An Examination Of Attitudinal Positioning In Comments Toward News Posts In Vista Under Appraisal Theory

Online social media platform has been playing an important role and exerts a far-reaching effect in people's everyday life nowadays.Individuals not only assess the latest news information through these platforms but also make themselves the content creators and contribute messages of their own which can shape the viewpoints of other participants.The linguistic practice of online commenting is representative of this phenomenon.Online commenting is the process whereby online users as commenters position themselves either against the news content itself or the ‘ambient audiences' convoked contingently around the same concern.In this sense,the linguistic practice of online commenting can be perceived as functionally significant both ideologically,in shaping the evaluative attitudes of subsequent conmmenters and interpersonally,in establishing alignment or solidarity,and hence add to one's sense of ‘ego'.Comments assessed in this research come from the official Weibo account of a news medium-Vista,considering its commonality and diversity in news topics for the general public,including for instance,political issues both at home and abroad,various incidents about everyday life of national civilians,and even entertainment news,etc..Based on the theoretical framework of Appraisal Theory,this research conducts a qualitative discourse analysis in exploration of the attitudinal linguistic resources and their functions in interpersonal interaction following the three main subsystems of Appraisal—Attitude,Graduation and Engagement.In particular,along the axis of attitude,semantic resources embodying the commenter's affectual reaction,judgement or appreciation of an entity are discovered,and their local manifestations are discussed.The subsystems of Graduation and Engagement on the other,provide guidance for disclosing ways in which commenters modify their expressions of attitudes.Results out of case analyses in this research reveal mainly the following aspectsregarding online commenting behavior.First,realization of ideological and interactional purposes in commenting behavior involves mainly the following procedures: in the first place,the comment which is the first to draw the most attention in one ‘floor' of the commenting zone,as indicated by the number of likes it receives,functions to pin down a specific sphere and orientation for the ongoing discussion.On this basis,stanced attitudes embodied in the subsequent comments are put forward not merely for seeking ideological concordance,but further to establish alignment.However,cases where conflicting ideas are inevitably brought about,there appear consequently comments which are intended not to deal with the current issue but to side with one party involved in the discussion and ward off divergences.Second,commenters are found to be able to strategically make use of sources of appraisal as clarified in the Appraisal system to serve their own communicative purposes.In particular,case analyses in this study demonstrate that,subsystem of Attitude,which is at the core of Appraisal Theory,provides for commenters basic gauges for evaluation,and at the same time,lay down a legitimate foundation for the forwarded comments.While on the other hand,the other two subsystems of Graduation and Engagement are fundamentally significant as they generate linguistic resources which are usually combined in one comment and effects to protrude the attitude as a stanced rather than a pure ideological one.Notably,ways of graduation are employed to add to the evidentiality and credibility of the comments.While with respect to Engagement,commenters preferably take on a dialogically contractive voice to fend off dissidence;when alignment is failed to be established,a dialogically expansive voice is used to maintain solidarity.In this way,they manage to creatively apply types of heteroglossia according to specific needs and amplify the interactional aspect of their comments.Last but not least,commenting behavior within online environment is not a disorganized and arbitrary practice which occurs without any principles;rather,the prime concern tacitly and commonly attended to throughout one's materialization of commenting is to publicize one's attitudinal positioning with the least interpersonal cost,the process of which involve two major factors: establishment of alignment andthe conception of an ad hoc communicative community.The proposition here is that,commenters' modification of ways of expressing attitudes is a result of their orientation toward establishing alignment,or at least seeking solidarity.More importantly,they consciously embrace the conception of an ad hoc communicative community which is contingently established when commenters gather around a common topic and negotiate viewpoints and attitudes with each other,and strive to maintain its order by means of strategically keeping the ongoing discussion smooth and coherent.