Implicit Compliment In Chinese: A Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

As a special linguistic phenomenon, compliments have been researched both home andabroad from1970s. At the beginning, most of the researches focus on explicit compliments.They are examined from different linguistic perspectives, such as semantics, sociologicallinguistic, cross-cultural perspective and pragmatics and so on. Among these fields, researcheson the topics, responses and gender differences of explicit compliments (ECs) have beenexplored thoroughly. However, studies on implicit compliments (ICs) are limited, let aloneChinese implicit compliments. As linguists explore deeper, new linguistic theories come intobeing at present.Because of this, this thesis adopts a new theoretical framework—the Appraisal Theory,to classify Chinese implicit compliments and to discuss ICs deeper. After the classification ofICs, this thesis aims to explain the nature of this particular linguistic phenomenon, to classifyICs more elaborately, and attempts to establish a new modified system to analyze ICs.The Appraisal Theory is first proposed by J. R. Martin, a famous linguist, in1990s. It hasbeen developed into a more comprehensive theoretical system. The Appraisal Theory includesthree distinct systems. They are Attitude system, Engagement system and Graduation systemrespectively. Attitude system explores how the speaker evaluates a person, a behavior or anevent. Engagement system analyzes how the speaker expresses his relationship with others soas to establish his involvement. Graduation system examines whether the speaker expresseswith force or focus. This thesis finally adopts Attitude system and Engagement system as itstheoretical framework to analyze the characteristic of ICs.The analysis of this thesis is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Inthe classification of ICs, the author illustrates some examples collected from the publishedpapers in journals. Chapter four mainly analyzes the120data of ICs collected from a TVseries named A Dream of Red Mansions in1987. Through analysis, the author sets up a minor data base of ICs by classifying and noting each data according to the theoretical framework.There are also some examples which are collected from some other papers or related books.The present thesis begins with four questions to analyze the ICs from the perspective ofAppraisal Theory. Through detailed analysis, this thesis shows,(1) The Attitude system works in ICs by distinguishing their content. The speakerevaluates a person, a behavior or an event positively on the basis of personal feeling. AmongAffect, Judgement and Appreciation systems, Affect is of the most frequency.(2) Engagement system works in ICs to discuss the participants’ stance based on thedifferent involvements in a discourse. The speaker might choose different stances to expresshis emotion positively.(3) The classification of ICs demonstrated in this thesis is two dimensional. ICs can bedivided into various types based on the content being complimented. ICs can also beclassified into different categories based on the form of complimenting.(4) In analyzing ICs, Attitude system and Engagement system provide two approacheswhich are complementary with each other. One is concerned about what is beingcomplimented, the other centers on how the implicit compliments are produced. Therefore, itis a new attempt to combine the content with the form of ICs so as to comprehend ICscomprehensively.The significance of this study is shown in several aspects：Firstly, to analyze ICs fromAttitude system and Engagement system provides a new perspective to this area. Secondly,the data analysis of ICs from a TV series named A Dream of Red Mansions ensures therepresentativeness of its result and target, and can be regarded as a further exploration of ICs.Thirdly, the mode proposed by the author can be insightful on the analysis of ICs. Fourthly,the result of this research might provide some instructions to the translation and education ofICs in the future.