An Ecological Discourse Analysis Of Attitudinal Resources In Pangolin Protection News Reports In China Daily

Environmental issues have become a growing concern,which has been drawing attention from various academic fields.Ecolinguistics,as a new linguistic paradigm,has emerged to explore the relationship between language and environment.This thesis contributes to this body of research by attending to news reports on pangolin protection in the Chinese context.Specifically,29 reports from China Daily were selected for an investigation of the conveyed ideologies.Drawing on the ecosophies of the Ecological Sense of Place and Chinese traditional ethics towards animal protection,and the analytical framework of ATTITUDE in APPRAISAL,this study explores the following questions:(1)How are attitudinal resources distributed and employed in these reports?(2)What are the features reflected by these attitudinal resources?(3)What ecological ideologies are conveyed through the employment of attitudinal resources in these reports?The key findings can be summarized as follows: First,JUDGMENT and APPRECIATION are frequently employed.AFFECT,the most subjective attitudinal category,is least frequently employed to avoid personalizing texts too much and make persuasion seem reasonable.Second,most instances of JUDGMENT are attributed to the writers,which enables the writers to stand together with readers.However,almost all instances of APPRECIATION and AFFECT are attributed to non-authorial sources,proposing alternative bonds to readers.In addition,the selected news reports have a consistency of attitudinal polarity to a given field,which conveys a consistent value and helps construct the image of the field.Third,the selected news reports are eco-beneficial discourse and convey eco-beneficial ideologies in general.Moreover,these news reports have conveyed another two ideologies.One is anthropocentrism embedded in ecoambivalent and eco-destructive attitudinal resources and the other is the image construction of government as an eco-warrior.By applying APPRAISAL in eco-oriented discourse analysis,this research provides novel insights into the studies of animal protection news reports and enhances our understanding of the situation of endangered animals.Thus,this thesis can motivate readers to re-examine the nature-human relationship and the animal-human relationship.