Analysis Of Attitudinal Resources In Chinese Impromptu Tennis Commentary

Important sports competitions are always accompanied by impromptu sportscommentaries. As a particular genre, impromptu sport commentary has its ownsocial functions, one of which lies in its recreational function to present a splendidsport competition to the audience. As a subcategory of impromptu sport commentary,Chinese impromptu tennis commentary (CITC) is also expected to bring theaudience enjoyment with rich presentations of players’ splendid performances.Although impromptu sport commentary has been widely discussed, CITC has notreceived due consideration from the perspective ofAPPRAISAL System.Extended from the interpersonal meaning of Halliday’s Systemic FunctionalLinguistics (SFL), APPRAISAL System describes and explains how language isused to evaluate, negotiate and maintain interpersonal relationships. It comprisesthree subsystems: Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. According to Martin andRose (2003:22),‘Attitudes have to do with evaluating things, people’s character andtheir feelings.’ Based on the ten tennis matches commented by CCTV sportscommentators, this thesis applies Attitude System to conduct a tentative analysis ofattitudinal resources realized in CITC. Aimed at finding out how commentatorspresent a splendid tennis competition to the audience, semantic manifestations anddistributions of attitudinal resources deployed in CITC are explored and discussedwith abundant examples. Chi-square test is adopted to guarantee the reliability of theresults.Tentative research findings are worked out. Generally, to present a splendidtennis competition to the audience, far more positive attitudinal resources areemployed in CITC. Concerned with players’ performances, Appreciation enjoys anoverwhelming superiority over Affect and Judgment, which indicates players’ performances assume the main role in building up the splendidness of a tenniscompetition. Specifically, in Appreciation, valuation is overtly foregrounded ratherthan reaction and composition. Valuation finds itself with a rich variety of semanticmanifestations that are concerned with Aggressiveness, Value, Advantageousness,Helpfulness, Tenacity and Stability of players’ performances. The most frequent useof Aggressiveness which is mainly realized as deep, powerful, fast and highindicates commentators are inclined to present an aggressive tennis competition tothe audience by placing the commentary focus on the placement, power, speed andheight of tennis players’ performances. Reaction deals with players’ sensational andbeautiful performance. Frequent use of sensational and beautiful suggests thecommentators’ inclination to present an attractive tennis competition. In Affect,deployment of satisfaction far outweighs that of inclination, happiness and security.Satisfaction has to do with commentators’ amazement to tennis players’performances/competences. Most frequent use of satisfaction, especially wow,serves to depict a tennis match as attractive as possible. Inclination is mostlymanifested as commentators’ hope and suggestion to tennis players. Frequent use ofinclination reflects the commentators’ strong desire to present a splendid tenniscompetition. In Judgment, commentators prefer capacity to tenacity and normality.Judging a tennis player as competent also lends splendidness to a tennis competition.In a word, to present a splendid tennis competition, Chinese tennis commentators areinclined to describe the match as ‘aggressive’ and ‘attractive’ as possible with thehelp of different positive attitudinal resources.Based on APPRAISAL System, this thesis explores the attitudinal resources inCITC with a view to bringing new light to Chinese impromptu tennis commentaryteaching.