ABSTRACT

The appraisal system established by Martin is a complementary development to Halliday’s interpersonal function. It has three sub-systems: attitude system，engagement system and graduation system. Basing on attitude system and taking Ivanka’s running speech as an example, this thesis intends to analyze interpersonal meaning construal mainly by revealing the distributive features of attitudinal resources. Form an overall perspective, the research shows that the whole speech makes use of abundant judgement resources, appreciation resources come next and affect resources are least (52.94% >31.02%>16.04%); from a partial perspective, Ivanka mainly applies affect resources to narrow the gap between the listeners and herself in the beginning part; while in the body part, judgement resources account for the most so as to reflect the objectivity of statements; in the ending part, Ivanka uses a large sum of affect resources again to arouse sympathy among listeners and to achieve the goal of the running speech---to gather more support for her farther. 

Key Words: SFL  Interpersonal Meaning  Appraisal System  Attitude System

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

中文摘要

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 RESEARCH PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE-1

1.2 ORGANIZATION OF THIS THESIS-2

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 PREVIOUS STUDIES AND APPLICATIONS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING ABROAD-3

2.1.1 Mood and Modality Based Studies and Applications Abroad-3

2.1.2 AS Based Studies and Applications Abroad-4

2.2 PREVIOUS STUDIES AND APPLICATIONS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING AT HOME-5

2.2.1 Mood and Modality Based Studies and Applications at Home-5

2.2.2 AS Based Studies and Applications at Home-6

2.3 SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS STUDIES-7

CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK-9

3.1 HALLIDAY’S SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS-9

3.2 DEVELOPMENT OF AS-10

3.3 THE KEY IDEAS IN ATTITUDE SYSTEM-11

3.3.1 Affect-11

3.3.2 Judgment-12

3.3.3 Appreciation-13

3.4 BORDERS OF THREE SUB-CATEGORIES-14

CHAPTER FOUR DATA COLLECTION-15

4.1 CORPUS COLLECTION-15

4.2 DATA PROCESSING-15

CHAPTER FIVE ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES-22

5.1 GENERAL ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES-22

5.1.1 Analysis of Affect-23

5.1.2 Analysis of Judgement-24

5.1.3 Analysis of Appreciation-28

5.2 DISTRIBUTION OF ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES-30

5.2.1 Distribution of Attitudinal Resources in Ivanka’s Speech as a Whole-30

5.2.2 Distribution of Attitudinal Resources in Different Parts of Ivanka’s Speech-32

5.3 DISCUSSION-33

5.3.1 Discussion on the Overall Distribution-33

5.3.2 Discussion on the Partial Distribution-34

CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION-36

6.1 MAJOR FINDINGS OF THIS RESEARCH-36

6.2 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS OF THE STUDY-36

BIBLIOGRAPHY-38

APPENDIX-40

1. Speech-Addressed by Ivanka Trump-40

2. Statistics-43