Academic Lecture Discourse In English:Evaluation And Generic Structure

Evaluation, as a universal social phenomenon, refers to the speakers’or writers’ attitude or stance towards the opinions, or feelings about the entities or propositions that they are talking of. In view of the importance and universality of evaluation in common language communications, a number of scholars have engaged themselves in describing and explaining it from various perspectives. The most influential approach to evaluation is appraisal theory developed by Martin and his colleagues on the ground of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Appraisal theory is built around three systems:attitude, engagement and graduation, all of which express the interpersonal meaning on the stratum of discourse semantics. Being highly operational and systematic, appraisal theory has been widely applied to the analysis of evaluative characteristics in different kinds of genres.Academic lecture discourse in English (ALDE) refers to the lecture that is delivered in English on a professional course or a special subject in Universities. Most of the researches conducted in this area so far, have mainly involved three aspects:the lecture comprehension process, lecture discourse, and lecture input variables. Recently, it is lecture discourse that has received increasing attention. However, most of the studies have focused on the description of macro-structure and micro-features. Discourse is a dynamic process of meaning negotiation, including the production and reception of a text. Consequently, it is necessary to investigate the interaction between the lecturer and the audience if we want to capture the essence of ALDE.Based on SFL, the present study aims to explore evaluation and generic structure within the appraisal frame, and is supposed to answer the following three questions:(1) How evaluative resources are distributed across ALDE, and what are the reasons?(2) How do evaluative resources realize the interaction between the speaker and the audience?(3) What is the generic structure of ALDE and its evaluative characteristics?The research is corpus-illustrated and the data are collected from the transcriptions of30lectures made by the world-renowned cognitive linguists and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. After careful and thorough study, the research arrives at the three main conclusions:First, in terms of engagement, contraction resources are used much more frequently than expansion resources, indicating that the lecturer tends to narrow down the dialogic space, denying or reformulating those different opinions, rather than open it up. In terms of expansion resources, entertainment enjoys much higher proportions, indicating that the lecturer would rather express the opinion from an inner voice. One salient characteristic of ALDE is its rare use of distance resource, which is a manifestation of the lecturer’s unwillingness to distance himself from the proposition so as not to make it unreliable. In terms of attitude, resources for appreciation appear much more frequently than that of judgment or affection, which can be attributed to field. Since the materials in this study are all about linguistics, the lecturers are usually concerned with the linguistic phenomenon, rather than the moral of people. The distribution of attitudinal resources also proves that ALDE is a relatively subjective genre. There are only two voices:commentator’s voice and correspondent’s voice. The lecturer tends to explicitly express his own position for the purpose of establishing solidarity and alignment with the audience. In terms of graduation, the lecturer prefers the force resources, which are usually in the form of upgrading. In this way, the lecturer is able to increase his or her commitment to the proposition so as to narrow down the dialogic space. Sharpen and soften resources perform their respective functions in the same way as upgrading and downgrading resources do.Secondly, the generic structure of ALDE contains15phase distributed across3periods. Only two phases are obligatory:raising sub-topic of lecture/research questions, and explaining sub-topic of lecture/research questions. In each lecture, at least one of the two phases, raising the theme and sketching the theme, must appear. In terms of genre, the goal at every stage can be realized by the corresponding phase. Each phase realizes the speakers’/writers’ intention or purpose, which can be seen as the rhetorical effect of the discourse and is defined as evaluation of the phase, a kind of evaluation belonging to the genre stratum. It shall influence the relationship between the lecturer and the audience. In terms of tenor, the role that the lecturer and the audience play is not fixed. Each phase is loaded with all kinds of evaluative resources realizing solidarity between the lecturer and the audience. Besides, the lecturer can change the power relation into that of solidarity by strategic use of appraisal resources.Thirdly, the mode of interaction between the audience and the lecturer indicates that there is no definite boundary between power and solidarity. Instead, they are interchangeable through the modulation of commitment to the thing or proposition. Besides, according to stratificational theory of SFL, the meaning choice made on upper stratum is in control of the meaning choice on the lower stratum. However, the mode of interaction between the audience and the lecturer suggests that there may be variation in the choice on the lower stratum, which may affect the system of the upper stratum.The present study has important implications as follows:First of all, the result of the study can offer important insights for higher education. With the widespread of international academic exchanges, ALDE is to become the major mode of instruction in higher education. Due to the improvement in both teaching facilities and students’English competence, academic listening is no longer a major problem. It is how to win over the audience that should be the lecturer’s main concern. The typical lexical realization and the configuration of appraisal resources will provide the lecturer with important guidance in utilizing the appraisal resources. In addition, the generic structure formulation of ALDE will provide the lecturer with practical steps to follow.Secondly, the present study selected a specific subject of ALDE, i.e., linguistics. The evaluator and thing evaluated of this subject shall exhibit subject-specific characteristics important to the identification and configuration of appraisal resources. Consequently, the present study has further refined the application of appraisal theory and complemented it to some extent.Thirdly, the present study examined in detail evaluation and its realization on the generic stratum expanding the notion of evaluation to the generic stratum, and thus has further enriched the study of evaluation and stratification to a certain extent.