A Comparative Study Of Engagement Resources In The Nobel Prize Presentation Speech In Literature And The Laureate’s Acceptance Speech

Appraisal Theory is the new development of interpersonal meaning based on the Systemic Functional Linguistics and investigates how people use language to express their standpoints,viewpoints and attitudes towards a certain state of affairs.It includes three interrelated sub-systems: Attitude,Engagement and Graduation.Engagement system mainly focus on heterogloss and the realization of interpersonal meaning in discourse.Since its establishment,Appraisal Theory has been widely applied to analyses of various discourses,such as news,literary works,academic book reviews,public speech and advertising discourse.The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to those who have produced the most outstanding work in the field of literature.As a special form of public speaking,the Nobel Prize presentation speech is a declarative evaluation of the recipients’ excellent achievements and personality spirit,being helpful to promote and spread excellent literature.The acceptance speeches delivered by the laureates at the award ceremony express their inner passion and philosophical thoughts,including their views on writing and life as well as their reflections on the past,present and future.So far,there are not many studies on the Nobel Prize presentation speech and the laureate’s acceptance speech from the perspective of Appraisal Theory.The thesis utilizes the sub-system of Engagement as its theoretical framework and employs both quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore the distribution and frequency of Engagement resources as well as the realization of interpersonal meanings in the 12 selected Nobel Prize presentation speeches in Literature and the acceptance speeches of the 12 laureates.The results shows that there are abundant Engagement resources in the selected Nobel Prize presentation speeches in Literature and the selected acceptance speeches and the proportion of each resource in the two kinds of speeches varies.There are similarities between the distributions of Engagement resources used in the two kinds of speeches.In both the presentation speeches and the acceptance speeches,in the whole Engagement system,dialogic contraction resources are used more frequently than dialogic expansion resources;within dialogic contraction,Disclaim is much more preferred than Proclaim;within dialogic expansion,Entertain has a higher frequency than Attribute;within the Attribute resources,the use of Acknowledge far exceeds the use of Distance.In general,Disclaim and Entertain are the major Engagement resources in the two kinds of speeches.The differences are as follows.As to the Disclaim resources in the presentation speeches,Counter takes up a larger proportion than Deny while the case is the opposite in the acceptance speeches;as to the Proclaim resources in the presentation speeches,Concur has the highest frequency and Pronounce has the lowest frequency while Pronounce is used the most frequently and Endorse is used the least frequently in the acceptance speeches.Besides,generally speaking,the number of formulations of each type of Engagement resources used in the selected acceptance speeches is no less than that in the selected presentation speeches and the selected acceptance speeches employ more diverse formulations than the selected presentation speeches.In the Nobel Prize presentation speech and the acceptance speech,the Nobel Committee for Literature and the laureates employ more dialogic contraction resources to close down dialogic space and exclude potential external voices,thus making their voices more authoritative and persuasive.Meanwhile,the use of dialogic expansion resources indicates that the Nobel Committee for Literature and the laureates open up dialogic space for different voices,making their standpoints more objective and acceptable to the listeners.The study conducts a comparative analysis of Engagement resources in the selected Nobel Prize presentation speeches and the selected acceptance speeches based on Engagement system.It is hoped to be helpful to study such texts and get a better understanding of Engagement resources in public speech.Besides,it is hoped to understand western literature and promote the communication between Chinese and western cultures.