A Contrastive Study Of Tourism Texts From Chinese And English Websites Based On Appraisal Theory

Since the day it was proposed by Martin, Appraisal Theory has attracted attention from the linguistic circle. It is a further study of interpersonal meaning in Systemic Functional Grammar. Based on the lexical analysis under sub-branches-attitude, engagement and graduation, Appraisal Theory reveals how interpersonal function of a text/speech is realized through these evaluation resources.A tourism text which is a kind of promotional genre plays an important role in establishing the image of a scenic spot. And how to effectively promote the tourism resources and further develop the tourism industry in our country have drawn more and more attention. In order to find the differences and similarities of Chinese tourism texts (hereinafter referred to as C-TT for short) and English tourism texts (hereinafter referred to as E-TT for short) in evaluative meanings and how the promotional functions and interpersonal meanings are fulfilled with these evaluation resources in tourism texts,29regional natural scenery introductions (hereinafter referred to as N-type tourism texts for short) and24city/town promotional texts (hereinafter referred to as C-type tourism texts for short) are chosen from Chinese websites; and in English-speaking countries23N-type tourism texts and28C-type tourism texts are selected. And the research is done with the help of UAM Corpus Tool which can analyze and count the numbers of different kinds of evaluative meanings.The findings of the thesis are as follows:First, in both C-type and N-type tourism texts, affect is used more in E-TT. Chinese writers prefer to use heterogloss and writers from English-speaking countries incline to use monogloss. Disclaim strategy in contract resources is preferred in E-TT, while attribute strategy in expand resources is used more in C-TT. Then, besides the general distinctions between E-TT and C-TT, there are some unique differences when the comparisons are made between city/town and natural scenery introductions. In the introductions of natural scenery, Chinese writers prefer visitor-oriented affect type while writers from English-speaking countries tend to use you-oriented type. Quantification strategy in graduation resources is more preferred than intensification in tourism texts from Chinese websites. However, these two kinds of strategies are evenly distributed in E-TT. In the introductions of city/town, quality of affect type is more employed in E-TT, while C-TT has a tendency to use process. C-TT have a preference for valuation strategy, while the frequencies of the employment of reaction and valuation are almost the same in E-TT. In graduation resources, focus is employed more in E-TT, compared to C-TT.Through using Appraisal Theory in contrastive analysis of tourism texts, this thesis sheds some light on the way of expressing interpersonal meanings through evaluative resources and the different ways of fulfilling promotional functions in tourism texts.