An attitudinal study on American and Vietnamese government's reponse to the Covid-19 pandemic in news reports

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

BÙI THỊ TÙNG THI

AN ATTITUDINAL STUDY ON THE AMERICAN

AND VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENTS’ RESPONSE

TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN NEWS REPORTS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Võ Duy Đức, Ph.D.

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

BÙI THỊ TÙNG THI

PHÂN TÍCH NGUỒN NGỮ LIỆU THÁI ĐỘ

TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO THỂ HIỆN PHẢN ỨNG

CỦA HAI CHÍNH PHỦ MỸ VÀ VIỆT NAM

ĐỐI VỚI ĐẠI DỊCH COVID-19

Chuyên ngành : Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số : 8220201

Người hướng dẫn: TS. VÕ DUY ĐỨC

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis An Attitudinal study on the American and

Vietnamese governments' response to the COVID-19 pandemic in news

reports is my work.

No other person's work has been used without acknowledgement in the

paper.

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or

diploma in any university.

Binh Dinh, 2021

Bùi Thị Tùng Thi

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis

supervisor, Mr Vo Duy Duc, PhD. for his experienced guidance and valuable

comments on my work. I am also indebted to him for his helpful and timely

response to my questions.

I would also like to express my thank to the lecturers who have given

me exciting knowledge and a great source of inspiration.

I am also grateful to Quy Nhon University, Post-graduate Department,

and Foreign Languages Department for the administrative assistance.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and

colleagues for providing me with unfailing support and continuous

encouragement throughout the course and the study of this thesis.

iii

ABSTRACT

The study applied Appraisal Theory developed by Martin and White

(2005) as a framework for the investigation into the American and

Vietnamese governments' response to the COVID-19 pandemic in news

reports. The data comprises 40 news reports (20 in each language)

downloaded from the New York Times and the Tuoi Tre. The study sought to

investigate the similarities and differences between the two languages

regarding Attitudinal resources, namely Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation.

The findings showed that the deployment of the Attitudinal resources in the

English and Vietnamese data shared certain similarities, such as the

occurrence of all types of Attitudinal values and the more common use of

Non-authorial and Explicit resources than Authorial and Implicit ones.

However, despite the similarities between the two languages, a number of

subtle differences were also observed. With regard to the differences in

Positive and Negative Appreciation and In/Security Affect in the two

languages, the writers indicated a radically dissimilar attitude to the pandemic

of the American and Vietnamese governments. Hopefully, the study offers

language learners and teachers useful knowledge of Appraisal and the

features of the evaluative language employed in English and Vietnamese

news reports.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

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

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... vi

LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................... vii

CONVENTIONS ...........................................................................................viii

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................... 1

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES...................................................................... 3

1.2.1 Aims................................................................................................. 3

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

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS...................................................................... 3

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................ 3

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY......................................................... 4

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ……………………………………..4

Chapter 2. LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................ 6

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND......................................................... 6

2.1.1 Appraisal Theory.............................................................................. 6

2.1.2 Attitude............................................................................................. 8

2.1.3 Engagement................................................................................... 16

2.1.4 Graduation...................................................................................... 18

2.2 RELATED STUDIES ............................................................................ 19

Chapter 3. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES......................... 23

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS...................................................................... 23

3.2 DATA COLLECTION......................................................................... 23

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS............................................................................... 24

3.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURES................................................................ 24

v

3.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ......................................................... 24

3.6 SUMMARY ........................................................................................... 25

Chapter 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.................................................. 26

4.1 GENERAL FEATURES OF ATTITUDE IN THE NEWS REPORTS 26

4.2 AFFECT................................................................................................. 27

4.2.1 Dis/inclination................................................................................ 28

4.2.2 Dis/Satisfaction .............................................................................. 30

4.2.3 In/Security..................................................................................... 31

4.2.4 Un/Happiness................................................................................. 32

4.2.5 Authorial and Non-authorial Affect............................................... 33

4.3 JUDGEMENT........................................................................................ 38

4.3.1 Subtypes of Judgement .................................................................. 38

4.3.2 Explicit and Implicit Judgement .................................................... 44

4.3.3 Positive and Negative Judgement ................................................. 47

4.4 APPRECIATION................................................................................... 50

4.4.1 Subtypes of Appreciation............................................................... 50

4.4.2 Positive and Negative Appreciation............................................... 56

4.5 SUMMARY ........................................................................................... 60

Chapter 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.................................... 61

5.1 CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................... 61

5.2 IMPLICATIONS.................................................................................... 64

5.3 LIMITATIONS ...................................................................................... 64

5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ................................. 65

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

APPENDIX

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Grammatical realizations of Affect........................................................10

Table 2.2 Subtypes of Affect...................................................................................11

Table 2.3. The system of Judgment........................................................................13

Table 2.4 Categories of Appreciation....................................................................15

Table 2.5 Subtypes of Appreciation ......................................................................16

Table 2.6 Monogloss and Heterogloss..................................................................17

Table 4.1 Frequency of Attitude resources in ENRs and VNRs ..........................26

Table 4.2 Distribution of Affect resources in ENRs and VNRs...........................28

Table 4.3 Authorial and Non-authorial Affect resources in ENRs and VNRs....33

Table 4.4 Positive and Negative Affect resources in ENRs and VNRs...............36

Table 4.5 Distribution of Judgement resources in ENRs and VNRs ...................39

Table 4.6 Explicit and Implicit Judgement resources in ENRs and VNRs.........44

Table 4.7 Positive and Negative Judgement resources in ENRs and VNRs........47

Table 4.8 Attribution of Appreciation resources in ENRs and VNRs ................50

Table 4.9 Positive and Negative Appreciation resources in ENRs and VNRs....56