Trang 1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY HUỲNH THANH HOÀNG OANH AN APPRAISAL STUDY OF ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES IN ONLINE NEWSPAPER COMMENTARIES ON THE WORLD CUP 2022 F
INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Languages are tools to communicate, in a sense, means to convey thoughts, ideas, concepts, or even a feeling via numerous talks, videos, news, and commentaries which have been carried out to provide information about every aspect of life World Cup 2022 is considered the most popular sporting event in the world, which attracts billions of people As a result, there are news articles about the problems happening on the sidelines of the biggest tournament on the planet However, online newspaper commentaries are considered an effective tool for reflecting on the issues of this tournament as well as being one of the most popular approaches for those who want to update large amounts of the World Cup’s information Indeed, the success of any online commentary depends not only on how influential the issues are but on how well the reporters themselves know how to communicate their findings to the audience Among them, CNN, Fox Sports, and Reuters are considered as reliable information channels to reflect as well as express different views on the impact of this sporting event
There is no denying that the framework of Appraisal Theory, which was conducted by a group of scholars led by two linguists, namely James Martin and Peter White in the 1980s and 1990s, is considered the theory in psychology that emotions are extracted from our evaluations (appraisals or
2 estimates) of events that cause specific reactions in different people Essentially, our appraisal of a situation causes an emotional or affective, response that is going to be based on that appraisal Appraisal framework, according to Martin and White (2005), is a specific approach to exploring, describing, and explaining how language is used to evaluate, adopt stances, construct textual personas, and manage interpersonal positioning and relationships Therefore, Appraisal framework is seen as an effective tool for analyzing attitude expressions and interpersonal meanings in various types of discourse such as literary works, advertisements, talks, news, academic and narrative discourse
There have been some studies carried out, using the Appraisal Theory as a theoretical framework Mohammed (2016) focuses on exploring the Appraisal election defeat concession the presidents’ speeches Hood (2004) and Liu (2010) try to apply Appraisal Theory into teaching process in an attempt to get better results for students of English Vo Duy Duc (2011) studies journalistic voices operating in English Vietnamese hard news reports in the light of Appraisal Theory Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (2016) carries out researching the social attitudes in news reports towards President Obama’s visit to Vietnam
As a result, it can be found that Appraisal Theory has been applied in a wide variety of genres, which proves its significance as a theoretical framework to help understand the evaluative language However, it seems that no prior research has been done on the study of attitudinal resources in online newspaper commentaries on a global sporting event like World Cup, which means there is a gap available for my thesis
It is for these reasons that I am inspired and motivated to conduct a study on the attitudinal aspects of online newspaper commentaries about the World
Cup 2022 with the topic: “An Appraisal Study of Attitudinal Resources in Online Newspaper Commentaries on the World Cup 2022”.
Aim and objectives
The aim of the study is to investigate Attitudinal Resources used in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022 from the perspective of Appraisal Theory to find out the way English authors show their attitudes on such issues
For the aforementioned aim to be fulfilled, the research concentrated on the following objectives:
- To realize Attitudinal Resources used in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022;
- To identify the frequency of occurrence of subtypes of Attitudinal Resources used in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022.
Research questions
Based on the aim of the study, the following research questions are expected to be answered:
1 What Attitudinal Resources are realized in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022?
2 How often are the subtypes of Attitudinal Resources used in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022?
Scope of the study
Though the Appraisal Theory is composed of three domains, precisely
Attitude, Engagement and Graduation, this study focuses on the Attitudinal resources, namely Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation due to their considerable significance in revealing attitudes meeting the aim of the study
To reach the aim, 20 online newspaper commentaries will be gathered from the websites https://edition.cnn.com/, https://www.foxsports.com/, https://www.reuters.com/ These commentaries are all collected from the reliable resources from November 2022 to December 2022 - the period that The World Cup 2022 became a topical issue and attract on people all around the world, especially fans of football.
Significance of the study
This study is expected to contribute to the research, performance, and interpretation of attitudinal values from theoretical as well as practical perspectives
Moreover, this study may be a new approach to gaining insight into the features of attitudinal values conveyed by online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022 Additionally, it is supposed to provide a reliable reference for readers who are interested in attitudinal values so that they are likely to have a thorough grasp of the evaluative language.
