A Study Of Interpersonal Meaning In English Academic Book Review

The interpersonal meaning of language comes from the classification of language metafunctions. Many experts have studied interpersonal meaning studies in different fields in which we can reveal interpersonal meaning easily. Whereas English academic book review, as an important form of discourse, has received less attention in this field of study. Even in the few related studies, there are less comprehensive and systematic researches, with only less theoretical analysis and more objective descriptions. In fact, interpersonal meaning is an essential component of English academic book review.This thesis attempts to explore how interpersonal meaning of academic book review is realized from a new angle. Taking the theories of Halliday's systemic functional grammar and Martin's Appraisal Theory as the theoretical framework, with 30 English academic book reviews as the corpus, the author of this thesis intends to discuss the realization of interpersonal meaning in English academic book review.Qualitative and quantitative approaches are chosen for the data analysis. Based on Halliday's systemic functional grammar theory and Martin's Appraisal Theory, qualitative approach is invested to analyze modal expressions, mood, personal pronouns and evaluative lexis in the process of how interpersonal meaning is constructed. Quantitative approach is explored for statistical analysis of frequency and distribution of the above language resources that make contributions to interpersonal meaning realization.The findings of the study show that modal expressions (modal verbs, modal adjuncts, modal metaphors), mood (declaratives, imperatives), personal pronouns as well as evaluative lexis make great contributions to interpersonal meaning in English academic book review among which modal expressions take the first place. According to the analysis and discussion of this study, the reviewer has the intention to claim his authority in the academic community, and wish to get acceptance and understanding from the reader. It is found out that the reviewer frequently uses declaratives to transform information to the reader and uses imperatives to emphasize his authority without seeming impolite. The reviewer tends to employ modal expressions in order to stress his uncertainty for the proposition. By doing so he succeeds in softening the absoluteness and arbitrary of his views and achieving a better acceptance of the reader. At the same time he avoids taking direct responsibility for his words. Furthermore, the reviewer likes to use the first person pronoun"we"in the book review in an attempt to include the reader in the group and get a closer relationship with the reader. Therefore, not only is the reader actively involved into the contextual world, the negotiating space with the reader is also successfully developed. The first person pronoun"we"can also exclude the reader out of the group resulting in maintaining the reviewer's authority. Sometimes the reviewer addresses the reader"you"so as to exclude the reader from the group and highlight his own superiority, and in this way, he brings certain pressure to the reader and refuses further negotiation. In addition, evaluative words and modal metaphors are massively adopted in English academic book review to realize the complex interpersonal meaningThe significance of this study shows that it sheds light on English teaching and learning. On the one hand, through the detailed analysis of interpersonal functions and the realizing devices in English academic book review, it can contribute to English writing teaching. On the other hand, this study will be helpful for English reading teaching. Through the analysis of genre features of book review, students can get to know how to identify the genre of discourse, understand the discourse appropriately and appreciate the writer's attitudes so as to enhance their reading level.