A Contrastive Study Of Judgment Resources Between English And Chinese Entertainment News

Appraisal theory has analyzed many different types of discourse, but the number of the studies on entertainment news in the light of appraisal theory is relatively small, not to mention the contrastive studies between English and Chinese entertainment news. The present thesis conducted a contrastive study on judgment resources in English and Chinese entertainment news, aiming to investigate the distribution patterns of judgment resources and the differences in the two patterns as well as the differences in frequency of judgment resources between English and Chinese entertainment news.Thirty pieces of English and thirty pieces of Chinese entertainment news were selected and analyzed, all of which meet the narrow definition of entertainment news, and the estimated number of words in the entertainment news ranges from 500 to 550. Statistical package(SPSS), quantitative approach and contrastive analysis were adopted to analyze the English and Chinese entertainment news.The results show that there exist similarities and differences in the use of judgment resources between English and Chinese entertainment news. With reference to the distribution patterns of judgment resources, the two patterns in percentage in English and Chinese entertainment news are similar. Regarding the differences in frequency of judgment resources, while social esteem does not show any difference between English and Chinese entertainment news, a significant difference of social sanction shows up. As for the three subsystems of social esteem, there is no significant difference of capacity resources between English and Chinese entertainment news. However, drastic differences are found in normality resources and tenacity resources. In terms of the two subsystems of social sanction, while propriety resources show a significant difference between English and Chinese entertainment news, veracity resources do not display any difference.The study contributes deep insight into the application of judgment resources between English and Chinese entertainment news based on Martin and White’s appraisal theory. The findings of this study are helpful in reading and writing entertainment news for students.