| In 2000, Appraisal Theory(AT) was put forward by Martin. Since then, it has been studied by more and more linguists in terms of theory and application. As for the study on theory, AT has been supplemented from the perspectives of lexis and grammar. As for the study on application, appraisal is analyzed in various kinds of discourses, among which news discourses have drawn more attention. However, most studies focus on the distributions of appraisal within the framework of AT. Nevertheless, there are fewer studies which focus on the relationship between attitude resources and the ideology in news discourses.Hong Kong “Occupy Central” took place on September 28, 2014. Since then, a great many of news reports are covered by different domestic and foreign media. Due to the different standpoints of these media, their reports are different with diverse expressions.Though the characteristics of news discourses are of objectivity and facticity, the reporters of each newspaper would convey their political standpoints and ideologies to its readers with attitude resources.In brief, the studies on attitude resources and their relationship with the ideology in news discourses are comparatively less. In view of the timeliness of news discourses, the studies on Hong Kong “Occupy Central” news discourses are less.So this study concentrates on attitude resources and their subsystems in Hong Kong“Occupy Central” news discourses for the purpose of making analyses on the relationship between attitude resources and the ideology constructed in news discourses. The significance of the study has two aspects. Theoretically, it has supplemented attitude resources in terms of lexis and grammar structures and further distinguished the boundaries of affect, judgment and appreciation. Practically, it has provided practical guidance for the comprehension of news reports and related foreign language teaching.The corpus built in the study consists of 30 pieces of news discourses from three famous kinds of newspapers: China Daily, South China Morning Post and New York Times. Each newspaper randomly contributes 10 reports about Hong Kong “Occupy Central” which are published from September 28 to October 31.The research questions are: 1) What is the total distribution and frequency of attitude resources on lexis and grammar structures in Hong Kong “Occupy Central” news discourses?2) What are the distributions and frequencies of the subsystems in affect, judgment and appreciation in news discourses of the present study? 3) How are attitude resources applied in news discourses to construct the ideology for the purpose of uncovering their “objectivity andfacticity”?Qualitative and quantitative analyses have been adopted in this study. By means of Treetagger2 and Ant Conc3.2.1w, the author has manually classified the attitude resources according to AT. After data processing and qualitative analysis, the major findings of the study are as follows: firstly, as for the total distributions of attitude resources on lexis and grammar structures, there are no big differences. In terms of lexis, appreciation accounts for the largest percentage in each newspaper, judgment comparably less, and affect the least. In terms of grammar structures, the sentences of which the appraisal patterns belong to appreciation and judgment, account for more percentages. Secondly, as for the distributions of the subsystems in affect, judgment and appreciation, property and valuation account for larger percentages than other subsystems, which shows news reporters frequently adopt words about property and valuation to convey their standpoints. Thirdly, as for the construction of the ideology in each newspaper, it can be concluded that the rates of “for”, “against” and “neutral” are different in China Daily, South China Morning Post and New York Times, which implies:Chinese are strongly opposed to this event, and the majority of Hong Kong citizens are against it, but there are also people who can not discern between right and wrong. Americans are supportive of the so-called protest without recognizing that “Occupy Central” is not a democratic protest but a domestic affair. |
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