| Appraisal theory, as a new approach of linguistics, was first proposed by J. R. Martin and his co-workers in 1990s. It is the further development of interpersonal function within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. SFL identifies three modes of meaning which operate simultaneously in all utterances—the textual, the ideational and the interpersonal. Appraisal theory is to develop and extend the SFL account of the interpersonal by attending to three axes (Attitude, Engagement and Graduation) along which the speaker’s/writer’s inter-subjective stance may vary. It is concerned with the subjective presence of speakers and writers in texts as they show different attitudes towards both sides they represent and the people whom they communicate with. It is about how writers/speakers agree and disagree, like and dislike, encourage and discourage, and how they affect their readers/listeners to do likewise. It is also concerned with the construction by texts of shared values and feelings, and how they align and disalign with the would-be answers.Appraisal theory is divided into three sub-systems:attitude, engagement, and graduation. Among each sub-system, more sub-systems are divided. Therefore, appraisal theory has become a new method as a basic analytical tool and has extended the interpersonal function of SFL.With the maturity of Appraisal Theory, more and more types of English discourses have been analyzed, including political news discourses. This thesis selects 9 political news separately from China Daily, RT, and Washington Post as the analyzing material. They are the comments or reports released by three authoritative English news media. The thesis will analyze the reports of the three news media on the same specific event. With the use of quantitative analysis, this thesis aims at analyzing the difference in the distribution of the appraisal resources and the causes of the distribution difference. Three questions addressed in this thesis are:(1) What is the distribution difference of attitude resources across the three different news agencies from China, Russia and America respectively and why?(2) What is the distribution difference of engagement resources across the three different news agencies from China, Russia and America respectively and why?(3) What is the distribution difference of gradation resources across the three different news agencies from China, Russia and America respectively and why?After the analysis, it is found that (1) All the news reporters apply evaluative resources to hiding their own opinions and ideologies for the sake of the claimed objectivity of news reports. (2) The values of the sub-systems of the Appraisal system, are distributed unevenly in the selected news reports. China Daily uses the least appraisal resources and the Washington Post employs the most appraisal resources. Among all the sub-systems, attitude is used least by all the three newspapers and engagement is applied the most.Undoubtedly, the application of Appraisal Theory to conduct English political news discourse analysis is very beneficial, for it can help improve our insight on English political news, better reveal hidden ideology behind language, deepen our evaluation system and enable us to have a better understanding of political news, as well as of its value and significance. The application of appraisal theory is of great significance in that:It proves the significance of appraisal theory as a new analytical means and offers a framework for the analysis of news reports. Besides, it is an innovative approach to explore ideologies and inter-subjective stance encoded in this type of texts. |
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