A Comparative Analysis Of The Campaign Speeches In American Presidential Election From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Discourse analysis is one language research not only on the structure and function but also on the semantics of evaluation.James R.Martin firstly introduced the Appraisal Theory,in which three sub-systems are included:Attitude,Engagement and Graduation,as an expression of the interpersonal meaning on semantics so as to explore the evaluative meanings through the language resources of the writer or speaker.The presidential campaign speech a sub-genre of political speech is an important means used by each candidate to express subjective attitudes and opinions and to persuade the voters with rich interpersonal meaning.This allows for the argument that the campaign speeches are of evaluative functions.This thesis analyses the frequency of different appraisal resources in Trump’s and Hillary’s campaign speeches at the 58^thAmerican presidential election in 2016.Based on the Appraisal Theory,this thesis investigates the similarities and differences between the distribution of various appraisal resources（Attitude,Engagement and Graduation）in the two speeches.Finally,it explores the two speakers’motives,different speaking styles and how they achieve certain interpersonal meaning and political purpose by different appraisal resources.Through comparative studies,it is found that the appraisal resources identified in both Trump’s and Hillary’s speeches share the similarities as follows:firstly,in the Attitude System,the general distribution of appraisal resources reflects a concentration on the Appreciation,followed by Judgment and Affect in the two speeches;secondly,more positive Attitude resources,with the country and the American people as the main appraised objects,are used than negative ones in the two speeches;thirdly,as for Engagement resources,the two speakers employ more Expansion resources than Contraction;fourthly,the percentages of Graduation resources in the two speeches are similar,and more Force resources are used than Focus.On the other hand,there exist four main differences in using appraisal resources:firstly,Trump employs more appraisal resources;secondly,Trump employs more Attitude resources to express his emotion and stance directly while Hillary utilizes more Engagement resources to present her standpoints inter-subjectively;thirdly,in the Attitude System,the Un/happiness resource is a main concern in Trump’s speech while the In/security resource takes a larger proportion in Hillary’s speech;fourthly,the number of negative resources,which are employed to evaluate the government and the opponent,in Trump’s speech exceeds that in Hillary’s;on the contrary,positive resources,which are mainly used to evaluate the government,in Hillary’s speech outnumber those in Trump’s.In this sense,through the negative resources,Trump shows his clear-cut attitudes towards the domestic hot topics and reveals his care and worry to the social problems;but Hillary uses larger numbers of positive resources to shape the good image of the American people and to create a harmonious interpersonal atmosphere to win the support.In the light of the similarities and differences in the two speeches,in this thesis the causes will be discussed from the angles of interpersonal meaning and political purpose.It is hoped that this thesis will increase readers’understanding about American political speeches and awareness of the hidden interpersonal meanings when the writers or speakers are using appraisal resources.