A Comparative Study Of The City Image Of Dalian And Shenzhen In COCA Based On Attitudinal Resources

Under the background of urbanization and escalation of city competitiveness,a good city image is an important factor in enhancing local attractiveness.With a view to serving local benefits,this study,based on attitude system,compares the city image of Dalian and Shenzhen by means of investigating the distribution features of attitudinal resources in reports concerning Dalian and Shenzhen from the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA).Selecting magazine articles,news reports and academic papers related to the two cities from COCA from 2000 to 2015 as analytical data,this study compares the two cities in four aspects: education,science and technology,ecological environment,public service and labor force,which compose the overall image of the cities.In order to present the comparison more accurately and clearly,this study uses UAM Corpus Tool for quantitative analysis.The data derived from the attitudinal analysis enable this study to interpret and compare the image of Dalian and Shenzhen as presented in American media.The results of the present study show that generally,appreciation resources applied to Dalian and Shenzhen far overweigh the other two attitudinal resources,which are centered on the social values relating to the events,education,science and technology,public service and ecological environment of Dalian and Shenzhen.Judgement resources rank the second in frequency,which put emphasis particularly on the moral values of the behaviors relating to the labor force of Dalian and Shenzhen.The proportion of affect resources is the slightest.Moreover,the sum of attitudinal resources,especially positive ones,employed concerning Shenzhen is significantly larger than that concerning Dalian.This shows that the exposure rate of Shenzhen in American media is considerably higher than that of Dalian,indicating a weaker interest in and poorer of knowledge of Dalian.In general,American media shows more positive and appreciative attitudes towards Shenzhen,whereas the attitudes towards Dalian tend to be moderate rather than extreme.On a more specific level,there exist pronounced differences between the two cities in the four aspects of city image.In terms of education,science and technology,positive appreciation resources are applied more frequently to Shenzhen than to Dalian,and valuation has the highest frequency of occurrence.These findings show that education in Dalian is not clearly reported or understood by American media,and receives mixed reviews from American media.In contrast,Shenzhen's world-leading technology has not only attracted foreign investment but also won recognition and approval of the media.In terms of ecological environment,more attitudinal resources are employed concerning Dalian,but the majority of them pertain to negative valuation.These negative attitudinal resources further lead to the worrisome and insecure sentiment revealed in American media.But the improvement of greening measures in Shenzhen enhances the city image and wins the appreciative attitude of American media.In terms of public service,more judgement resources are utilized concerning Shenzhen than in Dalian,and the occurrence of capacity and tenacity resources is significantly different between the two cities.American media reports and evaluates the capability of the government of Shenzhen more positively than that of Dalian.Concerning labor force,more affect resources are employed in Shenzhen than in Dalian,but most of appreciation and normality resources express negative meanings.American media has recognized and praised the people of the two cities for their pragmatic and serious work,but the high-intensity work in Shenzhen invites negative comment and criticism.It can be seen from the findings of this study that although Dalian has received some coverage and attention in American media and is striving for a better international image,it still lags behind Shenzhen in its recognition by the outside world in a variety of areas.Dalian still has a long way to go in building a familiar,positive image in the world.