With news reports on the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)selected from Chinese and American mainstream media as its data,attitude system in appraisal theory as the analytical framework,this research aims to conduct a comparative study on the employment of attitudinal resources in news reports.Then,it probes into similarities and differences from the perspective of critical discourse analysis(CDA)in order to disclose the ideologies hidden behind texts.Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the corpora of the two groups indicate that all of the three subcategories,including affect,judgement and appreciation resources of attitudinal resources are employed in the discourse regarding the BRI.Furthermore,due to the objectivity of.news reports,affect resources are the least frequently used to avoid overmuch subjective emotion in mainstream media in two countries.As for differences,Chinese mainstream media are inclined to adopt appreciative resources to demonstrate the significance and social valuation of the BRI.American mainstream media employ relatively more judgement resources to judge the feasibility of the BRI.This part mainly focuses on the distribution of attitudinal resources from a macro-perspective.On this basis,this study moves on to the distribution of the three subcategories.of attitudinal resources from a micro-perspective.It is found that the most frequently used resource of affect is in/secur ity in news reports selected from both Chinese and American mainstream media.In terms of differences,the most frequently used resource of judgement in Chinese mainstream media is capacity.However,American mainstream media are inclined to employ propriety resources.The most frequently used resource of appreciation is valuation in Chinese mainstream media.Instead,American mainstream media employ relatively more composition resources.Besides,more positive attitudinal resources can be found in Chinese mainstream media,while there are more negative ones in American mainstream media.In mainstream media in two countries,the inscribed attitudinal resources outnumber the invoked ones.The underlying ideologies reflected in the similarities and differences of the distribution of attitudinal resources between Chinese and American news reports are construed in different political and economic systems and socio-cultural contexts between China and America.This study confirms the feasibility of using appraisal theory as the analytical tool for discourse analysis from the perspective of CDA.Furthermore,this research may help enhance critical awareness in news reading and shed light on pedagogy in critical thinking cultivation. |