Exploration Of Evaluation On The Lexicogrammatical Level

Appraisal System,or Appraisal Theory,proposed and developed by Martin and his associates in the late 1990s,is an extension of interpersonal meaning in Systemic Functional Grammar.Appraisal System is a newly developed theoretical framework which mainly aims at evaluative resources in texts.The theory covers all evaluative uses of language,including those by which speakers / writers adopt particular value positions or stances and by which they negotiate these stances with either actual or potential respondents.The thesis firstly reviews the origin of Appraisal System and its application and research findings by some linguists.Then,through a detailed presentation of Appraisal System and its subsystems,it is found out that this theory is inclined to study appraisal resources on the lexical level,and the question whether evaluation can exist on the syntactic level beyond lexis is proposed and answered by a series of exemplifications.It is argued that not only lexis can bear affective meanings,some syntactic structures like tense, voice and subjunctive mood etc.can also indicate speakers' / writer' attitudes and emotions.Based on this proposition,the author modifies the original theory and sets up a revised Appraisal System which includes evaluative resources on both the lexical and the syntactic levels.Since its birth,Appraisal System has been applied in many texts of different genres and types,such as mass media,pedagogical texts,to name just a few.These applicable researches indicate that the theory is an effective tool for discourse analysis.This thesis attempts to apply the revised Appraisal System into literary texts,hoping to find the operating principles of Appraisal Theory in literary works through the analysis of evaluative resources.The present study focuses on short stories,leaving out other kinds of literary works such as poetry,drama,essay,etc.The data of this study are collected from the famous American writer O.Henry's ten short stories,with an average length of about 2000 words.The study has been designed to explore the following three questions within the framework of the revised Appraisal System.(1) Within the revised Appraisal System,does evaluation exist on both the lexical and syntactic levels,that is,on the lexicogrammatical level?(2) What are the distributions of the three subsystems of Appraisal System and the distributions of the subcategories of each subsystem in literary works?(3) How are these appraisal resources realized in the literary texts?Data analysis indicates that appraisal resources are pervasive in short stories.The three subsystems of Appraisal System,i.e.Attitude,Engagement and Graduation,are different in their distributions in the data.The use of Attitude is more frequent than that of Engagement and Graduation.Within each subsystem,distributions of their subcategories are uneven.Meanwhile,the subsystems and the subcategories of the appraisal resources are realized by various lexical or grammatical means.Finally,evaluation exists not only on the lexical level,but also on the syntactic level,that is,it exists on the lexicogrammatical level.The study is of some theoretical and practical significance.Firstly,the extension of Appraisal System from the lexical level to the lexicogrammatical level is a development to Martin's original theory.Secondly,the application of the revised Appraisal System to literary works proves the strong explanatory power of the theory.Finally,the findings of the study shed light on the appreciation and teaching of literary works.