Organization of the study
This study consists of five main chapters, as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, the aim and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and organization of the study
Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents Appraisal Theory including a brief description of its sub-systems consisting of Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation, with attention being paid to the Attitudinal aspects Then, a concise review of the previous studies related to the issues under investigation is also presented
Chapter 3, Research Methodology, discusses research methods of research, comprising data collection, data analysis, the reliability and validity
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion deals with the analysis and the findings of the study The study analyzes and discusses Attitudinal resources and the frequency of their occurrence in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022
Chapter 5, Conclusions and Implications, gives out a concise summary of the research findings, suggests implications for teaching and learning English, and mentions the shortcomings of the research Additionally, suggestions for further studies are also put forward in this chapter
In summary, this chapter serves as the thesis's preliminary material It begins with the rationale, then moves on to the study's aim and objectives, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and organization In other words, Chapter 1 aims to provide an overview of the contents of the subsequent chapters, thereby contributing to the development of the research outline
LITERATURE REVIEW
Appraisal Theory
2.1.1 An Overview of Appraisal Theory
In the 1900s, a group of researchers led by Professor James Martin of the Linguistics Department at the University of Sydney proposed Appraisal Theory (Ruo-mei, 2016)
According to Martin and Rose (2003), Appraisal is a system of interpersonal meanings We use Appraisal resources to negotiate social relationships by telling our listeners or readers how we feel about things and people
Martin & White (2005) claim that Appraisal is recognized as a specific approach to evaluating language, adopting stances, constructing textual characters, and constituting interpersonal positioning and relationships It investigates how speakers/writers pass on their attitudes, judgements, or opinions to listeners/readers in order to form alliances with those who share their experience and point of view and distance themselves from those who do not
Appraisal, as determined by Martin (2000), also investigates how attitudes, judgements, and emotional responses from speakers/writers are explicitly presented or expressed implicitly in texts Appraisal is used to analyze discourse resources in order to negotiate social relationships by telling listeners/readers how they feel about specific people or things
Appraisal Theory, the evaluative use of language provides a framework for evaluating people, things, events, places, or processes Its primary function is to help “writers/speakers positively or negatively evaluate the entities, happenings and states-of-affairs with which their texts are concerned” (Martin
Furthermore, Martin and Rose (2004) stated that the resources of Appraisal are used to organize our social relationships by informing our listeners or readers of our feelings about things and people; in other words, our attitudes
As for the language level where Appraisal can be applied to understand the language of education, Appraisal Theory is a developing theory within discourse analysis and conversation analysis, according to Richards and Schmidt (2010, p 30) It is concerned with the ways in which attitudes such as certainty, emotional response, social evaluation, and intensity are expressed Appraisal can be performed on lexical items or on entire clauses
In brief, it can be seen that Appraisal is used as an umbrella term to refer to the semantic resources, such as words, phrases, and structures, that speakers or writers use to negotiate emotions, Judgements, and valuations From a semantic standpoint, Appraisal Theory is made up of three interacting domains:
Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation Attitude takes center stage It is concerned with our emotions, including emotional reactions, behavioral Judgements, and the evaluation of things Engagement is concerned with sourcing attitudes and the play of voices around opinions Graduation addresses the phenomenon of grading, in which feelings are amplified and categories are blurred These three systems can be subdivided further
Attitudes can be classified into three types of feelings: Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation Monoglossia and Heteroglossia are involved
8 in the Engagement Graduation has two subsystems as well They are called
Force and Focus Figure 2.1 depicts an overview of these appraisal systems
Figure 2.1 An overview of Appraisal resources
According to Martin & White (2005), Engagement is concerned with the linguistic resources that enable speakers/writers to take a position toward the value positions referenced by the text as well as those they address
Engagement is composed of two sub-types, namely Monogloss and
Heterogloss The following table adapted from Martin and White (2005:100) indicates the distinction between the two types
Table 2.1 The Monogloss and the Heterogloss
Monoglossic (no recognition of dialogistic alternatives)
Heteroglossic (recognition of dialogistic alternatives)
The banks have been greedy There is the argument thought that the banks have been greedy
In my view the banks have been greedy
Callers to talkback radio see the banks as being greedy
The chairman of the consumers association has stated that the banks are being greedy
There can be no denying the banks have been greedy
Everyone knows the banks are greedy
The banks haven’t been greedy Etc
Whilst Monogloss relates to factual information (single voice), Hetergloss gets involved in multiple voices which consist of Contract and
Expand In Contract, the speaker usually contrasts his own point of view with the points of view of others In Expand, the speaker presents the current proposition, which is one of several possible points of view By the same token,
10 it creates space for more speakers to participate in the conversation Contract includes disclaimers (deny and counterclaims) and proclamations (concur, pronounce, and endorse) Expand is made up of entertain (internal speaker voice) and attribute (external sources)
2.1.2.2 Graduation Graduation is defined as the one that “attends to grading phenomena whereby feelings are amplified and categories blurred” (Martin & White, 2005, p 35) It is divided into two categories, namely Force and Focus
Martin & White (2005) state that Force encompasses assessments of both intensity and quantity It manifests itself as Intensification and Quantification In terms of Intensification, it measures the degree of intensity by scaling qualities or processes It is accomplished through Isolating (up- scaling/down-scaling), Infusing, or Repetition (Martin and White, 2005)
Most Force values are gradable, but not in the case of Focus It discusses class membership and how strong or weak that membership is in relation to
Focus (to our mind) The two elements under Focus are Sharpen (up-scale) and Soften (down-scale)
It is irrefutable that It is undeniable that utilizing Engagement and Graduation to identify sources of evaluation and the degree of evaluation can yield a thorough analysis; however, they do not contribute significantly to achieving the goal of this study, so they are not examined
2.1.2.3 Attitude Attitude is one of the three sub-systems of the Appraisal Theory
According to Martin & White (2005, p 35), Attitude is concerned with “our feelings, including emotional reaction, judgements of behavior and evaluation of things” In other words, Attitude is the resource that is applied by the speakers or writers to express people’s views, positive and negative feeling reactions
11 with participants and offer the evaluation of things
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This study was conducted using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods The qualitative method was used to analyze and describe the attitudinal resources found in online newspaper commentaries on The World Cup 2022 The quantitative approach then assisted in determining the frequency of occurrence of Affect, Judgement, Appreciation, and their sub- types in the commentaries
Additionally, the analytic and synthetic techniques were utilized harmoniously for the scrutinization process The analytic practice helped in pinpointing and separating certain aspects to concentrate The synthetic practice was applied to consider the interdependence of these elemental parts
With the aim of reaching the target of the study, it was impossible to put a single method in use As a result, apart from the aforementioned approaches, descriptive, and inductive were also applied The descriptive method came to the aid of giving a precise description in terms of Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation Then, inductive method proved helpful in synthesizing the outcome and drew a conclusion.
