A Comparative Study Of Attitude Resources In Chinese And American Commencement Speeches From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

As an extension of Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Linguistics,Appraisal Theory is developed on the basis of interpersonal function by Martin and other scholars in the1990 s.It is composed of three subsystems,namely attitude system,engagement system and appreciation system,among which,attitude is the core system.Commencement speeches are public speeches delivered at the graduation ceremony in university,which involves the best wishes,deep encouragement and ardent expectations of the speakers to the graduates.Therefore,commencement speeches include abundant attitude resources.Previous studies on this topic are mainly conducted from the perspective of Stylistics,Rhetoric,Pragmatics and Systemic Functional Linguistics,with rare studies adopting Appraisal Theory.Moreover,previous studies pay more attention to English discourses of many genres,but few studies focus on Chinese discourses or the comparison between Chinese and English discourses.In view of this,it is meaningful to compare attitude resources in commencement speeches between Chinese and American universities.In this thesis,attitude resources are investigated both quantitatively and qualitatively by constructing two corpora including 10 Tsinghua University commencement speeches(Chinese)and 10 Harvard University ones(English).First,attitude polarity words(positive words and negative words)are extracted.Then,we compare the similarities and differences in the use of attitude polarity words from the perspective of Appraisal Theory.Second,we manually classify the attitude polarity words and compare the differences in the distribution of attitude resources in various fields.Finally,the reasons underlying the similarities and differences in attitude systems are discussed.The present study aims to address the following questions: first,what are the similarities and differences of attitude polarity between Chinese and American commencement speeches? Second,what are the similarities and differences of the distribution features of attitude resources between Chinese and American commencement speeches? Third,what are the factors that affect the similarities and differences of attitude resources between Chinese and American commencement speeches?The results first reveal similarities and differences in the use of attitude polarity words in commencement speeches between China and America.Specifically,Chinese and American speakers both use positive attitude words more than negative attitude words in their speeches.In addition,Chinese speakers seldom use negative attitude words,but positive attitude words are much more commonly used.In contrast,although American speakers use more positive attitude words than negative attitude words,little difference is found in frequency.Then,with regard to different preferences in attitude resources in Chinese and American commencement speeches,Chinese speakers use affect resources more frequently than their counterparts do.On the other hand,American speakers favor appreciation resources more than Chinese speakers.This study believes that the similarities and differences between Chinese and American commencement speeches are influenced by circumstances,cultural values and language differences.The current research expands the scope of the application of Appraisal Theory and attitude system,facilitating speakers to choose appropriate attitude words to achieve specific interpersonal meaning.Also,this study helps listeners better recognize the speaker‘s attitude,position,and intentions.Hopefully,this research can provide insights into writing,teaching,comprehension of commencement speeches,evaluative reading and writing,English-Chinese equivalent translation and cross-cultural communication.