On Attitude Resources Of Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign Speeches—The Appraisal Theory Perspective

Appraisal theory is concerned with evaluation-the type of attitude that are negotiated in a text,the strength of the feelings involved and the ways in which values are sourced and reader aligned.Attitude,Engagement and Graduation are the three sub-systems of Appraisal theory,of which Attitude is the core.As an important genre of speech,presidential campaign speeches are different from ordinary speeches either in the use of speech strategies or the stylistic features.Although scholars worldwide have studied presidential campaign speeches from various perspectives under the guidance of Attitude system,studies on positive and negative attitudes are less.There are few related studies on implicitness and explicitness of positive and negative attitudes.This paper attempts to analyze Hillary's presidential campaign speeches under the framework of Attitude system with both positive/negative attitudes and explicit/implicit attitudes taken into consideration.The aims of this research are to study how Attitude resources are distributed in Hillary's campaign speeches and what features do the Attitude distribution bear;how each type of Attitude resources is realized and what functions does it have.Besides,the study attempts to explore what speech strategies are reflected by the manipulation of Attitude resources and what purposes are achieved by these speech strategies.The study is carried out in the following ways.First,each type of Attitude resources in Hillary's presidential campaign speeches is annotated and categorized in UAM corpus tool.The corpus tool calculates the total number of each type of Attitude resources according to the annotation.Then the distribution features of Attitude resources are investigated according to the statistical result.Last,a qualitative study of each type of Attitude resources is conducted based on the respective analysis of the explicit resources of positive attitudes,implicit resources of positive attitudes,explicit resources of negative attitudes and implicit resources of negative attitudes.Through analysis and discussion,the research results show that there are a lot of Attitude resources applied in Hillary's presidential campaign speeches.Judgment resources occupy the largest percent,while Affect resources run second and theAppreciation resources account for the least percent.The total number of positive resources overweighs that of negative resources,and explicit resources are more than implicit resources.Implicit attitudes are mainly used in Judgment while explicit attitudes are mainly manipulated in Affect and Appreciation.Explicit resources are realized by Attitude lexis and implicit attitudes are realized by the ideational meanings of statements and behavioral descriptions.In Hillary's campaign speeches,the use of Attitude resources fully reflects the speech strategies.It is found out that both explicit and implicit negative attitudes are applied in Hillary's presidential campaign speeches so as to build a negative image of Donald Trump.To make the speech more convincing and objective,implicit attitudes are principally realized by stating facts to invoke the evaluations and emotional resonance of the audience.This paper studies the Attitude resources used in Hillary's campaign speeches with the aims of exploring the distribution features as well as functions of Attitude resources.The speech strategies Hillary used by the manipulation of Attitude resources are also discussed.It is sincerely hoped that this research can provide a new perspective for the interpretation and appreciation of campaign speeches,can enrich the applications of Appraisal theory on the studies of campaign speeches.It is proved that the studies and analysis taking both positive/negative and explicit/implicit attitudes into consideration are meaningful and significant.Furthermore,this study can help English learners have a profound understanding and appreciation of genre features and charm of campaign speeches,it can as well offer a meaningful inspiration to enhance their abilities of speaking and debating.