Data Collection
Twenty online newspaper commentaries on The World Cup 2022 were collected from international newspapers like CNN, Foxsports, and Reuters The length of the commentaries fluctuated from 502 words to 1909 words and the commentaries served the analysis of the evaluative language The commentaries met some standards of lexical meaning and grammatical structures
The criteria for the selection online newspaper commentaries:
- the reliable websites are chosen, CNN and Foxsports are the famous websites of the United States with a large amount of information, and Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world with its headquaters in the United Kingdom
- the selected online newspaper commentaries from November to December
2022 include different aspects of the World Cup 2022 such as the matches, the footballers, the national teams, and the different problems happening on the sidelines in Qatar – where the Word Cup 2022 was held
- the different length of 20 online newspaper commentaries is also expresses the various views of the United States and the United Kingdom’ authors The online newspaper commentaries on The World Cup 2022 were listed as follows
1 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/01/opinions/qatar-world-cup-criticism- human-rights-vietor-bennett/index.html
2 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/10/football/fifa-world-cup-flight-israeli- palestinian-football-fans-spt-intl/index.html
3 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/13/football/tim-sparv-criticism-qatar-
2022-dangerous-spt-intl/index.html
4 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/17/football/macron-qatar-world-cup-intl- spt/index.html
5 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/17/opinions/qatar-world-cup-ambassador- opinion-al-thani/index.html
6 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/18/football/qatar-world-cup-beer-stadium- spt-intl/index.html
7 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/21/football/iran-football-world-cup- protests-spt-intl/index.html
8 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/22/football/saudi-arabia-argentina-world- cup-upsets-spt-intl/index.html
9 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/football/lionel-messi-fronts-defeat- argentina-saudi-arabia-spt-intl/index.html
10 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/football/canada-belgium-qatar-world- cup-spt-intl/index.html
11 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/24/football/portugal-ghana-cristiano- ronaldo-spt-intl/index.html
12 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/26/football/tunisia-australia-saudi- arabia-poland-france-denmark-world-cup-2022-spt-intl/index.html
13 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/26/football/lionel-messi-argentina- mexico-world-cup-spt-intl/index.html
14 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/27/football/brazil-switzerland-neymar- injury-world-cup-spt-intl/index.html
15 https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/soccer-in-year-drama-world-cup- shines-spotlight-growth-sport-2022-12-20/
16 https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/incredible-final-shows-why- were-captivated-by-world-cup
17 https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/incredible-final-shows-why- were-captivated-by-world-cup
18 https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/luka-modric-the-other-living- legend-seeking-world-cup-redemption
19 https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/france-keeps-focus-as-it-inches- toward-world-cup-repeat-we-havent-won-anything-yet
20 https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/world-cup-stage-was-set-for-a- cristiano-ronaldo-hero-moment-but-it-never-arrived
Data Analysis
The system of Attitude in Appraisal Theory was applied as the theoretical framework for the procedures of data analysis The collected data were encoded manually from E1 to E20 The Attitudinal resources (Affect, Judgement,
Appreciation and their sub-categories) were analyzed and classified in the twenty commentaries Additionally, quantitative methods were utilized to uncover the frequency of their occurrence and disclose the choice of language of evaluation in the commentaries.
Research procedures
There were specific steps followed by the author, presented as follows:
- collecting twenty online newspaper commentaries on The World Cup 2022;
- giving out the frequencies/percentage of occurrence of the resources;
- discussing the meanings of these resources in the context;
- evaluating and discussing the comparison results to indicate research findings;
- putting forwards implications for teaching and learning English;
Reliability and validity in the research
The reliability was secured because the Appraisal Theory by Martin and
White (2005) was chosen as the fundamental framework for this study This is a reliable framework applied in many previous studies in literature Moreover, the data were gathered from reliable and approved websites such as CNN, Foxsports, and Reuters
In terms of validity, the data met the necessary standard criteria The data for the research proved its originality since they had not been utilized in any research regarding Attitudinal resources
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The overall usage of the Attitude resources in EONCs
The investigation into the 20 English online newspaper commentaries shows that many Attitudinal resources are employed in EONCs Table 4.1 gives an overview of the distribution of the Attitudinal values in EONCs
Table 4.1 Attitude sub-types in EONCs Sub-categories of Attitudes
As can be seen in Table 4.1, the findings reveal that there are totally 648
Attitudinal values in EONCs; moreover, all the three subtypes of Attitude including Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation are detected It is remarkable that Appreciation is uncovered to be most widely used in this genre More specifically, Appreciation resources in EONCs make up a higher proportion than the others, with 43.8%, which shows that Appreciation resources are strongly favored by EONCs writers In other words, the writers tend to focus on evaluating the different events during the World Cup 2022 Besides, EONCs writers pay more attention to Judgement with the rate of 40.9% in EONCs
Affect is the least common resource with 99 instances out of 648, accounting
29 for 15.3% The following are examples of the three Attitudinal resources including Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation found in English
In terms of Affect, the data show the resources to express the emotions or feelings of people about the World Cup 2022, which can be found obviously in [E5]
[E5] Not only are we ready and eager [+Aff-Inc] to host, but Qatar is deeply honored [+Aff-Sat] to bring a global event of this caliber to the Arab world for the first time – an opportunity for our region that is long overdue
It can be seen that ready and eager in [E5] are utilized to express the writer’s support towards the World Cup 2022, deeply honored shows Qatar’s satisfaction with this special event
Regarding Judgement, EONCs writers incline to deal with attitudes towards behaviour The point can be seen clearly in [E17] and [E18]
[E17] Messi will [+Judg-Tena] retire from international play following the game, in which he will [+Judg-Tena] break the tournament record for appearances
[E18] Messi is widely considered the greatest of all time [+Judg-Norm], but Modrić has a claim as the greatest of this generation [+Judg-Norm] after him and former Real teammate Ronaldo
It can be seen that will is applied to refer to Messi’s determination to do something in [E17] The greatest of all time and the greatest of this generation in [E18] related to Messi and Modrić, which shows how capable they are in their playing
As for Appreciation, in EONCs, the resources can be found to show the evaluation of different issues, which may be observed in [E7], [E8], and [E9] [E7] Protesting at the World Cup, on the biggest [+App-Val] stage of all for football, carries potentially huge risks for the current players in the national
[E8] But those amateurs pulled off the first great World Cup upset as Joe Gaetjens’ glancing header near the end of the first half was enough to secure a remarkable [+App-Reac] win for the US
[E9] Amid all the excitement, though, Saudi manager Hervé Renard demanded his side focus on building a successful [+App-Comp] campaign
In the aforementioned examples [E7], the superlative of the adjective big is shown in the situation showing the high appreciation for this tournament In [E8], remarkable is described as the emotional impact of the goal on the viewer Thus, under reaction, the US win is evaluated in terms of the impact it makes Besides, successful in [E9] expresses Saudi manager Hervé Renard's desire for what his team needs to do because it is a task and ability of the Saudi players when participating in the World Cup 2022
To sum up, EONCs writers are most likely to apply Appreciation in their online newspaper commentaries, which indicates that the writers tend to evaluate things and phenomenon related to the World Cup 2022 Judgement is also employed in EONCs quite a lot while the instances of Affect are used modestly of the three types A more detailed discussion of each sub-type in EONCs in terms of their frequency of occurrence is presented in the following sections.
