An Appraisal Based Comparative Study On English And Chinese Military Commentaries

The South China Sea issue has gradually formed since the eruption of the first Oil Crises in1970s. In recent years, the South China Sea issue has been heatedly discussed as the scramble of sovereignty and resources in this region, which has brought about many military commentaries from different countries’mainstream media, such as that of UK, America and China.At present, the researches about military commentary mainly lie in the fields of journalism and communication, while there are rare researches in the domain of linguistics, especially on appraisal based analysis on military commentaries. Till now, there is no research work on appraisal based comparative analysis of English and Chinese military commentaries.This paper aims to explore the distribution features of attitudinal and graduation resources and the relationship between attitude and target in English and Chinese military commentaries by comparing90military commentaries from Philippine, American and Chinese mainstream media on the South China Sea issue under the framework of Martin and White’s appraisal theory (2005) and Bloom’s (2011) proposal for target. Through the sentiment analysis of the attitudinal, graduation and target resources employed, this paper attempts to further reveal the similarities and differences on the realization forms of attitude and graduation in English and Chinese military commentaries, and the distribution features of three attitudinal subsystems under different types of targets.This paper is composed of seven sections. Chapter one is the introduction part. Chapter two is the literature review section, which mainly reviews the research status of the appraisal theory and military commentary at home and abroad. Chapter three introduces the theoretical foundation of this study. Chapter four provides the source of the research data, mentions the research methods employed and describes the research procedures. Chapter five analyzes the linguistic realizations of attitudinal, graduation and target resources in English and Chinese military commentaries. Chapter six is the results and discussion section, which makes a comparative analysis on the similarities and differences of attitude, graduation and target in English and Chinese military commentaries about the South China Sea issue. Besides, the underlying reasons are also discussed. Finally, chapter seven is the concluding section.It is found that attitudinal resources account for the foremost part both in English and Chinese military commentaries. Although, there are fewer graduation resources in these commentaries, the appropriate using of them plays a vital role in intensifying the expressions of emotions. Secondly, military commentaries are more subjected to the military properties of the targets evaluated. It is also found that judgment resources account for the foremost proportion in Philippine, American and Chinese military commentaries, which indicates that commentators focus mostly on the judgment values of the incidence. At the same time, Philippine, American and Chinese military commentaries share the same targets evaluated. For example, they all take three participants’responses as the main targets evaluated. Thirdly, as the changes of stances of commentators, the content and the focus of the military commentaries also change accordingly. For instance, the Philippine and American commentators put more emphasis on Chinese responses and suggestions towards the issue because of their similar political and military position, and employ more force resources to scale the corresponding attitudinal resources. While Chinese military commentaries highlight more on the three countries’ responses and pay much attention to the focus resources.The comparative analysis of English and Chinese military commentaries about the South China Sea issue from the linguistics perspective will not only enrich the appraisal based sentiment studies, but also will provide a new perspective for the correct construction and destruction of military commentaries in journalism and communication domain, in making military commentary more readable. Besides, it can also help readers to probe into commentators’real writing intentions from the sentiment aspect.