| Appraisal system is mainly concerned with the interpersonal meaning and interactions involved in the discourse,and it has developed into an interest of research in recent years.However,most studies are concerned with the appraisal features in the English discourse,and the studies on appraisal features in the Chinese discourse,particularly in the comparative analysis between the English and Chinese discourse are quite limited.The present study is an effort in this field,aiming at analyzing and comparing the ATTITUDINAL resources used in the English and Chinese news discourses in terms of their quantitative and linguistic features.To explore the parallels and differences between the English and Chinese news discourses in the use of ATTITUDINAL resources,40 news comments concerning"the Belt and Road Initiative" were collected as the data for observation and analysis,of which,20 English news comments were from The Washington Post,and 20 Chinese news comments were from People's Daily.Both the quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed in the data processing and analysis.The quantitative approach was used with the help of some statistical softwares to reveal the types and amounts of ATTITUDINAL resources involved in the English and Chinese news comments respectively;while the qualitative method was applied to explore the linguistic forms commonly used to express ATTITUDE in both the English and Chinese news comments.Through observation and analysis,we come to some generalizations about the parallels and differences regarding the use of ATTITUDINAL resources in the corpus.In general,there were more differences than the parallels in the use of all ATTITUDINAL resources between the corpus;particularly,a significant difference was found about the use of AFFECT and JUDGEMENT resources.Compared with the Chinese news comments,the English news comments adopted more AFFECT and JUDGEMENT resources,but no significant difference was found between them in the use of APPRECIATION.Specifically,in the AFFECT system,more UN/HAPPINESS and IN/SECURITYresources were used in the English news comments,but there was no significant difference between the English and Chinese news comments in the use of DIS/INCLINATION and DIS/SATISFACTION.As for the JUDGEMENT system,NORMALITY,CAPACITY and VERACITY resources were more frequently used in the English news comments,but the amounts of TENACITY and PROPRIETY were similar in the two types of comments.Under the APPRECIATION system,more REACTION and COMPOSITION resources were employed in the English news comments,but with little difference in the use of VALUATION.In the analysis of linguistic forms used to express ATTITUDE,we found there were more parallels than differences.Both the English and Chinese news comments adopted inscribed lexis such as attitudinal verbs,nouns,adjectives,modal words and relevant phrases to realize AFFECT,JUDGEMENT,and employed inscribed and invoked expressions(such as metaphor)to achieve APPRECIATION.However,the English news comments were inclined to adopt more adjectives and their corresponding phrases,as well as their comparative or superlative forms;while the Chinese news comments tended to apply more verbs,verbal phrases and Chinese idioms to convey attitudes.The outcome of present study may provide more information about the use of appraisal system across languages as well as a better understanding about its operations in the realization of appraisals in different discourses.Moreover,it can provide some information for the news writers at home to promote the impact of "Belt and Road" initiative internationally. |
PDF Full Text Request