Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 6:3 (2007) ► pp.475–501

Negatives and positives in the language of politics

Attitudes towards authority in the British and Chinese press

| University of Sheffield School of East Asian Studies

An analytic model based on MAK Halliday’s System of Transitivity provides a powerful tool for decoding a journalist’s attitude to the events or individuals being written about. Chen (2005) showed how in the UK Times use of certain verbal processes rather than others to introduce direct or indirect speech could be an indicator that the journalist’s attitude towards the person being quoted was either negative or positive.

In this study, using a model for the linguistic comparison of the British and Chinese press developed by Chen (2004), verbal process use in the UK Times and the English-language China Daily is contrasted for evidence of differences in the attitude of British and Chinese journalists towards political figures.

The evidence is clear. Times journalists frequently use ‘negative’ verbal processes which indicate doubt or scepticism towards the person being quoted. China Daily journalists, meanwhile, more often use ‘positive’ verbal processes which enhance the authority of the speaker.

Keywords: Media, verbal process, authority, attitudes, China, Halliday, Transitivity
Published online: 15 January 2008
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.6.3.12che
References
Chen, L
2004 Evaluation in media texts: A cross-cultural linguistic investigation. Language in Society 33 (5), 673–702. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 Transitivity in media texts: Negative verbal process sub-functions and narrator bias. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 43 (1), 33–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen L
2007 Analysing Attitude: Positive Verbal Process sub-functions and Media Bias./ RASK, International Journal of Language and Communication 251, 25–55.Google Scholar
Collins English Dictionary
, Sixth edition 2003 Glasgow: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Conley, J and Tripoli, S
1992 Changes of line at ‘China Daily’: Fluctuating party policy or fluctuating control? In: R. Porter (Ed.). 1992 Reporting the News from China. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs.Google Scholar
Curran, J
1977 Capitalism and Control of the Press, 1800–1975. In: J. Curran, M. Gurevitch and J. Woollacott (eds) 1977 Mass Communication and Society. Clevedon: Open University Press, 195–226.Google Scholar
Fowler, R
1991 Language in the News. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gurevitch, M and Blumler, J.G
1977 Linkages between the mass media and politics: A model for the analysis of political communications systems. In: J. Curran, M. Gurevitch and J. Wool-lacott (eds). 1977. Mass Communication and Society. Clevedon: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, S
1977 Culture, the Media and the ‘Ideological Effect’. In: J. Curran, M. Gurevitch and J. Woollacott (eds). 1977. Mass Communication and Society. Clevedon: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K
1985 An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
1994 An Introduction to Functional Grammar: Second Edition. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Jamieson, K. and Kohrs Campbell, K
1992 The Interplay of Influence. Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Knight, A. and Nakano, Y
(eds) 1999 Reporting Hong Kong: Foreign Media and the Handover. Richmond, UK: Curzon.Google Scholar
Labov, W
1972 Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lee, C.C
1990 Mass media: Of China, about China. In: C.C. Lee (Ed.). 1990. Voices of China: The Interplay of Politics and Journalism. London: Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Li, G
1999 Review of the Development of Press in China. Ming Pao Monthly111. HongKong: MingPao, 96–103.Google Scholar
Simpson, P
1993 Language, Ideology and Point of View. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, W
1997 Politics and Freedom of the Press: A Comparison of Australia and China with Particular Reference to Coverage by Two Leading Dailies of Some Significant Events since 1970. Sydney: Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.Google Scholar
Zhao Yuezhi
1998 Media, Market, and Democracy in China, Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

Chen, Lily
2012. Reporting news in China: Evaluation as an indicator of change in the China Daily. China Information 26:3 ► pp. 303 ff. DOI logo
Chen, Lily
2013. Who speaks and how? Studies of voicing in theChina Dailyfollowing a decade of change. Chinese Journal of Communication 6:3 ► pp. 325 ff. DOI logo
Gates Tapia, Anna M. & Douglas Biber
2014. Lexico-grammatical stance in Spanish news reportage. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 27:1 ► pp. 208 ff. DOI logo
Li, Jiayu
2021. US-China trade negotiation discourses in the press. Journal of Language and Politics 20:6 ► pp. 932 ff. DOI logo
Tjondro, Michelle
2014. Culpability across borders: print media of the DSK affair from an SFL perspective. Journal of World Languages 1:2 ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Xi & Xiaoyu Sun
2023. A Bibliometric Study on Chinese Discourse (1994–2021). Critical Arts 37:3 ► pp. 78 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.