An Appraisal-theoretical Study Of Bush's Speeches On The Iraq War

This research attempts to analyze the engagement resources in Bush's speeches on the Iraq War from the perspective of appraisal theory.Appraisal theory or appraisal system is a new lexico-grammar framework in interpersonal meaning in systemic functional linguistics. It is concerned with the negotiating attitudes in the text. There are three sub-systems in appraisal system: engagement, attitude and graduation. Engagement system deals with the language resources by which the speaker/writer shows his relation with the viewpoints in the text.In this thesis, a review of previous studies of appraisal theory and political speeches is made first, based on which the author proposes that appraisal theory is a more interpretative theoretical framework in the study of political speeches. The present study chooses the speeches on the Iraq War delivered by present president of the US—George. W. Bush as the data, and analyzes the engagement resources in the speeches. Monogloss is predominant in the engagement system, accounting for 88.3% of the whole resources, showing power and construing solidarity. Heterogloss accounts for 11.7%.Under the heterogloss, dialogic contraction accounts for 65.62% and dialogic expansion accounts for 34.38%. Contraction and expansion are then further analyzed.Theoretically, the present study is an attempt to expand the scope of appraisal study and it proves that the engagement system in appraisal theory works in analyzing presidential speeches. Practically, the present study is potentially instructive for writing.