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about the success of the US invasion of Iraq. He mentioned US-led invasion of Iraq as a strategic disaster. By using its own words or referring to others’, Al-Jazeera seems to blame
the US invasion of Iraq.
4.1.3 The Appreciation Used in the Articles
Based on the general findings on Table 4.2 above, appreciation, which deals with valuing things, is limitedly used in the analyzed articles different from affect and
judgement. Since most attitudes are attached to people. However, it is similar to judgement in the way that it can’t directly show the emoter and the target of the expression. It deals
with expressing the adjective or adjectival in the clause items. To see the emoter and the target of appreciation, people should refer to the detailed analysis. As with affect and
judgment, things can be appreciated positively or negatively. Appreciation shares with judgment the property of being oriented towards the ‘appraised’ rather than the subjective
‘appraiser’ White, 2001.The percentage of sub-types of appreciation in the analyzed articles is presented in the following table.
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Table 4. 5 Sources of Appreciation per Article
Article Reaction:
Reaction: Compo-
Compo- Valuation
To- No.
impact quality
sition sition
tal balance
complexity +
- +
- +
- +
- +
- 1
16 -
16 -
- -
2 2
- -
- -
3 -
3 21
2 3 -
3 14
5 9
5 5
- -
- -
3 3
- 25
3 5 - 5 13 5 8 6 5 1 - - - 13 8 5 37
4 4 - 4 11 5 9 1 - 1 - - - 9 2 7 25
5 3 - 3 3 - 3 - -
- -
- - 1 -
1 7
6 - - - - 2 - -
- -
- - 1 -
1 3
Total 31
31 41 17 29 14 12 2 - - - 30 13 17 118
26,27 34,75
11,86 25,42
100
Table 4.5 shows that among the five sub-types of appreciation, reaction: quality dominates the other sub-types. Thirty-one out of entire appreciation are reaction: quality; it
is about 34.75 percent. The second place of the appreciation value used is reaction: impact 26.27, the third place is valuation 25.42, and the least one is composition: balance
11,86. Moreover, all the appreciations are expressed directly. From table above we can see, most of appreciations expressed negatively positive 35.59 and negative 66.95.
From the analysis it is found that the negative instances of appreciation are attached to the impacts of Iraq war. See the following excerpts:
20 Initial reports said the fighting between militants and Iraqi forces late on
Tuesday left eight people dead and 28 injured. 21
Reports also spoke of five Iraqi policemen being wounded during clashes between US and Iraqi forces and al-Mahdi Army militiamen.
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22 The fighting also left a number of vehicles and residential buildings
damaged. 23
They would endure 12 years of punitive sanctions which the UN estimates killed nearly 1.7 million Iraqis.
24 The war is estimated to have already cost the US more than 400bn, making
it the most expensive conflict in history. 25
The economy is in deep trouble, with unemployment running at between 25 and 50 per cent of the workforce, according to government figures.
26 Public services like water and electricity have yet to be fully restored,
despite billions of dollars having been spent on often badly managed reconstruction projects.
The writer mostly expresses hisher positive feeling towards things related to the condition of Iraq after the war. The reprieve Iraqis hope Iraq will be much better as promised by
George Bush before the invasion. Such evaluations can be seen in the following excerpts. 27
The US president also promised Iraqis a new era of 1 peace, 2 prosperity, 3 liberty and 4 freedom.
28 Iraqis are still waiting for stability to return to their country.
29 In the early days of the planning for the Iraq war there was one significant
factor that the US government overlooked - planning for the post-war period.
The above excerpts show the journalists’ positive evaluations on the things related to Iraq’s condition after the US invasion as promised by George Bush. Something which is totally in
contrast to the above evaluation can be seen in the journalists’ evaluation towards Iraq real
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condition. In fact, there are many negative impacts rather than the positive ones. The journalists’ mostly expresses their negative feeling towards things related to Iraq’s
condition after the US invasion. For the detailed results of analysis of appreciation, see Appendix 5.
4.1.4 Interpretations
