Goal Realization Via Appraisal In Civil Courtroom Trial Discourse

The present study is undertaken to investigate what is the main appraisal resources used in the civil courtroom trial and how these main appraisal resources are used on the basis of J.R. Martin and P.R.R. White's Appraisal Theory and then why these main appraisal resources are employed on the basis of Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory. The research object of this thesis is to find out the patterns how courtroom participants use appraisal resources in civil courtroom trial discourse.Based on ten civil courtroom trial discourses selected from China court web and with the descriptive and expository methods, this thesis first describes all the appraisal resources used in the civil courtroom trial discourse, that is, attitude, engagement and graduation, and then draws conclusion from statistics that the engagement resources are most frequently used.As everybody knows, a court always attaches greatest importance to evidence, which is also the greatest concern of the judge and people's assessors of a civil courtroom trial, so in order to achieve their respective purposes, one party(the plaintiff or the defendant) always endeavors to prove that the other party's evidence is fake, irrelevant or illegal so as to convince the judge and the people's assessors. In this way, the credibility of evidence is very important, so the second research question is how the credibility of evidence is achieved by using these main appraisal resources, that is, how the authenticity, relevance and legality of evidence are better proved through the employment of these main appraisal resources.With regard to the third research question, Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory, especially the three worlds, that is, physical world, mental world and social world, is used to explain why these main appraisal resources are used to better achieve the goals of courtroom participants.It is hoped that this thesis, according to the analysis of ten civil courtroom trial discourses, is going to shed some light on the study of courtroom trials from the perspective of linguistics, enrich the scope of application of appraisal theory and enlighten some scholars in the legal field.