Attitudinal Resources Research Articles

Attitudinal Resources in Academic Talks: A Corpus-Based Analysis Across Languages

Attitudinal Resources in Academic Talks: A Corpus-Based Analysis Across Languages

Revoicing Attitude of Virginity Test: An Appraisal-based Translation Study on News Discourse

The virginity test is a long-standing tradition that has been documented in at least 20 countries around the globe (WHO, 2018). Women and girls are frequently subjected to or forced to undergo this test for various reasons. In the Indonesian context, this gynecological examination conducted under the belief to determine if a woman has had vaginal intercourse has to be experienced by female military candidates. In response, the Indonesian army has set to remove this somewhat controversial policy. Through media, this issue was packed in such a way that reflects the media's stance. Accordingly, this research aims to investigate how media take a stance toward this issue and how the translated version delivers it from the perspective of translation studies and appraisal theory using the qualitative method. Appraisal resources identified the data and compared the original text to the Indonesian versions retrieved from the ABC online news portal (Australian and Indonesia-based). This method is conducted to gather and interpret any attitudinal resources in both original and translated texts. It reveals that the translated version, compared to the more neutral-sounded original one, exploits a more clear-cut attitude towards the issue. Various attitudinal lexis including invasive, gender-based, victim and abusive, are chosen to revoice her stance that this practice is groundless. Through its translation, the author articulates her attitude louder. It proves that different target readers influence how the information is packed and constructed. As a re-situated text, translation barely occurs in an empty space.

A Study on Attitudinal Resources of Reading Texts in Chinese Senior High School English Textbooks: Taking Book 1 of Yilin Press AS an Example

A Study on Attitudinal Resources of Reading Texts in Chinese Senior High School English Textbooks: Taking Book 1 of Yilin Press AS an Example

Comparing and Measuring Textual Analysis in Chinese and US CSR Reports

This study aims to construct a multidimensional framework to deeply analyze sentimental characteristics in CSR disclosure on the basis of Appraisal system and Carroll’s pyramid of CSR. 40 Chinese and American CSR reports are selected as the research targets of this paper. The sentimental characteristics of Chinese and American CSR reports are compared and analyzed in this research. The results of this study are as following: 1) Both Chinese and American CSR reports convey positive sentiment evaluation feature to establish positive image of the enterprises; 2) the use of attitudinal resources in Chinese and American CSR reports tend to judgement and appreciation, but there is a difference in appraisal words use tendency; 3) there are significant differences in the distribution of theme words in CSR reports. Chinese enterprises tend to disclose their economic responsibility information, while American enterprises tend to disclose the information of ethical responsibility. This research has some enlightening significance to enterprises’ cross-cultural communication and discourse multi-dimensional analysis.

Discourse Analysis of COP28 News Reports from the Perspective of Attitude in Appraisal Theory

Conference of the Parties is the world’s largest and most important annual climate-related conference. Taking the attitude system of Martin’s Appraisal Theory as the theoretical framework, this study collects news reports on the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties from China Daily as the corpus. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of the corpus, this study explores the distribution pattern and realization of attitudinal resources in these news reports, aiming to reveal the attitude and stance of China Daily towards COP28. According to the study, attitudinal resources consist mostly of appreciation resources, which comprise over half of the total. Affect and judgement resources follow, with a greater proportion of positive than negative resources. Additionally, China Daily frequently adopts a positive viewpoint regarding COP28 through the use of attitudinal materials. This research aids in the efficient comprehension and expression of attitudes and positions in discourses.

A comparative corpus-based ecological discourse analysis of Chinese, Indian, and American news reports on the Belt and Road Initiative (2013–2022)

Abstract This study employs corpus-based ecological discourse analysis to explore representations of the ecological attitudes in English-language news reports on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in China, India, and the United States from 2013 to 2022. It reveals the media’s perception and attitude towards the BRI in these nations. The analysis reveals that media outlets in each country project different ecological stances using varied attitudinal resources. The Chinese media frequently deploy beneficial attitudinal resources to highlight the BRI’s achievements and advocate for broader international engagement. In contrast, the Indian media exhibit a balanced usage of beneficial, neutral, and destructive attitudinal resources, reflecting a prudent and observant attitude towards the BRI. The American media corpus displays a greater prevalence of neutral and destructive attitudinal representations over beneficial ones, suggesting a comparatively skeptical reception of the initiative. The study argues that these divergent patterns of ecological attitudes and the selection of attitudinal resources are shaped by factors such as economic development, geographical context, and social values.

Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis of China’s National Image in Green Development: A Case Study of the White Paper China’s Green Development in the New Era

Under Martin’s Appraisal Theory, China’s national image in the white paper China’s Green Development in the New Era is studied, based on self-built corpus. The text is studied in terms of the distribution of attitudinal resources. According to the results, a positive national image is circulated in the white paper. Compared to the Chinese version, the English version focuses on external publicity functions, contributing greatly to China’s international status, while the Chinese version concentrates on spreading the country’s policies. Both versions have achieved the expected target for the communication of national image.

Corporate Mission Statements: An Appraisal-Based Study

A corporate mission statement aims to communicate the established goals of a company internally and externally. In this type of statement, attitude plays an important role in the expression of interpersonal linguistic meanings. Therefore, following Martin and Rose’s (2007) systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach, this paper qualitatively analyzed the mission statements of the companies that hold the top seven spots in Fortune’s corporate reputation rankings in 2021, namely Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Walt Disney, Starbucks, Berkshire Hathaway, and Alphabet, from the perspective of the appraisal system. The results indicate that the most common sub-system of attitude found in these corporate mission statements was positive appreciation. However, it was also found that the distribution patterns of evaluation resource words of the selected mission statements are not quite similar. Further, given the functions of this particular genre, that is, shaping the identity of the company and its employees, it was found that the selected corporate mission statements employ attitudinal resources that are all positive in orientation.

The Role of Court Interpreters Under the Attitude of Appraisal Theory Case Study on Sun Yang’s Public Hearing

The role of interpreters standing as a controversial topic has aroused unquiet debates in academia of interpreting studies. Traditional interpreting studies emphasize faithfulness during interpreting process and treat interpreters as handy tools for translation. However, at courts, the complication of the contents and various demands of parties bring the viewpoint of “translation machine” into question. On the other hand, the subjectivity of interpreters has received an increasing popularity in academic field. Based on the Attitude of Appraisal Theory promoted by James R. Martin, this paper tries to explore the role of court interpreters in the case of Sun Yang’s public hearing which was held by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in November, 2019. With the collection of the transcription of cross-examination of four witnesses, this study mainly identified and marked the attitudinal resources in original and interpreted texts by means of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The comparative analysis of the study reveals that there are some differences in attitudinal resources, accompanying with their realizations between the source and interpreted texts. The results indicate that interpreters can play multiple roles with “conduit” as their primary role and “helper” or “communication facilitator” as the secondary role. Besides the analysis of Sun Yang’s public hearing from appraisal perspective, this study is aiming to enhance court interpreters’ identification and emphasize interpreters’ subjectivity, as well as providing some insights for court interpreter training.

Attitudinal Resources of Shaanxi Red Culture News Reports in China Daily

Attitudinal Resources of Shaanxi Red Culture News Reports in China Daily

Attitude Realization in Omicron News Reporting: Appraisal in Critical Discourse Analysis

News production is a discursive act and a value-laden process through which media reports social issues using various stances to articulate certain ideologies. However, how reporters construct their stance and relationship with their readers has yet to significantly be an object of systematic investigation. This study sheds some light on the attitude of The Jakarta Post towards the spread of Omicron to reveal the media’s stances and ideological positions, in which certain interests play a role in discourse production. The principles of appraisal system and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) were deployed to examine 25 news articles about Omicron. The results reveal how language construes attitude and enables writers to position themselves evaluatively in certain aspects. While politically it deploys attitudinal resources to portray its neutral position, economically The Jakarta Post discloses itself as a media that accommodates its plural readers to maximize advertising revenue and reading traffic. This ideological stance is interpreted in light of the socio-political dimension that shapes news reporting.

