This thesis takes Obama’s second inaugural address delivered on January, 22, 2013 as the research object to make discourse analysis within the framework of the Appraisal Theory,which is the new development of interpersonal meaning under the framework of Systemic-Functional Linguistics. Obama’s second inaugural address is full of attitude and appraisals. The Appraisal Theory presents an ideal framework to interpret interpersonal meaning in this inaugural address. In the analysis, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted to investigate the features of distribution of appraisal resources,namely, attitude, engagement and graduation, and furthermore, to reveal the function they serve. It is found that resources of attitude are widely utilized, much more than those of engagement and graduation; positive resources exceed negative ones; explicit resources outnumber implicit ones. While under engagement resources, contractive resources are much more than expansive resources. In terms of graduation, force resources are widely employed.This thesis proves the feasibility of the Appraisal Theory in analysis of American presidential inaugural address and enriches the study of it. Moreover, this thesis may provide not only useful enlightenment for scholars to study appraisal meanings but also valuable implication to study how American parties express their stands. |