A Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Reviews Of Novels From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

As one of the information carriers, reviews of novels are not merely confined to introduction to novels. More importantly, readers are implicitly directed to ponder on novels’readability and values in the wake of reviewers’descriptions of and evaluations on the novels’plots, character images, social significances and so on in which abundant Attitudinal, Engagement and Graduation resources are inundate to the brim and in which the dialogic space of reviewers-readers and other multiple dialogic spaces emerge unobtrusively. Previous studies mostly focus on the ontological studies of book reviews or the appraisal studies of the subcategories of book reviews such as linguistic book reviews, biography book reviews, etc. An appraisal study of the reviews of novels and a contrastive study of the appraisal resources between English and Chinese reviews of novels are exceedingly limited so far.This thesis takes Appraisal Theory as theoretical foundation, delineates appraisal architectures of English and Chinese reviews of novels and analyzes them contrastively both in whole texts and across generic structures from three subsystems:Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation, with the aim of unearthing differences between English and Chinese reviewers and penetrating hidden reasons for differences. Therefore, this thesis intends to answer the following three research questions:(1) In English reviews of novels, what are Attitude, Engagement and Graduation resources, and the appraisal distributions both in whole texts and across generic structure?(2) In Chinese reviews of novels, what are Attitude, Engagement and Graduation resources, and the appraisal distributions both in whole texts and across generic structure?(3) What are the disparities between both reviews in the distribution status of three subsystems, and what are the hidden reasons?Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are adopted in this thesis by means of linguistic annotation software UAM CorpusTool and statistical analysis software SPSS. The research data encompass respectively 45 English and Chinese reviews of novels from popular newspapers and websites. Major findings are as follows:(1) Generally speaking, there exist differences in the distribution of appraisal resources between English and Chinese reviews of novels. Concretely, in English reviews of novels, the tendency of frequency scaling from high to low is Engagement, Attitude and Graduation whereas in Chinese reviews of novels, Attitude ranks first, followed by Engagement and Graduation.(2) With regard to Attitude, differences lie in its distribution of attitudinal resources and polarity. In terms of distribution, Appreciation is maneuvered most frequently in both reviewers, but Chinese reviewers inject more emotional and moral solvents while English ones accentuate individual capabilities to a larger extent. In terms of Attitude polarity, Chinese reviewers are inclined to maneuver more politeness strategies to avoid face threatening. In contrast, in English reviews of novels, positive and negative attitudes reach on the brink of equilibrium so as to be impartial and objective.(3) With regard to Engagement, in both reviews, Heterogloss is employed higher than Monogloss, but Chinese reviewers prefer to maneuver Dialogic contraction especially counter-expectancy to enhance palatability of reviews while English ones favor Dialogic expansion especially a multitude of possibilities to trigger potentially multiple dialogic spaces.(4) In terms of Graduation, there is no significant difference in both reviews.(5) In terms of generic structure, English reviews of novels are linear, subordinated and sublimed layer upon layer in textual structure while Chinese ones are thematic oriented, saturated with emotional appeals, circular and coordinated in textual development.Additionally, motivations for discrepancies of appraisal resources are mainly attributed to three aspects:different philosophical ideologies, national dispositions and thinking patterns. All motivations are, undoubtedly, inextricably relative to the cultures which lie behind.In a nutshell, this thesis has attempted to delineate a contrastive appraisal analysis between English and Chinese reviews of novels and unveil reasons for differences between them. And as a reference to novel reviewers, authors and readers, it is deucedly instructive to guide how to evaluate novels and how to teach and write reviews.