A Comparative Study Of Attitudinal Resources In China Daily And The New York Times

News discourse has been a research hotspot in the field of discourse analysis.The current studies on news discourse are mainly conducted from the perspective of stylistic approach,appraisal approach and critical discourse analysis approach.Additionally,researchers study news discourse with the combination of appraisal analysis and critical discourse analysis.However,few scholars have applied international relations theories to dissect news reports,based on linguistic analysis.Language is closely related to international politics and international relations;therefore linguistics can be utilized to study international relations,which may provide a new perspective for better interpretation of news discourse.At present,the studies on news discourse can be classified into two categories: non-critical analysis and critical analysis.The latter chiefly focuses on the relationship between and among language,power and ideology.Adopting non-critical analysis,i.e.bringing attitude system and identity and interest theory in Alexander Wendt's social constructivism,this study makes a comparative analysis to news reports on the South China Sea arbitration case.The research selects 20 articles(11,730 words)from The New York Times(NYT)and 21 articles(11,629 words)from China Daily(Ch D)on the South China Sea arbitration case from January 22,2013 to November 11,2016 as research materials.Additionally,taking attitude system in Martin's Appraisal Theory as the basic analytical tool,the study aims to answer two research questions with the combination of quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques.The first one is on the similarities and differences of the attitudinal resources in ChD and NYT and further scrutiny of causes for the distribution in light of attitude system;the second one is on similarities and differences of the attitudinal resources employed by Ch D and NYT and further analysis of causes within the framework of Wendt's identity and interest theory.The study comes to two major findings: i)Due to the objectivity of news reports,appreciation resources far overweigh the other two attitudinal resources.Judgement resources rank the second in frequency and the proportion of affect resources is the slightest.The total frequency of judgement resources in NYT is lower than that in Ch D.Affect resources are applied more frequently in NTY than in Ch D.The employment of appreciation resources contributes to relatively objective reports.With respect to affect,dis/satisfaction is used with high frequency to express the government's attitude.The relatively large proportion of in/security makes the reports more persuasive and objective.The relatively high employment of dis/inclination helps establish alignment with readers.Dis/inclination is utilized more frequently in NYT than in Ch D.As for judgement,the total frequency of social sanction is much higher than the total frequency of social esteem in that the evaluation criteria of social sanction is more objective.The occurrence of propriety and veracity between NTY and ChD is significantly different.With regard to appreciation,valuation is the most frequent occurrence in the two newspapers,for both focus on the valuation of things.Additionally,valuation is applied more frequently in ChD than in NTY.The lower frequency of reaction concerned with affection and composition related to perception results from their higher subjectivity.ii)Generally speaking,the configuration of negative attitudinal resources is higher than the configuration of positive ones in both newspapers.However,NTY and Ch D hold the opposite position in terms of concrete evaluation objectives.Based on the identity and interest theory,the stance of the newspapers is a reflection of state identities and state interests.State identities and national interests can change and impact subject interests,which further guide the foreign policies of a state;meanwhile state acts constitute state identities and interests in turn.Based on the findings above,the thesis discusses implications for providing a new perspective for news discourse analysis and language teaching in the final part.Additionally,limitations and suggestions for future studies are presented as well.