Attitude Analysis Of President Obama’s Weekly Radio Addresses In Light Of Appraisal Theory

As a new approach of linguistics, Appraisal Theory is considered as an extension ofthe framework of interpersonal meaning in Systemic-Functional-Linguistics. Theappraisal framework describes the resources used by speakers/writers to share theirfeelings and evaluate things and to negotiate their social relationships. Specificallyspeaking, this theory is concerned about how to use the language to express emotions,judgments of events and appreciation of stuffs, as well as how tocarry out potential interaction with listeners or readers and to move theirfeelings, thus influence the attitude of listeners or readers towards things. AppraisalTheory consists of three sub-systems: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Thesethree sub-systems are interrelated, with the Attitude system in the core. The system ofAttitude mainly copes with all kinds of evaluative assessments, both positive andnegative.In this thesis, Appraisal Theory is applied to analyze twelve pieces of PresidentObama’s weekly Radio Address from the perspective of Attitude. Through the UAMCorpus Tool developed by the linguist Mick O’Donnell, this thesis’ objective is toanalyze how the attitudinal resources are distributed in Obama’s weekly RadioAddress. Quantitative and qualitative analysis are will be done to this thesis.Quantitative analysis aims at uncovering the distribution of different attitudinalresources, and meanwhile qualitative analysis will be undertaken to give explanationfor the deeper understanding of the theory.In a word, this thesis tries to make a tentative research on analyzing Obama’sweekly radio addresses in light of Appraisal Theory. Although it is not complete andprofound, the analysis of attitudinal resources in Obama’s weekly radio addresses stillplays an important part in further understanding of the Appraisal framework andpolitical radio address.