A Contrastive Analysis Of Engagement Resources In English And Chinese Press Conference Discourses

On the theoretical basis of appraisal theory, the thesis aims to make an analysis of the frequency of engagement resources used in Chinese and English press conference (PC) discourses.PC discourse, a kind of public communication method, draws more and more attention in recent years. While Appraisal theory, originating from systemic-functional linguistics, is a new branch to discuss inter-subjective relationships and ideology which is expressed, negotiated and naturalized by the speaker and discourse. Engagement is a subsystem in the frame of Appraisal theory, used to regulate the responsibility of what the speaker says.Based on the 38 samples of PC discourses about climate, RMB exchange rate and G20 summit, the author randomly chooses from official websites, the research compares the use of engagement resources in both Chinese and English PC discourses and tries to explore the reasons for the differences. Based on the detailed analysis, the author gets the major findings of the present thesis as following. First, the engagement resources are widely used in PC discourses, and these resources have various distributions in the Chinese and English PC discourses; Second, western and Chinese spokesmen represent different governments who holds different attitudes towards different topics, so they need different engagement resources to express their views. Third, besides topics, there are certainly other causes for the differences of the engagement use, among which, western and Chinese cultural differences have a great affect on the different engagement resources usage in English and Chinese PC discourses.It is of great significance to apply appraisal theory to PC discourses. And the analysis on the differences between the use of English and Chinese engagement resources is a new try. It is hoped that this thesis will make valuable contribution to the future study in PC discourses.