Affect resources in EONCs
4.2.1 Sub-types of Affect resources in EONCs
Martin & White (2005, pp 48-51) states that Affect is classified into four sub-types including Un/Happiness, Dis/Inclination, In/Security, and Dis/Satisfaction Un/Happiness set of meanings involves the moods happiness or sadness In/Security variable covers our feelings of peace and anxiety in relation to the people sharing them with us Dis/Satisfaction deals with our
31 feelings of achievement and frustration in relation to the activities in which we are engaged, including our roles as both participants and spectators, and
Dis/Inclination is concerned with how the speaker is inclined or disinclined to something Figure 4.1 below serves to present the distribution of the Affect values in EONCs
Figure 4.1 Sub-types of Affect resources in EONCs
From Figure 4.1, it is clear that Dis/Inclination is the most widely used Affect resources which is favored by EONCs writers with 49.5% The second position belongs to Un/Happiness accounting for 21.2% in EONCs with 21 instances In/Security ranks third in EONCs with 15.2% Dis/Satisfaction is the least common among the four sub-categories of Affect, with 14 out of 99 instances in EONCs falling into this value There is no doubt that English reporters pay much attention to the inclination of football national teams, coaches, soccers, or football fans towards the most popular sporting event in the world – The World Cup 2022 Moreover, they rarely mention the feeling of achievement and frustration in their writings
As for Affect in EONCs, the resources can be found to show positive and
Dis/Inclination Un/Happiness In/Security Dis/Satisfaction
32 negative feelings, which may be observed in [E3], [E6], and [E12]
[E3] Sparv says the implementation of these are often poor and that he worries [-Aff-Sec] what will happen when the world’s gaze inevitably moves on from the 2022 World Cup
[E6] While some fans may be pleased [+Aff-Sat] the stadiums are alcohol free, others are confused and frustrated [-Aff-Sat]
[E12] Overcome by emotion [+Aff-Hap], he slid across the pitch [+Aff-
Hap] in celebration where his teammates jumped on top of him as he buried his face in the turf
[E3] “I’m really curious to see [+Aff-Inc] where we go from here,” he said
It can be stated that the verb worries in [E3] shows Sparv's insecurity about the world’s gaze toward the World Cup In [E6], the adjective pleased express the fans’satisfaction while the two adjectives confused and frustrated present the fans’dissatisfaction about alcohol free at Qatar stadiums
The phrases Overcome by emotion and slid across the pitch in [E12] express the footballer’s happiness after scoring a goal In [E3], really curious to see shows the expectation of former Finland captain Tim Sparv for their team at this tournament
As for parts of speeches used as sub-types of Affect, it can be seen that almost all Affect resources are Verb, Adjective, and Noun used to a different extent Figure 4.2 below presents the frequency occurrence of parts of speeches in Affect resources in EONCs
Figure 4.2 Frequency occurrence of parts of speeches in Affect resources in EONCs
As presented in Figure 4.2, Verb is the most commonly used to express feelings by EONCs writers, which make up 65.7% The second position belongs to Adjective with 25.3% Noun, with only 9 instances out of 99 Affect resources, makes the lowest percentage Some examples of parts of speeches in terms of sub-types of Affect resources in EONCs are provided as follows [E1] All national teams need [ + Aff-Inc] to step up – and players have a crucial role to play in this effort as well
[E3]Sparv says he also wants [+Aff-Inc] Qatar to be a catalyst for governing bodies to put players at the forefront of decision making
In these sentences, Verbs like need and want are counted as Affect resources for the feelings of national teams or coach towards striving to win The word need in [E1] is used to indicate the demand for efforts made by all national teams Besides, wants in [E3] expresses the desire to see Qatar as a new positive element for this tournament
The next 2 examples can be considered the situations in which EONCs
34 writers use verbs to reflect Affect values when they talk about the desires of
Former Finland captain and Argentina fansfor their favorite team to win [E3] Former Finland captain Tim Sparv says he hopes [+Aff-Inc] this month’s
World Cup in Qatar will be a turning point for a sport that he believes is heading in a “dangerous” direction
[E8] Led by Lionel Messi, ranked third in the world, unbeaten for three years and among the favorites to win the 2022 tournament, many had expected [+Aff- Inc] Argentina to sweep aside Saudi Arabia with 48 places separating the two teams in the world rankings
The verb hopes in [E3] and the verb phrase had expected in [E8] show the expectation for their favorite team's victory.
