The Interpersonal Meaning Of Pride And Prejudice From A Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Appraisal Theory, put forward by Professor J.R.Martin in the1920s, is a new development of the interpersonal meaning in the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (hereinafter SFL). It deals with the "semantic evaluation"of discourse and brings more vocabulary into the research framework. This thesis will analyze the conversations selected from the world-renowned novel Pride and Prejudice within the framework of Appraisal Theory. Through the analysis of conversations, we can learn the distribution features of appraisal resources as well as the way of expressing attitude realizing the interpersonal meaning. Moreover, we can also explore how appraisal resources reveal the characteristic features of each character.Jane Austin’s masterpiece Pride and Prejudice is the most popular novel of all her novels. It has been abundantly studied and discussed by a lot of scholars since it was published, and the previous approaches have provided us with a better understanding of the novel. However, the research mainly focuses on the view of feminine, irony and marriage. Although some research into the interpersonal meaning has been conducted, most of which are from the perspective of modality and tenor. However, it is far from adequate to analyze interpersonal meaning only from the perspective of modality and tenor in that "evaluative semantics" is largely ignored. Appraisal Theory just fills in the void in this regard.In the present study, we adopt both the qualitative and quantitative methods to make an analysis with integration of the three subsystems of Appraisal System. Based on the statistics and detailed analysis of the data, it is found from the present study that appraisal resources are widely adopted by writers to negotiate attitudes, promote human communication and portray character images. It is also an effective tool to realize the interpersonal meaning. Furthermore, the distribution change of appraisal resources can reveal the change of the relation between the hero and heroine. This thesis intends to provide a new angle for readers to better understand the importance of Appraisal Theory in the interpretation of literary works, and at the same time deepen their understanding of the characters’inner world. All in all, this thesis contributes to Appraisal Theory by applying it to literature. It also provides insights into the analysis and understanding of literary works.This thesis attempts to illustrate how appraisal resources realize the interpersonal meaning, and how the characteristics are revealed by Appraisal Theory.