An Analysis of Attitudinal Resources in News Reports about Us- China Trade War

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

HUỲNH HỮU ĐỨC

AN ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDINAL

RESOURCES IN NEWS REPORTS ABOUT US￾CHINA TRADE WAR

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Dr. Bùi Thị Đào

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

HUỲNH HỮU ĐỨC

PHÂN TÍCH NGỮ LIỆU “THÁI ĐỘ” SỬ DỤNG

TRONG CÁC TIN TỨC CNN VÀ CHINA-BRIEFING

VỀ CUỘC CHIẾN TRANH THƯƠNG MẠI

GIỮA MỸ VÀ TRUNG QUỐC

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: TS. Bùi Thị Đào

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to the following people for their

great support to my thesis. First and foremost, I owe heartfelt appreciation to

my supervisor, Dr. Bui Thi Dao, for her patient guidance, valuable critique

and enthusiastic encouragement during the planning and development of this

work. Without her persistent help, the thesis would not have materialized.

Besides, I am deeply grateful to Dr. Vo Duy Duc for his great lectures

that have been contributed to my research typically.

In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr.

Nguyen Thi Thu Hien for her insightful comments.

Also, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the lecturers who provided me

with knowledge and foundation for the work.

Last but not least, my special thanks go to my beloved family and

friends who give me generous support so that I could accomplish my

research.

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the thesis contains no material which has been

submitted for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary

institution and, to the best of my knowledge, contains no material previously

published or written by another person, except where due reference has been

made in the text.

Quy Nhon, 2021

Huỳnh Hữu Đức

ABSTRACT

The study presents an investigation into attitudinal resources in news

reports about US-China trade war from the two reliable websites CNN and

China-Briefing. The data for the analysis consists of 30 samples of US-China

trade war news reports (15 in each website). Appraisal theory of Martin and

White (2005) is used as a framework for the data analysis with the aims at

examining the use of attitude in CNN and China-Briefing news reports about

US-China trade war and drawing a distinction between them in terms of

attitude values. This research employs a number of methods such as

comparatives, contrastives and descriptives in the combination with

quantitative, qualitative approaches. The findings of the study reveal that all

the three sub-types of attitude occur frequently in the texts despite their

different distribution in each website. Based on the results, we make a

distinction between the ways the American speakers utilize attitudinal

resources and the Chinese counterparts. To some extents, implications on

teaching and learning English are put forward in the hope of providing useful

and comprehensive knowledge.

TABLES OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

ABSTRACT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION......................................................................1

1.1.Rationale of the study ..............................................................................1

1.2.Significance of the study..........................................................................3

1.3.Aims and objectives.................................................................................3

1.3.1.Aims................................................................................................3

1.3.2.Objectives.......................................................................................3

1.4.Research Questions..................................................................................4

1.5.Scope of the study....................................................................................4

1.6.Organization of the study.........................................................................4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................6

2.1. Overview of appraisal.............................................................................6

2.2. Attitude and their sub-types...................................................................8

2.2.1. Affect .............................................................................................9

2.2.2. Judgment......................................................................................14

2.2.3. Appreciation ................................................................................18

2.3. News reports in CNN and China-Briefing about US-China trade war 22

2.4. Previous studies.....................................................................................23

2.5. Summary ...............................................................................................29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................30

3.1. Research design.....................................................................................30

3.2. Data collection ......................................................................................30

3.3. Data analysis.........................................................................................31

3.4. Data procedures.....................................................................................31

3.5. Validity and Reliability.........................................................................32

3.6. Summary ...............................................................................................33

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS...........................................34

4.1. Types of attitudinal resources and their frequencies in news reports

about trade war between US and China.......................................................34

4.2. Similarities and differences between CNN and China-Briefing news

reports about US-China trade war in terms of attitudinal resources ...........35

4.2.1. Sub-categories of affect in CNRs and CBNRs............................35

4.2.2. Judgment in CNRs and CBNRs ..................................................43

4.2.3. Sub-categorizes of appreciation in CNRs and CBNRs...............52

4.3. Summary ...............................................................................................59

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ...............................62

5.1. Recapitulation .......................................................................................62

5.2. Pedagogical implications......................................................................64

5.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study ......................................65

5.4. Summary ...............................................................................................66

REFERENCES.................................................................................................67

LIST OF TABLES

Table

number

Title

Page

number

2.1 Judgment – social esteem 15

2.2 Judgment – social sanction 16

2.3 Types of appreciation 21

4.1

Types of attitude and their frequencies in CNRs and

CBNRs 34

4.2 Types of judgment in CNRs and CBNRs 43

4.3 Composition in CNRs and CBNRs 55

4.4 Valuation in CNRs and CBNRs 57