Apart from verbs, adjectives are also deployed to express human emotions by writers in online newspaper commentaries on the World Cup 2022 The application of adjectives to indicate Affect values in English can be seen in the following examples
[E16] "I am just happy [+Aff-Hap] people are joyful [+Aff-Hap]," Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said
[E20] Cristiano Ronaldo was inconsolable [-Aff-Hap] As perhaps the final whistle blew on his World Cup career, tears streamed down the superstar's face
[E20] Santos said "Of course, we are upset [-Aff-Hap] Of course, that affects us But that's part of the game."
The adjectives happy and joyful in [E16] are used to express the cheerfulness of Argentina coach and Argentina fans when they are the champion However, inconsolable in [E20] shows Cristiano Ronaldo s’ sadness after losing to Morocco The adjective upset in [E20] bearing a negative meaning conveys a positive message from the viewpoints of the Portugal
35 manager since Morocco became the first African team to make the World Cup semifinals with a victory over Portugal
Besides verbs and adjectives, nouns are also utilized to indicate Affect values in EONCs, which can be seen in [E6] and [E10]
[E6] ‘you can’t do this and you can’t do that’ and breach that contract, that’s not going to give any security [-Aff-Sec] to any new brand.”
[E10] Despite all its dominance, Canada couldn’t get the goal it so richly deserved and had the frustration [-Aff-Sat] of seeing Alphonso Davies’ penalty saved by Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois in the first half
There is no doubt that the nouns like security and frustration show feelings about two distinct events In [E6], people feel annoyed at no alcohol being sold at Qatar World Cup stadiums In [E10], some authorities show their dissatisfaction with Canada’s result against Belgium
Through verbs, nouns, and adjectives, EONCs authors express their feelings about people and events taking place in the World Cup 2022
4.2.2 Positive and Negative Affect resources in EONCs
Affect can be examined regarding positive and negative emotional responses Positive and Negative Affects will be presented in Figure 4.3
Figure 4.3 Positive and Negative Affect resources in EONCs
As shown in Figure 4.3, Positive Affect is utilized more commonly than
Negative Affect More specifically, there are 71 instances of Positive Affect found in EONCs, accounting for 71.7% while Negative Affect makes up 28.3% with 28 cases
The following are some examples of Positive Affect in EONCs
[E13] For Argentina, this was a long way from the performance that many fans in Qatar and back home would have expected [+Aff-Inc] following that humiliating opening defeat to Saudi Arabia
[E17] Scaloni said "We hope [+Aff-Inc] he can lift this trophy It would be something wonderful."
[E18]Neutrals across the planet want to see [+Aff-Inc] Messi go out on top
In the aforementioned examples, the verbs would have expected, hope and want to see are utilized to express positive emotions of fans and Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni They are employed to emphasize the wish of the favorite team, the favorite player to win
Negative Affect is also shown in EONCs, which can be made clear in the following instances
[E6] Fans will not be the only ones disappointed [-Aff-Sat] with the eleventh- hour U-turn
[E10]Before a ball was kicked at Qatar 2022, midfielder Jonathan Osorio said his teammates were not content [-Aff-Sat] with simply making up the numbers and that much was clear against Belgium
Judgement resources in EONCs
Martin & White (2005, p 42) claim that Judgement deals with attitudes towards behavior, which we admire or criticize, praise or condemn In other words, Judgement is concerned with resources for assessing behavior according to various normative principles Moreover, Judgement serves to evaluate human behavior positively and negatively in terms of that participant’s acts or dispositions According to Martin & White (2005), Judgement is divided into two broad categories, namely Social Esteem and Social Sanction
4.3.1 Social Esteem and Social Sanction
Social Esteem assesses people’s conduct from the perspectives of social ethics and the standard of appropriateness It is a semantic system which refers to one’s emotional responses or reactions Social Esteem tends to be policed in the oral culture, through chat, gossip, jokes and stories of various kinds - with humor often having a critical role to play (Eggins & Slade 1997) Meanwhile,
Social Sanction is defined by Martin & White (2005) in the sense that is often codified in writing, as edicts, decrees, rules, regulations and laws about how to behave with penalties and punishments as levers against those not complying with the code Social Sanction assesses people conduct based on legal or religious rules
The use of Judgement in EONCs is presented in Figure 4.4
Figure 4.4 Social Esteem and Social Sanction in EONCs
As indicated in Figure 4.4, both Social Esteem and Social Sanction resources can be found in the corpora It is apparent that the proportion of Social
Esteem is four times as much as that in Social Sanction in EONCs There are
216 instances of Social Esteem, accounting for 81.5% and 49 instances out of
265 Judgement resources are Social Sanction Social Esteem EONCs can be demonstrated more clearly in the following examples
[E1] Fans can help by using their social media platforms to call attention to Qatar’s human rights abuses, and by pressuring football associations to publicly support the #PayUpFIFA campaign
It can be seen that can in [E1] is applied to show the fans’ capability to believe in democracy and human rights are going to let authoritarian regimes get away with hijacking the sport
EONCs also see the occurrence of Social Sanction, which can be made clearer in [E3]
[E3] “The World Cup should be an inclusive World Cup,” Sparv told CNN
Sport “Everybody should feel welcome Everybody should feel safe and that’s just not the case.”
