An Analysis Of Engagement Resources In English Editorial Texts

This thesis aims to analyze the engagement resources in the English editorials using the framework of appraisal system with a view to discovering what linguistic elements are used to reveal the features and realize the goals of the editorials and especially which resource is the weighting given to in the editorial writers' expression of political argument.At the beginning of this thesis I provide a brief account of discourse analysis especially the media discourse analysis. Among the various perspectives of discourse analysis, Systemic Functional Grammar provides a multi-level and multi-functional theoretical framework for discourse analysis (Halliday: 1985; 1994). Appraisal theory develops out of the Tenor Theory within Systemic Functional Linguistics and it is concerned with the linguistic resources by which (?) texts/speakers come to express, negotiate and naturalize particular inter-subjective and ultimately ideological positions. Within this broad scope, the theory is concerned more particularly with the language of evaluation, attitude and emotion, and with a set of resources, which explicitly position a text's proposals and propositions interpersonally.The Appraisal theory provides a useful framework in which to explore the interpersonal functions of editorial—evaluation and persuade. Here, my thesis will focus on the engagement resources used in the English editorials. In order to make the subject matter more manageable and reliable, the 9 editorials I have chosen are from two dominative newspapers— Washington Post and New York Times. These materials are downloaded from the Internet in January of 2006. In this thesis both qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques are adopted. The analysis of the engagement resources in English editorials leads to the conclusion that the engagement resources have been broadly used in all the editorials. The findings also include the following: 1. These 9 editorials show a similar willingness to use engagement resources in constricting the text. 2. The analysis of engagement resources indicates that even in the category of engagement itself, the editorial writer seems to have a preference for...