An Analysis Of Appraisal Resources In English Event Stories Of Political Violence

In recent years, political violent conflicts erupt frequently. Because of its greatdestruction, more and more people have become to pay attention to political violentevents. More and more news reports focus on reporting political violent events.Traditionally, English event story of political violence is to offer an objective, fair andfactual reporting. However, it can still reflect its attitudes, viewpoints and stances onpolitical violent events. This paper tries to analyze English event stories of politicalviolence from the perspective of appraisal theory.Appraisal theory is put forward by Professor Martin and other scholars, anddevelops on the basis of interpersonal function. This system primarily pays attention tothose language resources which can express one’s attitude, viewpoint and stance. Itincludes three sub-systems which are attitude system, engagement system andgraduation system.This paper tries to make an appraisal analysis of English event stories of politicalviolence, so as to see how appraisal resources are used and explore the reasons of usingthese language resources. Three research questions are needed to be answered in thispaper. They are (1) what are the attitudes on political violent events expressed inEnglish event stories of political violence and what are the real intentions of usingattitude resources?(2) How engagement resources are used to make English eventstories of political violence more convincing and acceptable by the readers?(3) Howgraduation resources are used in English event stories of political violence and what arethe purposes of using these language resources?In this research,50pieces of event stories of political violence are selected ascorpus. Both of quantitative way and qualitative way are adopted to analyze appraisalresources in the corpus. First, this paper uses quantitative way to calculate the amountsand frequencies of each type of appraisal resources. And then, qualitative analysis isused to show how appraisal resources are used and interpret the purposes of using theselanguage resources.Through analyzing, this paper finds that (1) in attitude system, English eventstories of political violence choose more judgement resources than appreciationresources. The amount of affect resources is the fewest. This kind of news reportsemploys more judgement resources so as to attract the readers’ attention on the judgement of the behaviors of those people using violence, and avoids using more affectresources in order to make the news reports more objective. Moreover, this kind of newsreports uses more negative attitude resources to show its negative attitudes on politicalviolence. In affect system, more negative insecurity resources are used. By using thesenegative insecurity resources, it shows the feelings of fear and anxiety for the readers,so as to evoke the readers’ concern and sympathy for those innocent people. Underjudgement system, more negative propriety resources are used to reveal that thebehaviors of those persons using violence are immoral or illegal, and should be widelycondemned and severely punished. In this way, it evokes the readers’ anger andcondemnations to those persons using violence. In appreciation system, more negativereaction resources are employed, which shows the negative reaction to politicalviolence. Through using these negative reaction resources, this kind of news reports isto evoke the readers’ anxiety on the development on political violent events.(2) Inengagement system, more heterogloss resources are used than monogloss resources.Monogloss resources are used to provide an objective and factual reporting on politicalviolent events so as to convince the readers. As for the system of heterogloss, expansionresources are used more than contraction resources. Under the category of dialogiccontraction, this kind of news reports chooses more disclaim resources to suppress otheralternatives, so as to make its viewpoints more convincing. In the system of dialogicexpansion, attribute resources are used more than entertain resources. Through usingentertain resources, it makes a proper prediction so as to make the news report moreacceptable by the readers. In the category of attribute, a lot of acknowledge resourcesare used. Through introducing the voices of other authentic persons or witnesses, thenews report seems more truthful and convincing.(3) In the system of graduation, thiskind of news reports chooses more force resources than focus resources to adjust itsevaluative meanings so as to influence the readers’ opinions. In force system,quantification resources are widely used to deepen the readers’ impression on politicalviolence, strengthen their negative attitudes and attract their attention on politicalviolent events. In focus system, English event story of political violence prefers tochoose soften resources to blur evaluative meanings so as to make its viewpoints moreacceptable by the readers.