A Contrastive Study Of Engagement Resources Between Spoken English And Written English

Based on engagement system of appraisal theory,this study aimed to make a contrastive analysis of dialogic contraction and dialogic expansion between spoken language and written language.Three major questions were addressed in the present study:(1)Is there any difference in the distribution pattern of engagement resources between spoken English and written English?(2)Is there any quantitative difference in the dialogic contraction between spoken English and written English?(3)Is there any quantitative difference in the dialogic expansion between spoken English and written English?30 spoken texts and 30 written texts,each with a length of 1,500-2,000 words,were compared in terms of the distribution pattern and the quantitative use of contractive resources and expansive resources.Distribution patterns of engagement resources were compared in terms of distributional composition and distributional evenness.Distributional composition presents the ranking trend of the proportions of the types of engagement resources.Distributional evenness compares the balances between the proportions of the types of engagement resources.The quantitative uses of engagement devices in spoken language and written language were compared through Independent-sample t-tests.The results showed that spoken language and written language were generally different in the distribution pattern of engagement resources.Differences were found in the distributional composition of overall engagement resources,dialogic expansion,disclaim and proclaim between the two forms of language.Differences were also found in the distributional evenness of overall engagement resources,dialogic contraction,disclaim,proclaim and attribute between the two forms of language.The engagement resources were more evenly distributed in written language than in spoken language.As for the quantitative use,the frequencies of engagement resources were different between the two forms of language.Most of the frequencies of dialogic contraction in spoken language were significantly different from those in written language,except endorsement.Most of the frequencies of dialogic expansion in spoken language were significantly different from those in written language,except distance.The overall contractive devices were used more frequently in spoken language than in written language and the overall expansive devices showed a trend opposite to the overall contractive devices.This thesis may provide some new insights into the contrastive study of spoken language and written language as well as provide pedagogical implications,especially for the teaching and learning of spoken and written English.