A Contrastive Study On Appraisal Resources Of American Televised Presidential Debates From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Appraisal Theory concerns with how Interpersonal Meanings are achieved by using three kinds of Appraisal Resources: Attitude,Engagement,and Graduation.In 2016 American Televised Presidential Debates,Trump and Hillary used different Appraisal Resources to show their politic opinions,establish good images,and align all electorates with them.Traditionally,most analyses on Interpersonal Meaning are based on Critical Discourse Analysis Theory or Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar.Studies on Interpersonal Meaning of American Televised Presidential Debates are based on one subsystem of Appraisal System,or are analyses on the whole in a certain year,rather than comparative analyses on the distribution of Appraisal Resources used by two candidates.This analysis takes Martin's Appraisal Theory as theoretical framework,and takes 2016Trump-Hillary Televised Presidential Debates as corpus,including 3 times of debates with a number of 42245 words.By using both quantitative and qualitative methods analyses,this thesis applies UAM Corpus Tool 3.3 to analyze data,and then tends to make a contrastive analysis on the different Interpersonal Meanings between Trump and Hillary conveyed by Appraisal Resources.This thesis attempts to answer two questions:(1)What are the distribution features of Appraisal Resources between Trump and Hillary? What are the similarities and differences?(2)In what ways Interpersonal Meanings conveyed by these Appraisal Resources? What are the similarities and differences?The study finds that:(1)In all 1742 Appraisal Resources,Trump and Hillary both employed Attitude Resources in a high proportion,respectively 50.0% and 52.7%.Within Attitude System,Trump and Hillary both used Affect Resources in a rather small proportion,respectively25.0% and 24.8%.Trump used Judgment Resources most frequently,while Hillary used Appreciation Resources most frequently.Within Engagement System,Trump and Hillary both employed Dialogic Contract Resources more frequently than Dialogic Expansion Resources,respectively 74.9% and 69.2%.Trump employed more Disclaim Resources,but Hillary used more Entertain Resources.Within Graduation System,Trump and Hillary both employed Force Resources more frequently than Focus Resources,respectively 79.3% and69.1%.Trump used Softening Resources more frequently than Hillary.(2)Within Attitude System,Trump used Judgment Resources to highlight his own outstanding characteristics and extraordinary abilities,as well as to attack the shortcomings ofHillary.While Hillary used Appreciation Resources to analyze Trump's political policies,as well as to attack Trump indirectly.Within Engagement System,Trump employed Disclaim Resources to show his tough and unyielding attitude towards what he though was wrong,which was regarded as a needed property as a president.Hillary used Entertain Resources to show her subjective opinions,as well as to show respect to those people who hold different views from her.Within Graduation System,Trump used Softening Resources to shape and maintain a polite and modest image.Therefore,Trump and Hillary used Appraisal Resources in different proportions,and realized different Interpersonal Meanings.By using Appraisal Resources in different proportions,they expressed their political opinions and attitudes,shaped positive images of themselves,and attack the opponents,in order to align them with all electorates.Appraisal Resources are used in conversation in order to realize different Interpersonal Meanings,which makes the conversation goes on smoothly and successfully,and establishes good social relationships.This thesis not only enriches the researches on Interpersonal Meaning,but also helps people to understand 2016 American Televised Presidential Debates.