A Study Of Engagement In Andersen’s Fairy Tales

Engagement, as one of the three sub-systems of the Appraisal Theory, is used byspeakers or writers to adjust and negotiate the arguability of their utterances. Moreparticularly, they are the means by which any utterance, whether in single-partydiscourse (e.g. writing) or multi-party discourse (e.g. conversation), can be construed soas to reveal its inherent dialogistic potential－that is to say, its location and functionalitywith reference to past, present and future processes of communicative exchange. Thespeakers or writers can realize the alignment and disalignment with putative audiences.This thesis is conducted to analyze Andersen’s fairy tales from two perspectives,one of which is Bakhtin’s Dialogism performing as the global guidance, the other isMartin’s Engagement performing as the specific guidance in order to pine down themajor engagement resources and the dialogic positioning style in Andersen’s fairy talesand the rhetorical effects of Andersen’s fairy tales. This paper is conducted around twoparameters The first parameter is dialogic contraction and dialogic expansion. Thesecond parameter is intra-vocalisation and extra-vocalisation. Both quantitative andqualitative methods are used in this thesis. By means of quantitative analytical method,the first research question “what are the major engagement resources in Andersen’s fairy tales?” can be identified and the second question “what is the dialogic positioning stylein Andersen’s fairy tales?” can be answered. Based on the the major engagementresources and the dialogic positioning style of Andersen’s fairy tales identified throughquantitative analytical method, the author will analyze these major engagement resourcesin a specific manner by using examples in the sample text1Thumbelina in order toillustrate the rhetorical effects of these major engagement resources. And finally the thirdresearch question “what are the rhetorical effect of the style?” can be answered.Through quantitative method, the major engagement resources are disclaim,attribute and entertain concerning the first parameter and intra-vocalisation concerningthe second parameter; the dialogic positioning style is pined down like this: dialogiccontraction is used a little bit more than dialogic expansion, meanwhile,intra-vocalisation is overwhelmingly used than extra-vocalisation. Through qualitativemethod, the rhetorical effects of Andersen’s fairy tales is to invite and entertainalternative voices or positions so as to construe a dialogic backdrop for the text.Through analysis and discussion, implications are: In order to communicate wellwith children, disclaim, attribute and entertain should be used more in order to invitechildren’ alternative voices and positions. Proclaim should be hardly used for it cansuppress children’ alternative voices or positions.