A Study Of The Interpersonal Meaning Of The Conversations In Desperate Housewives

Discourse analysis,as one of the means of interpreting language,is familiar to us and rather efficient.While it is far from sufficient to study language merely from the perspective of construction and form,the “evaluative semantics” of discourse should also be dealt with.The Appraisal Theory is precisely this kind of attempt.Appraisal Theory is the extension and development of the theory of interpersonal meta-function,which is concerned with the interpretation of the evaluative meaning.The research on the evaluative meaning in utterances complies with the trend of the development of discourse analysis.With the help of the Appraisal Theory,readers can better understand the interpersonal meaning of the discourse and the characters' expression of emotion in utterances.Desperate Housewives is a classic American TV series,which describes the married life of four middle class housewives.Due to the vividness and uniqueness of the language in the series,it is studied by a lot of scholars from several aspects.This thesis focuses on the conversations of the two protagonists,and the qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted to analyze the chosen data based on the three subsystems of the Appraisal Theory.To make the analysis procedure more accurate and reliable,qualitative data analysis computer-assisted software NVivo 10 is utilized to facilitate data analysis,and the conversations in the script are excerpted from www.docin.com.The two protagonists went through a marriage crisis in the series,and their relations with each other changed during four stages,that is,their contradiction arises,deepen,weaken and gradually disappear.The present study aims to probe into the feasibility and reliability of Appraisal Theory in the application of TV series.There are three questions that are to be explored to analyze the interpersonal meaning in the conversations of this TV series.Firstly,what is the distribution of each kind of Appraisal resources and which appraisal resource is distinct in this series?Second,how do the characters utilize the appraisal resources to embody the interpersonal meaning in this series?Thirdly,can the change of appraisal resources reveal the improvement of the relations between the two main characters in the series?The results show that:First of all,it can be concluded from the analysis that the amount of the employment of the attitude resources is more than that of the engagement and graduation.Judgement,among the three subsystems of attitude,is employed mostly compared with the other two subsystems.In addition,the analysis also shows that the two characters are more likely to express attitude by means of employing affect and judgment.As for the engagement system,the hero and heroine are inclined to employ contraction items.The characteristic features of them can be concluded hence as independent,sincere,brave,etc.In the next place,the attitude system is the most direct way of expressing emotion and feelings,and most of the attitude in one's utterances is realized through it.Besides,attitude resources are employed as an effective tool to negotiate opinions and standpoints,and realize the interpersonal meaning.Then,the change of the appraisal resources is able to reveal the improvement of the relation between the two main characters.With the development of the plot,the hero and heroine go through the marriage crisis.The contradiction between them appears,deepens,gradually weakens,and then fades.Besides,the appraisal resources mostly locate in the lexical level according to the appraisal system,but this is not always the case.The truth is that they are not limited at the lexical level,there exists appraisal meaning in several clauses.Moreover,the context in which the conversations appear has effect on the appraisal meaning to some extent.In the present study,Appraisal Theory is analyzed towards the orientation ofconversations in TV series,which is a new angle as well as a supplement for the previous research of appraisal system.Secondly,the interpretation of the common features of the employment of appraisal resources in conversations of TV series provides English learners with an inspiration of how to better express their attitudes and feelings in daily life.Thirdly,the analysis can prove that Appraisal Theory can be used to analyze language in the TV series,especially in conversations.Fourthly,the analysis of this thesis can help English learners recognize and understand the use of English spoken language.Finally,the analysis of the language of American TV series can help English learners get a deeper understanding of the true life of the middle class people in America.The present study makes some contribution to the research of the interpersonal meaning,which is a new angle and a powerful supplement for the previous research.