Should in [E3] expresses the necessity of successfully hosting a major tournament, especially taking care of people joining this special event as footballers, coaching staff, and spectators
The analysis of Judgement resources in EONCs is further based on the five narrower sub-types within the two aforementioned categories, namely
Normality, Capacity, Tenacity, Veracity, and Propriety The specific distribution of the Social Esteem and Social Sanction is indicated in Table 4.3
Table 4.3 Sub-types of Judgement resources in EONCs
According to Table 4.3, it is apparent that there is a difference in the distribution of five narrower sub-types of Judgement values In EONCs,
Tenacity takes a dominant percentage and ranks first with 95 instances, accounting for 35.8% It is followed by Capacity 82 instances (30.9%) Propriety and Normality take the third and fourth positions with 16.6% and
14.7% respectively Veracity with 5 instances, accounting the lowest percentage It means that EONCs writers prefer evaluating the dependableness and capability of someone to touching on ethics, unusualness, and truthfulness
By using Tenacity, EONCs writers express how resolute or dependable someone is, which can be illustrated in [E1] and [E17]
[E1] This November, billions of people around the world will [+Judg-Ten] tune in to the World Cup – one of the greatest porting spectacles in human history [E7] “Iran’s brutality and belligerence [+Judg-Ten] towards its own people has reached a tipping point, demanding an unequivocal and firm disassociation from the footballing and sports world,” a press release issued alongside the letter reads
[E17] … almost everyone in attendance will [+Judg-Ten] be screaming their lungs out for Argentina, hoping to see Mbappé & Co lose
It is obvious that will is widely used by EONCs writers to show the certainty of people’s behaviours in the World Cup More specifically, in [E1] and [E17], football fans are certainly tuning in to the World Cup and screaming for Argentina In [E7], brutality and belligerence express the wrath in a press release when human rights violations occurred in Iran due to the aggression of the authorities
Capacity is used to describe how capable someone is, and it is also found in data to talk about the ability in the different behaviours during the World Cup 2022 Take the following instances as examples
[E7]“But I don’t think it’s the right move to kick out Iran from the World Cup, but maybe we can [+Judg-Cap] put a light and show people what’s going on.”
[E10] Canada continued to create chances in the second half but just couldn’t
[E14] while Xherdan Shaqiri is still capable [+Judg-Cap] of producing an individual moment of brilliance
The word can in [E7] represents the ability of “putting a light” toshow people what’s happening in the setting that the protests and the human rights violations happening in Iran, several groups inside and outside the country have called upon FIFA to ban Iran from the World Cup In [E10], couldn’t expresses
Canada is inability to score agaisnt Belgium in their World Cup Capable in [E14] states the ability to play football of Swiss professional footballer Xherdan Shaqiri
Propriety, which points out how ethical someone is or determines whether the action was right or wrong, good or bad, can be found in EONCs in form of modulations of obligations, noun, adjectives, and adverbs, which can be seen in the following examples
[E1] This doesn’t mean every player must [+Judg-Prop] speak out But those who do should [+Judg-Prop] be supported and amplified
[E20] Among the legends [+Judg-Prop] in this tournament, only Lionel Messi continues to have hope after a wild Argentina victory in penalty kicks the night before
It is clear that must and should used in [E1] to determine what the correct actions to do In [E20], legends refers to football stars respectfully
In terms of Normality, which is used to show how unusual someone is, the writers portray the era's football stars, who possessed talent and skill that not everyone possessed, which can be seen in [E17] and [E20]
[E17] Mbappé is a top [+Judg-Nor] player, obviously
[E20] Ronaldo, one of the greatest [+Judg-Nor] to ever play the game, will likely never win its most coveted trophy
It is clear that the noun phrases a top in [E17] and one of the greatest in [E20] are applied to express the outstanding excellence of football players - Mbappé and Ronaldo in their careers
Veracity, which is used to convey how truthful someone is, is exemplified in [E9] and [E20]
[E9] “The truth [-Judg-Ver]? Dead,” Messi said when asked about the team’s morale
[E20] For the past week, Ronaldo played the role of a good soldier with his talent and his honesty [+Judg-Ver]
It is no doubt that the words true in [E14] is utilized for the assessment of the reliability when Messi talks about his teamates, and honestly in [E18] expresses how truthful Ronaldo is
In summary, regarding Judgement, Social Esteem is about five times more than Social Sanction The results show that Tenacity and Capacity are both found at high levels, while all other subtypes are found below 20%
4.3.2 Positive and Negative Judgment resources in EONCs
According to Martin & White (2005), Judgement refers to Attitudinal evaluation in which human behavior is positively or negatively assessed by some set of social norms Figure 4.5 presents the frequency of occurrences of
Positive and Negative Judgement resources in EONCs
Figure 4.5 Positive and Negative Judgement resources in EONCs
Regarding the distribution of Positive and Negative resources of
Judgement in EONCs indicated in Figure 4.5, it is apparent that EONCs writers tend to employ more Positive Judgement resources than Negative ones More
45 specifically, Positive resources make up 83.8%, whereas Negative ones utilize 16.2% This demonstrates that the authors prefer to talk about positive behaviours of people, such as compliments, rather than negative actions or express criticisms about people’s actions
Appreciation resources in EONCs
Appreciation is the last Attitudinal resource which is going to be presented in this part Martin and White (2005, p 36) state that Appreciation looks at resources for construing the value of things, including natural phenomena and semiosis (as either product or process) Appreciation is defined as the assessment of artifacts, entities, happenings, and states of affairs by reference to aesthetics and other systems of social valuation (White, 2015a, p.2)
4.4.1 Sub-types of Appreciation resources in EONCs
Martin & White (2005) affirms Appreciation is composed of three sub- types: Reaction (emotional impact of something on the reader or listener),
Composition (the texture of something) and Valuation (social value of something) Figure 4.6 gives the distribution of Appreciation types in EONCs
