Positive Discourse Analysis Of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia News Commentary From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

In December 2019,the outburst of novel corona-virus epidemic aroused great concern of scholars at home and abroad.Most of its related studies are based on journalism and discourse strategies.Commentary discourse studies concerning the novel epidemic,particularly from the perspective of Positive Discourse Analysis,is relatively weak.Based on the Appraisal Theory,this research selects news commentaries concerning novel corona-virus pneumonia from People’s Daily Overseas and builds a corpus.Taking the White Paper issued by the State Council of People’s Republic of China as the blue print,the researcher divides the fight against the epidemic accordingly and conducts Positive Discourse Analysis.The research aims to explore the distribution characteristics of appraisal resources and how the media expresses their attitudes and position through appraisal resources and resonate with readers.The study has the following findings:(1)The proportion of attitudinal resources is much higher than that of engagement resources;(2)Within attitude system,the adoption frequency from high to low is appreciation,judgement and affect;(3)The media resonates with readers by setting periodical topics.At the epidemic outbreak and spreading period,commentators highlight the seriousness of the epidemic situation with the help of appreciation resources;in the meanwhile,the media adopts positive affect words to ease people’s panic.At the epidemic management period,commentators adopt attribute and endorse resources to affirm China’s great contribution in the world anti-epidemic battlefield and highlights its image as a big country.This study objectively reflects the firm stand of Chinese national leaders and Chinese people in defeating the epidemic,as well as their faith and courage to meet challenges.To a certain extent,it enriches studies of crisis news commentary discourse and enlarges the application scope of positive discourse research;in addition,this study helps to enhance the positive thinking mode of the public in crisis events and promote the positive guidance of the media to the public..