A Comparative Study Of Attitudinal Resources Employed By China Daily And New York Times

News discourse is one of the research hotspots of discourse study, but the combined employment of Appraisal Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis on the research of news discourse study is of scarcity. With news reports on US military actions in Libya from China Daily (CD) and New York Times (NIT) as its data, attitudinal system in Appraisal Theory as the analytical framework, this research attempts to make a comparative study on the employment of attitudinal resources in CD and NYT, and then probes into its similarities and differences from CD A perspective so as to reveal the underlying ideologies behind the sample texts.The research questions of this thesis include:1) What attitudinal resources are employed by CD and NYT in their reports on US military action in Libya crisis?2) What are the similarities and differences of the attitudinal resources employed by CD and NYT?3) What are the possible reasons for the similarities and differences in the attitudinal resources employment between CD and NYT towards the same event?After quantitative and qualitative attitudinal analyses of the chosen news reports, the present study comes to three major findings:Firstly, both CD and NYT have employed all the sub-categories of attitude system in the chosen news reports, but due to the objectivity of news reports, the proportion of un/happiness in affect is extremely low. none in CD and0.47%in NYT. Secondly, the configuration of affect resources and judgment resources are similar in CD and NYT-but the distribution of appreciation is distinguished, with CD focusing on "action" of appreciation, accounting for37.5%. while NYT emphasizing "valuation" of appreciation, summing up to45.66%. Thirdly, the underlying ideologies reflected in the similarities and differences of attitudinal resources employed in CD and NYT are construed in different political strategies, economic patterns, cultural origins and social structures between China and the United States.The theoretical implication of this research lies in the employment of Appraisal Theory when news discourse is studied from CDA perspective, which proves the feasibility of using Appraisal Theory as the analytical tool for textual analysis in CDA discourse studies. Meanwhile, this research may help enhance critical awareness in news reading and provide some pedagogic implication for EFL critical reading competence cultivation.