An Appraisal-Theory-Based Comparative Study Of Interpersonal Meaning Of Chairman's Statements

With the development of technology in China,technical companies with products range from e-commerce to computer services emerge.Many of them are eager to get listed abroad,especially in America.After these companies get listed,annual report is the necessary document for them to prepare.Except some financial reports in annual reports,chairman's statement is an important part because no regulation has been made concerning this part.Readers will firstly read this part to get a general idea of the annual performance of the company.What is communicated in the statement will at least influence the company's image and investors decisions.Therefore,the interpersonal meaning drawn from chairman's statement is worth studying.However,researches on this topic are seldom done during these years.So the author decides to make an investigation into it.This thesis tries to analyze interpersonal meaning of chairman's statements from technical companies in China and America by applying Martin's appraisal theory.The author collects the chairman's statements from 10 Chinese technical companies and 10 American companies to conduct the study.The author first compares the appraisal resources used in the two types of companies and describes the resources to give a clear explanation of how the resources are employed.Then the author finds some differences and similarities of these resources to explore the underlying causes of these differences and similarities.As for similarities,appreciation takes up the highest proportion followed by judgment and affect with the least frequency.In terms of engagement,attribute takes up the least proportion.With regard to graduation,both of them employ a large number of resources to raise the force and a small amount on focus.When it comes to differences,happiness and satisfaction resources are more often used in American companies.Security and veracity and intensification resources enjoy higher proportion in American chairman's statements.What is more,more denial and pronounce resources can be used to correct the readers' understandings.The underlying causes for these similarities and differences are from culture and the linguistic features of chairman's statements.At last,the author makes some recommendations on the writing of chairman's statements in English.Also,the author gives some guidance on further studies.