1.1 Research Orientation and Significance
So far as Systemic Functional Linguistics (henceforth SFL) is concerned, the traditional research scopes have been expanded from Theme / Rheme, Given / New, Transitivity, Cohesion to Register, reports, Grammatical metaphor, Appraisal, and so on (Hu et al. 2005). Hence Appraisal provide new insights into the purview of traditional SFL enquiry, receiving increased attention and proportion in linguistic research.
The Appraisal framework, which has been gaining momentum over the past few years, brings into its limelight the explicit evaluative means. The implicit ones, which are by no means trivial in shaping readers’ minds, however, have remained somewhat in the shadow in Appraisal theory. Out of this consideration, I have made it my primary concern in this thesis of the framework of Token of Judgment, which will be elaborated in literature review in chapter two.
One of the most basic functions of print news reports, the established field in disseminating information, is to create power and solidarity with readers through the way in which text is worded. Norman Fairclough (1995) believes that in relation to news media is good at showing the routine and formulaic nature of much media output, and alerting us, for instance, to the way in which the immense diversity of events in the world is reduced to the often rigid formats of news.
From the aforementioned overview, Appraisal framework (Token of Judgment in focus) hopefully could generate new findings. Besides the theoretical attempts, the significance of this study has some substantial outcome concerning the image of China.
Image is a message that is sent from one individual or group to another(Rubinstein 1991: 68). Based on a recent survey done on China’s national image and brand by the Centre for European Reform and the Young & Rubicam’s Brand Asset Valuator Group, Ramo (2007) comes to the conclusion that China’s greatest strategic threat today is its national image. How China is perceived by other nations — and the underlying reality that perception reflects—will determine the future of Chinese development and reform. China’s problem is more complex than whether or not its national image is “good” or “bad”, but key point on a more difficult puzzle: China’s image of herself and other nations’ views of her are not the same.
1.2 Goals and Methods of The Data-based Approach
There are two principal objectives to be achieved in the thesis. One is to relate and analyze the approach of Token of Judgment in journalist reports, which can contribute to the filling of the gaps specified in the previous section — a practice which will be usable in doing the quantitative work that follows, and will be useful in unmasking the evaluative distribution in news reports. The other, perceivably a more practical agenda complementary to the theoretical concern, is to decode China’s image built by Newsweek, including the corresponding appraisal devices in the portrait of China.
After the synoptic presentation of the goals, methods employed for their achievements need to be discussed.
The discussion in this thesis has developed upon Martin and White’s contribution to Appraisal theory; and which moves a step further by deep understanding Token of Judgment in Appraisal framework for the benefit of opening up new vistas for newsmagazine analysis. Two levels including macro-level and micro-level are adopted in the thesis.
The Macro-level is split into: 1. Motif, and 2. Probability of catchphrases;
and the Micro one spreads into five groupings: 1. Intertextual provocation, 2. Evaluative propagation, 3. Evaluative projection, 4. Presupposition, 5. Comprehensiveness.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
The theory to be surveyed is appraisal theory, the corner-stone for the theoretical buildup of this thesis, and part of which — Token of Judgment — will be stated in two-level framework which will function as the rudder in analyzing the reservoir of the reports concerning China.
2.1 Appraisal Theory
Compared with other theories that enjoy long tradition in Functional Linguistics, Appraisal theory is a newcomer, which of course does not equate to its degraded importance. The initiation of Appraisal theory can be traced back to the study on narrative reports by Guenter Plum and Joan Rothery of Sydney University in the 1980s. They believed that interpersonal meaning was critical both to the point of different reports … and also to how we classified them. It is Jim Martin who created the theory while he was in charge of “Write It Right Project of the Disadvantaged Schools Program of the New South Wales Department of Schools Education” (1990-1995). Later, Peter White, having the experience of journalist and then editor, together with Rick Iedema and Susan Feez, joined this program and gradually narrowed down the focus upon media discourse. The initial brainchild of the theory is White’s PhD dissertation Telling Media Tales: the news story as rhetoric, which expounds on Appraisal theory with newspaper discourses as data source. The recent development is Martin and White’s new book (Martin & White 2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English, which presents a systematic exposition on the overall picture of this theory.
It is undeniable that Appraisal theory has greatly enriched and expanded the Interpersonal metafunction within Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics. The major consideration of Appraisal theory is to broaden the perspective from the exchange of goods & services or information, the pillars sustaining Halliday’s theoretical framework, to the negotiation of feeling. Its contribution lies in the excursion into the interpersonal means at lexical level, supplementing the grammatical applications underlined by the Interpersonal metafunction. Therefore, it is indispensable in constructing solidarity with readers.
Appraisal resources are organized along three axes: Attitude (which is further divided into Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation), Engagement and Graduation. While Judgment in Attitude is put in the limelight, Token of Judgment, which is denied in Figure 2.1, is indeed examined. This, however, is not the indication that Appraisal theory has stopped at where it is. On the contrary, it is moving forward on a daily bases out of its substantial effectiveness in discourse analysis. The following figure best summarizes the components of the Appraisal network.
