A Study On The Interpersonal Meanings In The Bonesetter's Daughter Based On Appraisal Theory

The Bonesetter's Daughter is Amy Tan's masterpiece of the relationship between the Chinese American mother and daughter based on her family experience.This novel exquisitely describes the mother-daughter relationship under different cultural background.In this respect,rich interpersonal meaning is implied from the changing mother-daughter relationship and the complex psychological activities of characters.At present,many domestic scholars study The Bonesetter's Daughter from the aspects of identity construction,post-colonialism,feminism and narrative skills.However,there are few studies on the interpersonal meaning of The Bonesetter's Daughter from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics,especially the perspective of Appraisal Theory(AT).Therefore,this thesis attempts to study the interpersonal meaning in The Bonesetter's Daughter based on Martin's AT.And then this thesis collects the corpus containing Appraisal resources in The Bonesetter's Daughter to analyze the following questions qualitatively and quantitatively:(1)How are the interpersonal meanings reflected in The Bonesetter's Daughter based on Appraisal Theory?(2)What are the characters' images revealed in light of interpersonal meanings in The Bonesetter's Daughter based on Appraisal Theory?(3)What are the characters' relationships changes reflected in light of interpersonal meanings in The Bonesetter's Daughter based on Appraisal Theory?Through this thesis,the results come as follows:(1)Appraisal resources under the framework of AT can help characters to express their emotions,attitudes and negotiations in communication,so as to construct interpersonal meanings.(2)A large number of Attitude resources imply rich interpersonal meanings in The Bonesetter's Daughter,which can commendably reveal the characters of Luling and Ruth,who are sensitive and fragile.Meanwhile,positive Appraisal resources also reflect the active interpersonal meanings,which can reveal the positive images of Luling and Ruth,who love mother and daughter.(3)Changeable distribution of negative Appraisal resources in the first part and the third part of The Bonesetter's Daughter indicates the variational interpersonal meanings,which reflect the relationships from conflicts toreconciliation of Luling and Ruth.Therefore,theoretically,this thesis not only provides a new perspective for the study of The Bonesetter's Daughter,but also enriches the research scope of AT.In practice,the present study can help readers have an overall comprehension of the AT and The Bonesetters' Daughter.At the same time,it also brings readers some inspirations on how to use Appraisal resources to effectively express emotions,attitudes and negotiations in daily communication.