Figure 4.6 Sub-types of Appreciation resources in EONCs
As indicated in Figure 4.6, three types of Appreciation are employed in EONCs Specifically, Valuation and Composition are relatively the same with
41.5% and 39.8% respectively Reaction is the least common Appreciation value with 18.7%
Reaction Appreciation found in EONCs consists of two sub-types, while Impact involves the evaluated entity (whether the object grabs our attention), Quality is centered on the evaluator’s response (whether the object is well- liked), which can be seen in [E3] and [E4]
[E3]On a whole, though, he’s optimistic that change will come and says he’s devoted to using his platform to keep the pressure on the people making decisions about the future of the beautiful [+App-Reac] game
[E4] Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who led the organization when
Qatar was awarded the hosting rights, told Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger recently “Qatar is a mistake,” adding that “the choice was bad.” [-App-Reac]
From the aforementioned examples, it is clear that the writers are prone to show different reactions to various events during World Cup 2022 The
50 adjective beautiful is employed to express a positive attitude when talking about the biggest football tournament on the planet, and a good thing is that Qatar has made some positive changes to its labor laws However, the word bad shows the lack of belief in hosting a big tournament in a country like Qatar, in the setting that controversy surrounding the treatment of the LGBT community has also made headlines in the run-up to the tournament
In addition, Composition, which is related to our perception, is utilized to evaluate a product or process about its configuration It is classified into two smaller resources which are Balance (whether the phenomenon hang together) and Complexity (whether it is hard to follow the phenomena or not), and appears in EONCs to show the perception of various matter
[E1] We’ve got to send a clear [+App-Comp] signal that autocrats cannot amass soft power through the refracted glow of sports immortality
[E5] Sport is meant to remind us of our similarities and bring people together
[+App-Comp], rather than highlight our differences and drive the world further apart
It is apparent that by using the word clear in [E1], the authors’ intention in the setting is to bring the world’s attention to Qatari atrocities and serves as a warning to other authoritarian regimes that are watching, so clear showed the hope that by the end of this tournament, every single person knows what is happening off-screen in Qatar In [E5], together expresses the evaluation of positive aspects that sport can bring to the world
Valuation, which includes Significance (whether the phenomena is important) and Benefit (whether the phenomena is beneficial), considered as the most common Appreciation value is used to express characteristics of various events in World Cup 2022,not just football games
[E3] “We have also always been committed to ensuring that this World Cup
51 leaves a transformational social, human, economic and environmental legacy, and is remembered as a landmark [+App-Val] moment in the history of our region.”
[E18] Both men have also played in and lost World Cup finals After those matches, Tuesday’s is probably the most important [+App-Val] of either’s career
The words such as landmark in [E3] and the most important in [E18] represents the author's positive comments about the event and the matches
To sum, three types of Appreciation are employed in EONCs with different frequency
4.4.2 Positive and Negative Appreciation resources in EONCs
Appreciation can be either positive or negative In other words, the writers in two languages can evaluate objects positively or negatively Figure 4.7 gives the distribution of Positive and Negative Appreciation in EONCs
Figure 4.7 Positive and Negative Appreciation resources in EONCs
As presented in Figure 4.7, EONCs writers are inclined to apply more
Positive Appreciation than Negative one in their commentaries In detail, the
52 proportion of Positive values in EONCs is higher than Negative ones with 68.3% and 31.7% respectively
The following examples show the use of Positive Appreciation in
[E5] This World Cup promises to be a once in a lifetime celebration of the beautiful [+App-Reac] game of soccer, here in the beautiful [+App-Reac] country of Qatar
[E8] France won the World Cup on home soil in 1998, beating Brazil 3-0 in the final, then won Euro 2000 two years later and was a strong favorite [+App- Comp] to retain its world title in South Korea and Japan
It is obvious that the adjective beautiful in [E5] is applied to show a positive attitude towards The World Cup 2022 It is worth the attention that the current Qatar’s Ambassador to the United States claims an optimistic viewpoint towards The World Cup 2022 In addition, a strong favorite in [E8] expresses fans' devotion to the French national team
Negative Appreciation resources are also deployed, which can be seen in
[E10] The Canadians had 14 shots on the Belgian goal in the opening 45 minutes alone but couldn’t find the back of the net on a frustrating [-App- Comp] evening at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium
[E20] Moroccan fans outnumbered Portuguese fans by the thousands, and they whistled incessantly throughout the game — incredibly distracting [-App- Comp] sounds that were off the decibel charts
As indicated in the above mentioned examples, a frustrating in [E10] shows Canada was taught a tough lesson as it lost 1-0 to Belgium in its first World Cup match for 36 years Besides, incredibly distracting in [E20] expresses the excessive eagerness of Moroccan fans when they became the first
African team to make the World Cup semifinals with a 1-0 victory over Portugal on Saturday at Al Thumama Stadium, and the noise they make is annoying to fans of the opposition
4.4.3 Explicit and Implicit Appreciation resources in EONCs
Similar to judging people’s behavior, evaluating inanimate things can be explicit or implicit In terms of Appreciation, both Explicit and Implicit values can be found in EONCs The following table shows the distribution of Explicit and Implicit Appreciation in ONCs
Table 4.5 Explicit and Implicit Appreciation resources in EONCs
As presented in Table 4.5, the writers are prone to apply more Explicit Appreciation than Implicit one in their commentaries Particularly, in EONCs
259 instances of Explicit resources are found, making up 91.2%, whereas there are only 25 instances of Implicit values with 8.8%
The following examples of Explicit Appreciation serve to illustrate the findings
[E12] It doubled Poland’s lead late in the game, sealing an important [+App-
Exp] victory over the Green Falcons who were flying high after defeating Argentina on Tuesday