Writing History in a Supreme Court Ruling: Evaluative language in the majority opinion concerning Dobbs vs. Jackson

This paper conducts an exploratory investigation into the use of evaluative language in the historical section of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. (2022). The investigation employs Martin & White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory, adapted specifically for the analysis of the particular evaluative features of historical discourse as elaborated on, for example, by Myskow (2018a) and Oteíza & Pinuer (2013). The findings confirm that a revised version of the Appraisal framework can be fruitfully applied to systematically account for the complex interplay between, on the one hand, the various sources of evaluation, and, on the other hand, the specific attitudinal resources, employed by the authorial voice in an attempt to construe and advance a particular view of the past. This particular ideological view is ultimately leveraged to produce a convincing justificatory argument for the overruling of the two previous landmark Supreme Court decisions that had, respectively, granted and confirmed abortion as a constitutional right in the United States of America.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Tsai Ing-Wen’s Political Speeches on Cross-Strait Relations

The growth of cross-strait relations has garnered lots of concern for a very long time. However, it is noticeable that since Tsai Ing-wen was elected “president” of Taiwan in 2016, cross-strait relations have progressively reached an impasse. Tsai’s political speeches since then have had a great impact on both the public and the development of cross-Strait ties. This paper chooses Tsai’s political speeches to conduct a critical discourse analysis based on the Martin’s Attitude System (2005). Nine political speeches that Tsai addressed publicly during her first term, from 2016 to 2021, are selected as study data. The goals of the study are to explore the features and functions of the attitudinal resources in these speeches as well as how these resources are realized to construe meanings, as well as what ideology Tsai implied behind the discourse. Throughout Tsai’s appraisal resources, it is found that her evaluation of mainland China mainly involved implicit strategies, and most of them were negative, while her evaluation of Taiwan authorities mainly used explicit strategies, and most of them were positive. As a result, Tsai constructed different images of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Evaluative Attitudinal Presence in Primetime TV News Presentations in Ghana

This article explored the presence of evaluative attitudinal resources in primetime TV news presentations in Ghana and linguistically shed light on professional practices in news presentations for the purpose of meaning in the news. An inquiry into attitudinal resources in news presentations is useful for understanding how subjects of primetime news bulletins manage and send reports on local and international happenings using evaluative attitudinal resources. The focus is on the linguistic resources that are attitudinal in nature. In doing this, I situate the analysis within the sub-systems of Appraisal theory, developed by Martin and White (2005) in discussing the presence of attitudinal resources employed in the news and their relevance. The data presents reasons to prove the use of evaluative attitudinal resources to construe different forms of emotions in the news reportage. It was also observed that the emotions are attributive and not subjective.

Evaluative Language in the Comments of Judges of TV Reality Shows: The Case of “Ghana’s Most Beautiful

The study sought to investigate the language judges use to assess performances of reality show contestants. It specifically examined the attitudinal evaluative language judges of Ghana’s Most Beautiful (GMB) show employ in their comments when assessing contestants’ performances. To realize the objectives set for the study, the appraisal framework by Martin and White (2005), which was developed within the broader theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and focuses on the interpersonal metafunction of language, informed the study. Fifty-two comments of four judges from six episodes of three seasons were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The study revealed that the dominant attitudinal resources used by judges as a means of evaluating contestants’ performances was judgement. Thus, while judges praise and admire, they criticize when necessary. Again, it was observed that the use of judgement as the dominant attitudinal device for evaluation appropriately reflected the purpose of GMB.

A Study of Attitude in Art Criticism

Functional linguistic research focuses on the dimension of "implementation," with research on "instance" and "individuation" being relatively scarce. However, Appraisal Theory provides a comprehensive method for realizing "instance" and "individuation". Appraisal Theory, as a type of empirical research method with strong capabilities in both operation and application, is heavily involved in a variety of fields such as literature, art, philosophy, news, and law. Overall, research in the arts is deficient. This study employs Appraisal Theory as a framework for analyzing the discourse of art criticism from the perspective of the attitude system, analyzing 83 art critiques chosen for their semantic meaning of emotion and valuation endowed by the writers in critical language. It performs identification, analysis, and classification on corpus resources in order to investigate the application of Appraisal theory in art criticism and summarize representation and feature of these attitudinal resources used. The author concludes that the attitudinal resources all involve affect, judgment, and appreciation, but are distributed unevenly.The feature demonstrates that more appreciation than affect and judgement is involved, more positive meaning than negative meaning is conveyed, and an explicit rather than implicit method is used. According to this study, the attitudinal resources effectively contribute to the establishment of relationships among the writer, artworks, and the potential reader, and they function well in appraisal by establishing a "resonance" relationship between the artwork and the potential reader within person. Key words: Appraisal Theory, art criticism, discourse analysis, interpersonal relationship

