An Eco-discourse Analysis Of Du Fu's Poems And The English Versions From The Perspective Of Attitude In Appraisal Theory

With the continuous development of society,ecological problems have become increasingly prominent.In this context,ecological studies have received extensive attention from academic studies,and some corresponding interdisciplinary studies,such as ecolinguistics,ecological translation,ecological aesthetics,have merged.Ecological discourse analysis is based on the framework of ecolinguistics,in which Halliday's model(Halliday,1990)reveals the role of language in ecology and pays attention to the impact of language on human ecological consciousness.As an appliable linguistic theory,Systemic Functional Linguistics not only provides an analytical theory and framework for discourse analysis,but also regards ecological problems as a new descriptive task.Based on it,with the orientation of ecological discourse analysis,this study analyzes Du's poems and the English versions to explore ecological thoughts,by using Attitude System,a subsystem of Appraisal Theory.The study mainly answers the following questions:(1)How are the attitudinal resources distributed in Du's poems and the English versions?(2)What is the realization of attitudinal resources in Du's poems and the English versions?(3)What kinds of ecological thoughts are constructed through attitudinal resources?As far as the theoretical framework is concerned,this study is supported by Attitude System of Appraisal Theory.According to Martin and White's theory(2005),Appraisal Theory is based on lexical grammars in which Attitude System is the important part,which refers to making emotional response,value judgement and aesthetic appreciation of behavior,text and phenomenon when language users' psychology is influenced so as to express their attitude towards appraisal objects.As for the research methodology,it adopts the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods.At first,the quantitative analysis counts the distribution of attitudinal resources in Du's poems and the English versions.The data is from Original Versions of Du Fu's Poems Corpus(OVDPC)formed by Du Fu's 20 representative poems,Xu Yuanchong's Translation of Du's Poems Corpus(XTDPC)formed by Xu Yuanchong's translation and Rewi Alley's Translation of Du's Poems Corpus(RTDPC)formed by Rewi Alley's Translation.Secondly,the qualitative one analyzes the realization of attitudinal resources in Du's poems and the English versions.Finally,based on the distribution and realization of attitudinal resources,this study further discusses the ecological thoughts contained in them.Some findings are concluded in this study.Firstly,as for the distribution of attitudinal resources in Du's poems and the English versions,two English versions keep the same with the original poems in the distribution of category,and the proportion of Affect resources is highest,revealing the linguistic feature of mainly expressing emotions;Two English versions are consistent with the original poems in the distribution of polarity,and the proportion of Negative resources is highest,reflecting the attitudinal tone of worries;Two English versions are in accordance with the original poems in the distribution of discourse property,and the proportion of Inscribed resources is highest,showing the direct way to express feelings.Secondly,in the case of the realization of attitudinal resources in Du's poems and the English versions,Affect resources show the love and worry for nature,people and nation;Judgement resources describe the behavior of natural scenes and people;Appreciation resources depict the state of natural and social environment;Positive resources show the praise for the harmonious ecology and interpersonal relationship;Negative resources express the worries about natural,human and national crisis;Inscribed resources are realized through the use of words to show attitude directly;Invoked resources are reflected by Ideational Meaning,the special Inscribed Attitude,metaphors and special Chinese sentence patterns to show attitude indirectly.Finally,in terms of the ecological thoughts contained in Du's poems and the English versions,Positive attitudinal resources build the ecological thought of “passion for the nature”,meaning the harmonious co-existence among natural things,and between humans and nature;Negative attitudinal resources construct the ecological thought of “concerns with the lives”,showing the worries for fragile environment and creatures;Positive and Negative Affect and Judgement resources build the ecological thought of“benevolence towards people”,reflecting the praise for harmonious interpersonal relationship and the concerns about sufferings of people's livelihood;Negative Affectand Appreciation resources construct the ecological thought of “patriotism to the nation”,revealing the worries for turmoils in the nation.Although the two English versions basically convey the ecological thoughts contained in the original poems,some mistranslations and pretermissions of attitudinal resources reduce the integrity and accuracy of ecological thoughts transmission.The research discusses the ecological thoughts in Du's poems and the English versions based on Attitude System of Appraisal Theory.The results of this study can interpret the ecological thoughts contained in the poems,which would be of social significance to contemporary Chinese ecological construction.Moreover,it explores a feasible path for ecological discourse analysis from the perspective of Appraisal Theory,and it may offer guidance on the English translation of classics.