Intersubjectivity In Engagement

Appraisal Theory, a recently developed lexico-grammatical framework for studying interpersonal meaning in Functional Grammar, is aimed to evaluate how language speakers use the linguistic resources to express semantics of evaluation, and explore, describe and explain the way the language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal relationships. The theory is concerned with the linguistic resources for and by which texts/speakers come to express, negotiate and naturalize particular inter-subjective and ultimately ideological positions (White,1998). AT pays attention to the types of attitudes, the strength of the feelings involved, and the ways in which values are sourced and readers aligned in the discourse. Appraisal system includes three sub-categories:Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. Appraisal is that to determine or fix the value of, or to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal and study. The core of the appraisal lies in the attitude and opinions, which derive from the particular value system of the individual subjectivity, and the meaning of the value has both the difference and compatibility with the value system of the other individual subjectivity. Therefore the Appraisal Theory based on the interpersonal meaning of SFL is aimed to study how the different individual subjects negotiated and constructed the intersubjective relationship through the linguistic resources.As mentioned above, the appraisal is subjective and is aimed to negotiate the relationship between the different individual subjects, hence the existence of the intersubjective relationship or the intersubjectivity, which is the core of the construction of the discourse. The author wants to make a preliminary study about the intersubjectivity indicated in the Appraisal Theory; meanwhile, the author wants to take a crack at providing a humble and possible philosophical basis for the Appraisal Theory through the analysis of the Engagement System of Appraisal Theory.The development of the philosophy consists of the following three phases in history: pre-subjectivity, subjectivity and the intersubjectivity. The ancient philosophy is the ontological philosophy categorized as the philosophy of the pre-subjectivity. The modern philosophy is the epistemological philosophy based on the dichotomy of the subjectivity and objectivity and is categorized as the subjective philosophy. The subjective philosophy was the development of modern society, but its historical limits revealed in the following two aspects:first, the subjective philosophy based on the dichotomy of subjectivity and objectivity failed in resolving the nature of the human existence, the subjective philosophy is aimed to be confined in the conquering and constructing of the subjects over the objects, which resulted in the solipsism and human autism. Second, the epistemological philosophy as the subjective philosophy is confined in the epistemology, which merely attends the relationship between the subject and the object and ignores the ontology and the more fundamental aspects of the existence:the relationship between the different subjects, hence the replacement of the subjective philosophy by the intersubjective philosophy. The contemporary philosophy is the intersubjective philosophy, and the existence is the intersubjective existence, the isolated individual subject changed into the interactive subjects.The intersubjectivity, the interactive subjectivity, is the interactive relationship between the subjectivity. The intersubjectivity is the transcendence beyond the subjectivity without being against or absolute denying the subjectivity. The intersubjectivity has the connotation of the philosophical ontology and the methodology. The intersubjectivity firstly concerns the nature of human existence or being, the existence does not lie in the subjects' conquering or constructing the objects on the basis of the dichotomy of the subject and object, but in the interactive behavior between the self subject and the target subject. Secondly, the intersubjectivity also concerns the relationship between the self and the others, and the relationship between the individual subject and the society, the intersubjectivity regards the self as the co-existence or co-being with other subjects, intersubjectivity or the interactive subjectivity is the co-existence or co-being between the subjects.The intersubjectivity is the core of the appraisal; the author will make a preliminary study of the intersubjectivity through the analysis of the Engagement System. The study of the nature of the appraisal is revealed by the nature of the intersubjectivity, and the nature of the intersubjectivity could not be studied beyond the nature of the subjectivity, so this paper attempts to introduce some concepts of psychology and philosophy to make a preliminary study about the nature of subjectivity in order to give a humble explanation about the nature of the intersubjectivity. And this paper will try to make a analysis about the linguistic resources of the Engagement System of Appraisal Theory in order to get a preliminary study of the intersubjectivity of the Appraisal Theory, meanwhile, the author hopes to provide the concept of the intersubjectivity as the philosophical basis for the Appraisal Theory and give a humble and philosophical description about the Engagement System of the Appraisal Theory.