[E13]Mexico started the game brightly and was the better [+App-Exp] team inside the opening 15 minutes
It is noticeable that EONCs writers apply Explicit Appreciation to express the issues involved in the quality of football matches While important in [E12] shows the goal’s influence, the better in [E13] indicates the team’s
Although Implicit Appreciation instances are inferior to Explicit Appreciation ones in the commentaries, they make a significant contribution to provoking readers’ thinking The following examples serve to illustrate Implicit
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Summary of the findings
As stated in the previous chapter, the research is centered on identifying the Attitudinal resources in English online newspaper commentaries towards the World Cup 2022 and their frequency of occurrence
Attitude is one of the three systems in Appraisal Theory, and is categorized into three sub-types, namely Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation Each sub-system of Attitude is then sub-classified into many interrelated sets of Appraisal values
The findings of the study have revealed that all of the resources in the sub-systems of Attitude appear in the data, namely Affect, Judgement, and
In terms of Affect, the findings claim the occurrence of four sub-types of
Affect in EONCs The Affect resources which are utilized by English writers from the highest to the lowest, as follows: Dis/Inclination, Un/Happiness, In/Security, Dis/Satisfaction, which shows that English writers intend to show the feeling of the public towards the World Cup 2022 Moreover, Affect resources are realized mainly via verbs and adjectives in the data Noticeably, concerning Dis/Inclination Affect, verbs make up the majority Besides, Positive Affect and Non-Authorial Affect are preferred to Negative Affect and
Authorial Affect by the authors to convey their own emotions as well as the feelings Positive Affect is applied to mainly show optimistic viewpoints of the
58 different aspects during this tournament
As regards Judgement, the online newspaper commentaries involved all five sub-types, namely Normality, Capacity, Tenacity, Veracity, and Propriety
Judgement resources are mainly realized via modal verbs Impressively, most
Implicit Judgement values are indicated through noun phrases Specifically, the authors prefer the Tenacity and Capacity to the other kinds of Judgement This result reveals that English writers incline to give evaluations on the capability and determinations of national football teams in the matches of the World Cup
2022 Additionally, it is apparent that English writers tend to employ more
Positive Judgement resources than Negative Positive Judgement is employed to indicate a bright side in which the national football teams, coaches and players try to win in the matches Additionally, English authors incline to employ more instances of Explicit Judgement values than Implicit Judgement ones, which may be because the authors have their intention of expressing evaluations on human directly so that they can get their messages across to the readers
With respect to Appreciation, three sub-types of Appreciation are employed in both EONCs Specifically, Valuation and Composition are relatively the same in the language, Reaction is the least common Appreciation value It is possible that the authors of English online newspaper commentaries incline to focus on evaluating the different events during the World Cup 2022 Additionally, English writers incline to apply more the Positive Appreciation than the Negative Appreciation in their commentaries On one hand, the writers take a fancy to give remarks on the undeniably victories of the winners On the other hand, Negative Appreciation serves to indicate the disappointment of losing teams as well as their fans Besides, the Explicit Appreciation resources are preferable since the authors are prone to get their messages across to readers
59 in a clear way rather than implicitly However, some Implicit values are applied by English authors, which expresses English writers are keen on taking advantages of the Implicit to make inanimate objects become more human, catching the interest of the audience.
Implications
The study aimed at uncovering sub-types of Attitudinal resources as well as indicating the similarities and differences in the use of these sub-types between EONCs in the light of Appraisal Theory Hopefully, the findings of the study can be of help to language learners This study will widen their knowledge of Appraisal and the features of the evaluative language employed by English writers in their online newspaper commentaries Additionally, the English data utilized in this study were collected from reliable sources by native writers, so this study can be practical for learners of English in applying the evaluative language in their writing Besides, the learners can also consider the information given by the online newspaper commentaries as useful sources involving the different aspects of the World Cup 2022, thereby applying them in writing and debating Furthermore, learners can take advantage of this study as a reliable reference in discovering how evaluative language can be used to give assessments in English
It is irrefutable that the study is subjected to unavoidable limitations First, the Appraisal Theory is composed of three domains, precisely Attitude,
Engagement, and Graduation; however, this study focuses on the Attitudinal resources only, leaving the others unearthed Second, Appraisal Theory is considered a developing theory and some Appraisal values are interconnected; as a result, confusion emerged when classifying the Appraisal resources into suitable categories Third, the corpus of data is collected from only 20 English
60 online newspaper commentaries downloaded from some websites on the Internet; therefore, the data may not be comprehensive enough to reflect the reality of how English writers apply Attitudinal resources in their writing
Besides, due to the limit of time, reference materials as well as constraints faced by the researcher, the study may have some shortcomings However, the author has made every attempt in eliminating the downsides to ensure the validity and reliability of the study
As mentioned above, the study has left some dimensions of Appraisal untouched As a result, some recommendations for further research and studies can be shown as follows:
- An analysis of Engagement resources in English and Vietnamese
Online newspaper commentaries on The World Cup 2022
- An analysis of Graduation resources in English and Vietnamese Online newspaper commentaries on The World Cup 2022
- Attitudinal resources in English Online newspaper commentaries on other social issues
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