| As for the shortcomings of critical and non-critical discourse analysis, Martin (1999)pointed that the objective of discourse analysis should not be the bad news whichcontains unequal phenomena. Otherwise, it should take positive attitudes to analyze thebad news in order to make critical thinking move towards a positive direction. In this way,readers can be guided by positive thoughts. And this is just the core of Positive DiscourseAnalysis. The Positive Discourse Analysis aims to make an effort towards the ambitiousgoal of peaceful linguistics to create a wonderful future. It is under such kind ofbackground that this thesis studies the Premier’s Press Conference from the perspectiveof Positive Discourse Analysis by means of Appraisal Theory. Sixteen passages ofChinese government press conference from Zhu Rongji, Wen Jiabao and Li Keqiang areused as the discourse corpus in this thesis. With regard to Chinese Premier’s PressConference, Chinese scholars have done many studies which are mainly from theperspectives of language style, translation, pragmatics and critical discourse analysis.However, up to now, few people made a research in it from the angle of PositiveDiscourse Analysis. Therefore, this thesis aims to test the feasibility of the combinationof Appraisal Theory and Positive Discourse Analysis in studying Premier’s PressConference. And at the same time, it aims to find out the operational mechanism behindthis analysis so as to make up for the weakness of Critical Discourse Analysis and deepenthe comprehension of Appraisal Theory and Positive Discourse Analysis.The Appraisal Systems is the new development of Systemic Functional Linguistics. It belongs to interpretive research. Systemic functional linguistics takes systemicfunctional grammar as a basis, but its emphasis lies on the analysis of discourse. TheAppraisal Theory realizes the identification, judgment and classification of the appraisalresources by the candle of three systems of attitude, engagement and graduation. Then interms of the appraisal resources, it analyzes the implied attitude, views and status behindthe speakers. Therefore, the Appraisal Theory is an effective theoretical tool in thePositive Discourse Analysis.This thesis adopts both quantitative and qualitative method and draws theconclusions as follows:(1) The operational mechanism of Appraisal Theory and PositiveDiscourse Analysis in the analysis of Premier’s Press Conference is successfully realizedby interpreting evaluation resources from positive aspects. The frequent use of positivevocabularies and the comprehensive analysis of the data ensure the validity of thecombination of Appraisal Theory with Positive Discourse Analysis.(2) In analysis ofPremier’s Press Conference, evaluation resources are positively interpreted byapplication of the abundant evaluation resources together with analysis of socialbackgrounds and premiers’ ideology.(3) With regard to the distribution of subsystems ofAppraisal Theory, the distribution of attitude, engagement and graduation is not balanced.Attitude system is used much more frequently than engagement system and graduationsystem.(4) In attitude resources, judgment is the one that is frequently used. Besides,compared with other discourses, affect is also frequently applied in Premier’s PressConferences. The use of affect resources aims to entertain the emotions of audiences sothat they could have confidence in the political measures of their government.(5) In theanalysis of engagement resources, it can be found that discourse contract uses much moreresources than discourse expand. Through disclaim, Premiers dispel other voices bymeans of contracting discourse space.(6) In graduation system, force resources are morefrequently employed than focus ones. Premiers use the up-scale of both force and focusto intensify positive meanings. They appraise people and expect the successful executionof future measures. |
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