A Positive Analysis Of The Chinese And English Political Discourses From The Appraisal Perspective

Based on the framework of the Appraisal theory and positive discourse analysis,this study attempts to make a detailed comparison of Government Work Report(GWR)and State of the Union Address(SUA)based on the framework of Attitude sub-systems: Affect,Judgment and Appreciation,.The purpose of the comparative analysis on the positive discourse level is to explore the distribution of attitudinal resources in these political discourses,and to compare their distributions,similarities and differences in the use of appraisal resources horizontally so as to reveal the ideological differences behind the discourses.Through qualitative analysis,this study tries to find out the characteristics,differences and similarities in the use of appraisal resources between GWR and SUA,and then illustrates the function of appraisal resources in realizing the interpersonal meaning of political discourse by means of a large number of examples.Through the comprehensive analysis,the following conclusions can be drawn: First,there are a lot of attitudinal resources in both the State of the Union Address and Chinese Government Work Report,but compared with GWR,the proportion of attitudinal resources used in SUA is more obvious.Secondly,within the attitudinal sub-system,discourses in GWR focus on the use of appreciation resources,and the proportion of emotional and judgment resources is relatively low,which reflects the confidence and determination of the government in implementing various livelihood plans and reform measures;while discourses in SUA tend to use more judgment resources,indicating that the United States Government attaches great importance to the construction of common values for its citizens and to the construction of other countries as well as its urgent desire to establish diplomatic relations.Thirdly,within Affective resources,both groups lay a lot of emphases on factors of security and insecurity,represented by the use of positive affective resources,which reflects that both governments attach to safeguarding national security and are devoted to maintaining social harmony and stability.Finally,within the appreciation resources,the Chinese government's work report reflects more reaction,while the State of the Union Address focuses on evaluation,which shows that the Chinese government pays more attention to people's sense of happiness and satisfaction,while the US government tends to highlight the achievements of the government.This study holds that the wording of Chinese and US government documents reflects,to a certain extent,the differences in the political programs and ideologies behind the two countries.Therefore,the comparative analysis of two types of political discourse is conducive to revealing the positive information behind the political discourse,thus further expanding the scope of the positive discourse analysis,and providing effective reference for the future E-C translation of political discourse.