Discourse Analysis of “Fukushima Nuclear-contaminated Water” News Reports from the Perspective of Attitude in Appraisal Theory

The Japanese government’s plan to discharge contaminated radioactive wastewater from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea has sparked widespread concerns both domestically and internationally. Taking the attitude system of Martin’s Appraisal Theory as the theoretical framework, this study collects news reports on the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan from China Daily as the corpus. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of the corpus, this study explores the distribution pattern and realization of attitudinal resources in these news reports, aiming to reveal the attitude and stance of China Daily towards the Japan’s plan. The study shows that appreciation resources rank top, accounting for more than half of the attitudinal resources, followed by affect resources and judgement resources, and among them, negative resources overweigh positive resources. Besides, through the use of attitudinal resources, China Daily tends to adopt a negative and concerned attitude towards Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge plan. This study helps to effectively understand and express attitudes and stances in discourses.

Understanding Chinese High School ESL Learners’ Use of L2 Attitudinal Resources in Letter Writing : A Systemic Functional Perspective

Understanding Chinese High School ESL Learners’ Use of L2 Attitudinal Resources in Letter Writing : A Systemic Functional Perspective

Analysis of Donald Trump’s Inaugural Speech based on Attitude Within Appraisal Theory

In the 1990s Martin and his colleagues proposed the appraisal theory, which is based on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Martin aims to analyze the appraisal resources for realizing interpersonal functions in discourse from a lexical perspective, which refers to how the speaker expresses the content of the text, the attitude of the author and the communicative intention through the language construction, so as to establish interpersonal relationship with the audience, and then influence the audience's attitude and behavior. Appraisal theory, which focuses on the various attitudes, emotional intensity and value judgments that can be negotiated in discourse, is a supplement and extension of the study of the interpersonal function of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and has gradually received wide attention from scholars at home and abroad as the theory has been developed and improved. In early 2017, American business tycoon Donald Trump delivered his presidential inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol and was officially sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Trump swept the U.S. political scene with his unique business flavor and style, shocking the U.S. homeland and bringing unpredictable speculation to today's world politics. His inaugural speech has abundant interpersonal resources, and Trump used different appraisal resources to express his political views and promote the "America First" viewpoint to build a good image. Therefore, this study analyzes the distribution of attitudinal resources in the three subsystems of affect, judgment, and appreciation in President Trump's inaugural speech from the perspective of the attitudinal system in Martin's appraisal theory, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, and explores the reasons for them. It was found that there were 94 attitudinal resources in this speech, among which 20 (21%) were affect resources, 48 (51%) judgment resources, and 26 (28%) appreciation resources. The distribution of different types of attitudinal resources varies because the distribution of resources is related to the identity of the speaker, the topic of the discourse and the audience, which reflects the interpersonal meaning of the discourse.

An Appraisal of Burki’s Attitudinal Positioning in Shaping his Authorial Voice

The current study aimed to investigate that how an eminent Pakistani writer Hamidullah Khan Burki constructed his attitudinal positioning that shaped his authorial voice in journalistic discourse. The study focused on two aspects: to explore the patterns in Burki’s use of attitudinal resources through lexical choices; and to investigate that how the appraised categories shape Burki’s authorial voice through attitudinal positioning. The current research is a case study, exploratory in nature, which used QUAL-Quan model of mixed method research. After collection of data in the form of 20 journalistic articles of Burki through purposive sampling about politics in Pakistan, the three-dimensional appraisal framework was used to analyze the data qualitatively in the light of Martin & White (2005) Appraisal Theory, which consisted of Attitude Types, Polarity and Appraised Categories. The data was annotated accordingly through UAM Corpus Tool Version 6.2 to generate automatic results for computing the frequency and percentage of various categories in a quick, accurate and systematic manner. The statistical results and subsequent discussion have provided valuable findings in a systematic and objective manner regarding important features and patterns in Burki’s attitudinal positioning that shape his authorial voice. The most dominating feature is the use of appraisal resources of Judgement for shaping his authorial voice. Moreover, he has overall used negative evaluative resources more frequently as compared to positive evaluative resources in his articles. Hence, the findings of the current study depict that Appraisal Theory has provided a comprehensive, systematic and objective framework for appraisal of journalistic discourse.