A Study Of Attitude Resources In English Business Reviews From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Appraisal Theory developed on the basis of Systemic Functional Linguistics theorywas put forward by famous linguist James. R. Martin in the1990s. With thedevelopment of this theory, it has been widely recognized and applied in many differentgenres. Up to now, many experts have made extensive research and achieved a lot inthis area.Business review is a medium for business communication and it is a way for us toget business information. However, the relevant research concerning this genre is rare.This thesis aims to explore attitude resources in business reviews and try to find out thathow authors of business reviews realize their attitudes by the use of attitude resourcesfrom the perspective of Appraisal Theory.On the basis of Appraisal Theory, this research combines quantitative andqualitative research methods to explore the distribution and features of attituderesources. The two questions are answered by analyzing20business reviews articles.(1)What is the distribution of attitude resources in English business reviews?(2) What arethe features of attitude resources in English business reviews?Some conclusions are made after analyzing attitude resources in business reviews.(1) Through the results of the study, we can see that attitude resources areabundant in business reviews and attitude resources have its subsystems: affect,judgment and appreciation. Appreciation values are used most, taking up73.4%of thetotal; affect values are the least, only5.5%; while judgment values go in between,accounting for21.1%.(2) The author makes three pairs of distinction under affect, judgment andappreciation. The study mainly focuses on authorial affect and non-authorial affect,explicit judgment and implicit judgment as well as explicit appreciation and implicitappreciation. Such conclusions are made: non-authorial affect is used much more thanauthorial affect. Explicit judgment takes a higher proportion than implicit judgment.Appreciation values show a similar trend like judgment values. Under affect system,un/happiness is used least. Under judgment system, social esteem is used more thansocial sanction, and the authors of business reviews are inclined to use capacity value.Under appreciation system, valuation is used most and composition is used least.The study explores attitude resources in English business reviews. The readers, especially those who are not native English speakers, can know the authors’ attitudeswell, which help them comprehend the latest idea and apply the useful part into businesspractice. At the same time, results of this research can help to improve teaching andlearning as business reviews are an important part in business courses.