Analysis Of Buyers' Online Shopping Commentaries From The Perspective Of Engagement In The Appraisal Theory

The present study conducts engagement analysis of Appraisal Theory proposed by Martin & White (2008) on one kind of Netspeak—Chinese buyers'online shopping commentary. In this thesis, Netspeak is defined as a natural written language used in Internet. The data used in this study are drawn from the online shopping commentary in Taobao.com which is the biggest e-shopping website in China.Quantitative analysis is adopted to explore the following questions from the perspective of engagement in Appraisal Theory:(1) What methods of monogloss and heterogloss resources in engagement system does the buyer use in online shopping commentaries?(2) Based on the answer to the first question, why does the buyer of online shopping commentary choose these methods to express his/her stance, interact with readers as well as influence them?Based on the framework of engagement & graduation in Appraisal Theory, 960 pieces of online shopping commentaries are analyzed and then the problems are solved:(1) The writer of online shopping commentaries achieves his/her purpose with the following methods: in monogloss of online shopping commentary, declarative statement is the main means and little discussion room is found; hence it will not be elaborated in this thesis. As for heterogloss, different proportions of resources in commentary for the good, the medium and the bad are employed, such as the use of large amount of disclaim resources; combination of monogloss & heterogloss resources, graduation with heterogloss resources and exclamation marks are used.(2) To maximize the effect of his/her commentary, in the 3 types of commentaries with different features, the writer chooses different corresponding engagement resources to offer advices to sellers and readers who are also potential buyers, persuade them to buy or not to buy the product, or simply express and share their anger,sorrow,pleasure as well as joy with others.This paper is expected to guide the right direction of commentaries writing and help the potential buyers who read the commentaries to make better use of them.