2.2 Token of Judgment
The SFL account of the Interpersonal property is developed and extended in Appraisal theory by attending to the three axes of Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Groundbreaking and complementary to Interpersonal metafunction as it is, Appraisal theory still has a number of potential gaps to be bridged.
For print news reports, the assessments are not necessarily restricted to explicit means, so it is productive to explore to what extent the radius of implicit evaluations the information producer draws on to construct relations of alignment and rapport with readers and how unfolding prosodies of these covert devices can make contribution to that negotiation. In this sense, the implicit means which can be the vehicle for carrying evaluative loads will be mainly discussed.
The significance of Token of Judgment and the obstruct in its recognition are further developed by White (2006), whose idea is that the more implicitly evaluative mechanisms are of particular interest to those concerned with ideology in that they provide means by which particular points of view and value orientations can be made to seem to arise naturally from apparently “factual” informational content.
The value and gravity of Token of Judgment having been made clear, a few words must be written here for the definition of this term.
Martin (2000) acknowledges that further complicating this issue is the fact that what counts as appraisal depends on the field of discourse. Because of this, ideational meanings that do not use evaluative lexis can be used to evoke appreciation, as with AFFECT and JUDGMENT. Coffin (1997) also says, when interpersonal meaning is triggered through the selection and construction of ideational meanings, it is referred to as Token of Appraisal. Therefore, these ideational meanings that are charged with evaluative function are termed Token of Judgment. Naturally, this Judgment, different from the Judgment under the category of Attitude which is explicitly evaluation-laden, is implicitly realized and is consequently modified by the word Token.
In giving people resources for positioning themselves, language offers a multi-dimensional semantic space, as is indicted in Halliday’s proposal lays the theoretical groundwork in this thesis:
Chapter Three Research Methodology ................... 22
3.1 Research Questions .................. 22
3.2 Data Processing ..................... 22
Chapter Four Research Results and Discussion ...................... 24
4.1 Macro-level Framing in Token of Judgment ..................... 24
Chapter Five Conclusion ........... 55
5.1 Major Findings ................. 55
Chapter Four Research Results and Discussion
4.1 Macro-level Framing in Token of Judgment
This section is to deal with the Macro-level framing in the proposed model of Token of Judgment — Motif and Probability of catchphrases. The two concepts having been mapped out in the previous chapter, what should be done now are the technical procedures and the concrete analytical work.
4.1.1 Motif Framing
So far as Motif is concerned, several steps are taken to fulfill the obligation. The first move is the breakdown on the subjects in the target universe — all the reports within the chosen years of Newsweek. For the benefit of coming analysis, each individual report is incorporated into one of the three kinds of reports — Commenting reports, Interpreting reports, and Reporting reports. The second step is to gauge the annual theme of the target population by counting and pulling together the elements on the same Motif. The last part in the whole procedure is to decode the data obtained and to try to present a picture on China’s image from the perspective of Motif selection.
Some technical means need to be clarified before getting down to the substantial work. As for the Motifs, in order to secure the accuracy of their coverage, the approach generally adopted is pinpointing the subjects of the reports instead of broad-banding them. Therefore, Motifs that are generalized as “Economy”, “Culture” or “Political affairs” will not be found in the course of my examination. Reports on the general public are put together under the Motifs of “People”, and further information is put in the brackets, as are the cases of “People (sports star) (1)” or “People (author) (1)” etc.
Chapter Five Conclusion
A general conclusion is now made after the original aims stated at the very beginning of the paper and discussions conducted in the light of the data assembled. There are considerable new attempts in theory building and some informing research findings, which as a whole pave the way for further, insightful, and more complicated study waiting ahead. As previously stated, this research — particularly the part of image perception — has been done from the Chinese perspective. This fact does not deny our ability to keep vigil eyes on the means adopted in US media in portraying China.
5.1 Major Findings
Halliday (in Ghadessy, 1999) says, language does not just passively reflect a pre-existing social reality. It is an active agent in constructing that reality. Whatever the orientation or intention is in constructing that reality, domestically or internationally, media language always plays an indispensable role.
The distribution of Macro-level and Micro-level identification is a useful device for the framing of information with regard to the contour of China’s image. The two levels separated by this dichotomy are in an important way complementary to each other.
The Motifs in Newsweek are on the increase along with the sum total of the pieces aiming at China in the rises from 40 to 63 and 57 in the three years. The areas of reporting stretch out wider, including favorable ones like “China’s role in international relief”, “Yao Ming”, “Economic soft landing”, and so on; but the traditional negative fields towards China such as “Human rights” and “Shortage
of democracy” are still entrenched.
The scaling of probabilities by means of which a catchphrase occurs more or less frequently can assist in discerning the concerns of the Newsweek. Such symbolism is the stuff from which possible affinity is born and framed image is somewhat structured in Newsweek. If the scope is expanded to top six, “Communist (m)” can be included as well.
references(omitted)