【Abstract】： Appraisal Theory provides an analytic tool for discourse analysis. This paper distinguishes the interpersonal meanings of two news reports on “the Belt and Road” in both CNN and China Daily in terms of information distribution and Martian’s appraisal system.

【Key Words】： Appraisal System； news reports； interpersonal meaning

1.Introduction

News plays an essential role in our social life. It is supposed to be neutral and objective. However， the interpersonal meaning can express the attitude towards the event shown by the media. China Daily and CNN are both influential news media but serve different politics and society. This paper adopts political news about “the Belt and Road Forum” in both China Daily and CNN as data.

According to Huang （2017）， “Systemic Functional Linguistics （SFL） is an appliable linguistics and has been widely applied to discourse analysis”. Based on SFL， Martin proposed Appraisal System and developed Evaluation. This research explores the interpersonal meanings of news by identifying the information distribution and Appraisal System. The analysis of “the Belt and Road” can help readers think critically of political event.

2. Appraisal Theory

Appraisal theory is proposed by Martin based on Halliday’s SFG. There are three subsystems， namely attitude， engagement and graduation. （Thompson， 2000） Attitude involves people's feelings， including affect， judgment and appreciation. Engagement refers to the way a speaker engages in his speech. Graduation has two kinds of scalability. One is grading according to intensity or amount， and the other is grading according to prototypicality and the preciseness. Martin （2003） offers a clear model of the Appraisal system：

Figure 1 Appraisal System （Martin， 2003）

3. Information Distribution

The specific information referred in the report can reflect opinions of media. It can both answer readers’ questions and shift readers’ attention through information distribution. This paper regards one sentence as a unit and figures out the number of words of specific information referred in both CNN and China Daily. The two pie charts below can show the differences clearly.

From the pie charts above， the information distribution in both CNN and China Daily can be figured out. As is shown in chart 1， the information of the meeting contents takes up a much larger proportion than others in CNN. The location and participants and challenges rank the second and the third. The significance and background take the least proportion. Chart 2 shows the information distribution in China Daily. Contrast two chart 1， the information of significance takes up the largest proportion. The introduction to the meeting content ranks the second. Besides， the expectations and background are also mentioned. There are great differences in information distribution of the two news media. What should be noticed is that CNN makes great efforts to introduce the content， the location and participants of “the Belt and Road Forum”， however， China Daily uses amounts of words to introduce the significance. There is no information of significance and expectations in CNN’s report， and in China Daily， the information of challenges and the introduction to locations and participants are absent.

There are some implications and reasons in different distribution information. First， different information shows different attitudes of the government. The news media serves the politics. China is the host of “the Belt and Road Forum”， and it is an essential strategy to promote the development of developing country. China is the representative of developing countries and thinks highly of the forum. Therefore， the significance is highlighted in China Daily. America， the most developed country nowadays， is the outsider of this forum. It shows an ambiguous attitude. Thus， participants and challenges are focuses. Second， different target readers of the two news media need different information. Chinese have a sense of national pride， because “the Belt and Road” shows the recognition of Chinese tradition and brings another economic development after centuries. Thus， it is an impressive progression in 2017 and the information of significance is important in news. Their expectations of this strategy can show the positive attitudes of the country. As for Americans， the basic information of the host place， Beijing， and the meeting content should be introduced in detail. Instead， Chinese are familiar with the capital and its climate， thus the introduction of host place is redundant. In addition， the information of participants is one of the main focuses. Also， CNN mentions the challenges in the forum. Readers can feel a skeptical attitude of the news from “critics”， “obstacles” and “skeptical”， etc.

Therefore， the information distribution of news reports is influenced by the politics and the target readers. The ultimate aim is to serve politics and society. CNN focus on the challenges and participants. China Daily makes great efforts to introduce the significance and expectations. Chinese government holds a determined and positive attitude towards “the Belt and Road Forum”， however， America shows ambiguous and even skeptical attitudes. Thus， there are ideological implications in news reports.

4. Analysis of the Interpersonal Meaning

4.1 Attitude

The attitude shown by the media can be explored from three aspects： affect， judgment and appreciation. Some examples of each category are shown below.

（1）AIIB President Jin Liqun was positive that the US could still play a role in China's projects. （Affect； CNN）

（2）…even neighboring India has been skeptical. （Judgment； CNN）

（3） the initiative has increasingly\" been hijacked by Chinese companies， which have used it as an excuse to evade capital controls （Appreciation； CNN）

（4）there exists significant potential and a bright future for joint cooperation （Appreciation； China Daily）

In order to keep objective news seldom uses “affect” to express its attitude such as direct evaluation “good” or “bad”. However， the attitudes towards the event can be explored by the “judgment” and “appreciation”. Example （1） shows affect but has nothing to do with the evaluation of the forum. Instead， “evade” and “hijacked” show ambiguous and skeptical attitudes. In China Daily， there are also no words to express “affect”. However， it does not mean that it is objective. Readers can feel the positive mood from “praise”， “significant” and “bright” etc.

4.2 Engagement

There are contrast and expand in engagements. Contrast includes disclaim and proclaim and expand consists of entertain and attribute. News does not express values apparently. CNN and China Daily both adopt a number of attributes to realize objectivity. However， there exist some differences in disclaim. China Daily does not use the denial words such as “no” or “not”， which shows a determined tone. In contrast， CNN mentions them several times. Additionally， CNN uses modal verbs with low possibility like “could”， but China Daily uses a higher degree auxiliary “can”. In this way， China builds up confidence for the future of “the Belt and Road”.

4.3 Graduation

Graduation has two categories： force and focus. Here are some examples.

（5）increasingly； notably； largely uninvolved ； serious reservations； particularly （Focus； CNN）

（6）a specialized UN agency （Focus； China Daily）

（7）ancient； a small delegation； big； all； very recently； heavy （Force； CNN）

（8）recent interview； ancient trade routes； in recent years； Small and Medium Enterprises； wide-ranging partnerships （Force； China Daily）

Expressions with graduation are used to increase or decrease the scale. Up-scaling of attitude is used to alien the listener with that value. Down-scaling construes the speaker as having only a partial affiliation with the value position being referenced to. There are more negative graduation words in CNN such as “serious”， and “small”， etc. In contrast， China Daily uses more objective graduation expressions. Therefore， there exist different interpersonal meanings.

5. Conclusions

This paper selects two news about “the Belt and Road Forum” reported at the same time in CNN and China Daily. As for information distribution， CNN makes great efforts to introduce the content， the location and participants of “the Belt and Road Forum”， however， China Daily uses amounts of words to introduce the significance. CNN focus on the challenge but China Daily emphasizes the bright future of “the Belt and Road”. The differences of information distribution result from different target readers and different politics.

Different interpersonal meanings are explored from the perspective of attitude， engagement and graduation. They serve different functions. First， the attitude of the news media is shown by judgment and appreciation. There are not many affects because news is supposed to be neutral. China Daily shows confidence in “the Belt and Road” by using more appreciation. In contrast， CNN has an ambiguous attitude by using more negative words. Second， concerning engagement， news uses attributes to realize objectivity. CNN uses the denial words more often and modal verbs with low possibility. In contrast， China Daily shows a more determined tone. Third， CNN uses more extreme graduation words， but China Daily more objective graduation expressions.

Reference：

[1] Martin， J. R. Rose， D. Working with Discourse： Meaning Beyond the Clause[M].

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2003.

[2] Thompson， G. Introducing Functional Grammar [M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000.

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