An Analysis Of Affect In Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a suitable material for conducting an analysis of Affect resources, which is a romantic fiction written by a female novelist. Few of researchers have ever done a systematical research on Affect under the framework of Appraisal Theory. Therefore, it is quite necessary to make a further study. In the present study, Affect stands for a subsystem of Attitude in Appraisal Theory, representing people’s mood, emotion and feelings in general. The present study aims to testify the feasibility of applying Affect to the analysis of this novel, and intends to solve three research problems: What are the distribution and frequencies of various Affect resources employed by the writer in this fiction? What is the relationship between Affect resources and the development of the theme and plots? How do numerous Affect resources interact with each other to realize interpersonal meanings?To answer the research questions above, the whole novel (121,553 words in total) is divided into three sub-corpora in light of the development of the plots. Assisted by UAM Corpus Tool 2.8.14, the study adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods to administer a statistical analysis of the annotated Affect resources in Pride and Prejudice under the framework of Affect System.The statistical analysis illustrates that:firstly, Affect resources (4096 items) occupy 3.3 percent. Through an analysis of the distribution of Affect resources, it demonstrates that it is feasible to conduct an analysis of the Affect resources in this fiction. Secondly, the frequencies and distribution of Affect resources are closely related to the development of the theme and plots. Meanwhile, various Affect resources interact with each other to promote the development of the theme and plots. Happiness (973 items) ranks the first place in the three major sets, accounting for 26.77 percent. Since love, happiness, anger and sadness are all the patterns of manifestation of it, it is reasonable to say that love and happiness are the main theme of this novel. Besides, the distribution of positive Affect, low Affect, and complex Affect as well as mental state Affect illustrates the theme of this fiction. Through the comparison of the distribution of Affect resources in the three sub-corpora, it shows that Affect resources in this novel are centered in Sub-corpus Two (1498 items,36.5 percent). Sub-corpus Two is the climax part in this novel, with the conflict of pride and prejudice reaching the summit. The distribution of unhappiness Affect, realis Affect and high Affect is in accordance with the development of plots. Thirdly, the study investigates the Affect resources which reveal Elizabeth’s emotional changes to Darcy and the characteristics of Mrs. Bennet. It is found that the writer and the protagonists apply various Affect resources to express their attitudes or feelings to other people and outer world, and to distance or maintain social relationship, by which the interpersonal meanings are realized in this fiction.The present study is significant in two aspects. Theoretically, the current study makes a tentative study of the Affect resources in Pride and Prejudice which broadens the domains of Affect System and Appraisal Theory in discourse analysis. Practically, it provides a new way to appreciate literary texts and gives some guidance to teaching and translation.