A Study Of Engagement Resources In Documentary Commentary From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory ——Taking China From Above(season One)as An Example

Appraisal theory is a new lexical-grammatical framework,which developed on the basis of interpersonal function of Systemic Functional Linguistics in the 1990 s.The engagement system of appraisal theory pays attention to the intervention of different viewpoints in the discourse,and adjusts various sounds to realize the interpersonal meaning.The establishment of appraisal theory and its three subsystems have been applied to different types of discourse researches by many scholars,which has promoted the development of systemic functional linguistics and discourse analysis theories.However,most of the studies are involved in written discourses such as news,speeches,and novels,and there is less research on documentary commentaries.In view of this,this research takes the appraisal theory proposed by Martin and White as the theoretical basis,adopting a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the engagement resources in the documentary China from Above（Season One）premiered by CCTV5 in 2015,in an attempt to solve the following three questions:（1）How do the engagement resources distribute in the documentary commentary of China from Above（Season One）and what features do they have?（2）How does documentary commentary of China from Above（Season One）realize interpersonal function by means of various engagement resources?（3）What are the motivations of these engagement resources?We conclude that（1）the distribution of herterogloss resources takes larger proportion than that of monogloss resources in the documentary commentary,and expansion resources are less than the contraction resources.The distribution features are mainly represented by quantitative feature,cohesive feature and functional feature.（2）The documentary commentary of China from Above（Season One）achieves the interpersonal function of alignment with the putative audiences mainly through the use of monogloss and heterogloss.Monogloss can be used to enhance authenticity of documentary,and heterogloss can be used to increase aesthetics of audience.（3）The motivations of engagement resources in China from Above（Season One）mainly include four aspects: regulating the internal and external relations of the discourse,narrowing the distance with the audience,shaping national image,and promoting international cultural exchanges.It is of great significance to take the documentary commentary as research corpus in this study.For one thing,it is of great help to improve the research theory of documentary commentary even further from the perspective of appraisal theory,and provide a reference for future researchers in this area.For another,this research focuses on the discourse meaning conveyed by the documentary commentary,which has a certain enlightening effect on the application of evaluation theory in documentary commentary,helps to deepen the understanding of the interpersonal function of documentary commentary,and provides a reference for the writing of documentary commentary.