” with inequality, and those “good news” advocating peace should also be contained.PDA is not to overthrow the theoretical foundation and analytical methodology of CDAabsolutely, but it tends to look upon and solve the various social problems with a positiveattitude, hoping to construct a harmonious society through discourse analysis.Based on this, this study adopts appraisal theory as the main theoretical foundation tomake a positive analysis of the ten news report on migrant workers chosen from China Daily(2008-2012), exactly from the comment page, among which qualitative and quantitativeanalysis will be used. And the whole research is going to discuss the following questions: howall various appraisal resources are distributed in the news report on migrant workers; what arethe positive effects of all appraisal resources on earth in news report on migrant workers infacilitating the problems’ solving of migrant workers. The results show that (1) the attitudesystem in news report on migrant workers is mainly expressed by judgment and appreciationsubsystem, and the percentage of affect system relatively occurs less frequently. From theperspective of PDA, the use of affect resources, especially the negative affect resources andsome appreciation resources, can reach the effect of aligning readers through empathy; the useof judgment resources especially the positive judgment on governments’ taking effectivemeasures to solve migrant workers’ problems is good for enhancing the publics’ confidenceon problems-solving;(2) Among engagement system, modality resources far exceed the projection and concession resources. From the perspective of PDA, the use of projectionresources and some modal words can expand the dialogic space and strengthen thepossibilities of reconciliation on solving migrant workers’ problems, while the use of deonticmodality points out the future direction for how to completely resolve migrant workers’problems;(3) Among graduation system, the writer prefers to use force resources, what’smore, the percentage of intensification subcategories outnumbers the qualification one. Fromthe perspective of PDA, on the one hand the use of force resources can highlight theemotional agreement, and on the other hand, it can highlight the urgency of solving migrantworkers’ problems.This paper conducts a research on news report about migrant workers from theperspective of PDA. It is not only good for expanding and perfecting the new perspective ofPDA but also good for providing guidance for people to look upon migrant workers’ problemsand arousing the publics’ attention to this vulnerable group and then promoting theconstruction of harmonious society.