An Appraisal analysis of Attitude Resourses in opinion texts in CNN

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ MỘNG VÂN

AN APPRAISAL ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDINAL

RESOURCES IN OPINION TEXTS IN CNN

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN THỊ MỘNG VÂN

NGUỒN NGÔN NGỮ DIỄN TẢ THÁI ĐỘ TRONG

CÁC DIỄN NGÔN BÌNH LUẬN TRÊN KÊNH CNN

THEO LÝ THUYẾT ĐÁNH GIÁ

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8220201

Người hướng dẫn: PGS. TS. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby ceritfy that this thesis entitled “An Appraisal analysis of

Attitudinal Resources in opinion texts in CNN” contains no material

published elsewhere or extracted in the whole, or in part from a paper by

which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

Moreover, no one‟s work has been used without acknowledgement in the

paper.

This paper has not been submitted to award any degree or diploma in

any other territory institution.

Binh Dinh, 2021

Nguyễn Thị Mộng Vân

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In order to complete this thesis, it is not only my efforts but also other

assistance of individuals to whom I really want to offer my deepest gratitude.

First of all, I‟d like to express my special thanks to many people who

gave me great help when I completed this thesis. I am deeply thankful to my

supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, who has given me much

invaluable advice and encouragement since the very beginning and has been

my frequent source of many invaluable insights. I am also grateful to her for

reading my manuscript and helping me make the necessary changes.

Secondly, I am also grateful to lecturers who have given the foundation

for this thesis and all the staff of the Post-graduate Department at Quy Nhon

University for their encouragement, kindness and administrative assistance.

Thirdly, I also want to thank my colleagues for their encouragement

and support. I am grateful to my family and my husband, who have helped me

overcome many difficulties throughout the course and the study of this thesis.

Without them, I could not have overcome the trouble during this journey.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis presents the analysis of Attitudinal Resources in opinion

texts in CNN based on the framework of Appraisal Theory by Martin and

White, which is considered as a new approach to evaluating languages. The

study aims at discovering the linguistic expressions expressing the attitude of

Journalists and interpreting linguistic features of these expressions regarding

Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation. The combination of quantitative and

qualitative methods was applied for the data analysis. The study shows that

three sub-categories of Attitude are disproportionately used in the text.

Specifically, Judgment occupied the largest proportion, the second highest

was Appreciation and Affect was found to occur at the lowest rate. Besides,

the research outcomes indicated that the more common employment of

Positive and Explicit than Negative and Implicit ones. Finally, as for the

lexical features of these resources, the findings show a difference in using

noun, adjective, adverb or verb to express the attitude.

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TABLE CONTENT

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................. i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................ii

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................iii

TABLE CONTENT ........................................................................................ iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................... vi

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... vii

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................viii

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

1.1. Rationale .................................................................................................... 1

1.2. Aims and objectives .................................................................................. 2

1.2.1. Aims ................................................................................................. 2

1.2.2. Objectives ........................................................................................ 3

1.3. Research Questions ................................................................................... 3

1.4. Scope of the study ..................................................................................... 3

1.5. Significance of the study ........................................................................... 3

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

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

2.1. An overview of Appraisal ......................................................................... 6

2.1.1. Engagement ...................................................................................... 8

2.1.2. Graduation ........................................................................................ 8

2.1.3. Attitude ............................................................................................ 9

2.2. Previous Studies ...................................................................................... 22

2.3. Summary ................................................................................................. 26

CHAPTER 3 . RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................... 27

3.1. Research method ..................................................................................... 27

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3.2. Description of data ................................................................................... 27

3.3. Data Analysis .......................................................................................... 28

3.4. Research procedures ................................................................................ 29

3.5. Reliability and validity in the research ................................................... 29

CHAPTER 4 . FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .......................................... 30

4.1. General findings of the use of Attitudinal resources in opinion texts .... 30

4.2. Affect in opinion texts in CNN ............................................................... 33

4.2.1. Frequency of Affect and its subcategories in opinion texts in

CNN ......................................................................................................... 33

4.2.2. Linguistic features of Affect values in opinion texts in CNN ....... 38

4.3. Judgment in opinion texts in CNN.......................................................... 43

4.3.1. Sub-categories with Social Esteem and Social Sanction 43

4.3.2. Linguistic features of Judgment values in opinion texts in

CNN ......................................................................................................... 48

4.4. Appreciation in Opinion texts in CNN ................................................... 53

4.4.1. Sub-categories with Appreciation in Opinion texts in CNN ......... 54

4.4.2. Linguistic features of Appreciation values in opinion texts in

CNN ......................................................................................................... 57

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ............................. 63

5.1. Summary of the findings ......................................................................... 63

5.2. Implications ............................................................................................. 65

5.3. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study ...................................... 65

REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 66

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AT: Apparaisal Theory

SFL:

Instance:

Systemetic Functional Linguistics

Ins

(-) : Negative

(+) : Positive