A Contrastive Analysis Of Interpersonal Function In Letters To Shareholders Between Tencent And Amazon

This research,based on the interpersonal function of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and Martin’s appraisal theory,compares Tencent’s letters to shareholders with Amazon’s letters to shareholders from 2004 to 2017,combining the quantitative,qualitative and comparative methods.It analyzes these texts from the perspectives of mood,modality,person and appraisal systems,it aims at finding out how TLS are similar to and different from ALS in the realization of the interpersonal function and exploring the possible reasons.By the comparative analysis,the statistical results reveal the similarities and differences between TLS and ALS in the realization of the interpersonal function.The similarities are that firstly,with respect to the mood system,both TLS and ALS use a number of declaratives.Secondly,with respect to the modality system,both TLS and ALS rarely use high-value modal operators.Thirdly,with respect to the person system,first persons are frequently used in both TLS and ALS.The differences are that firstly,there are only declaratives in TLS whereas there are interrogatives and imperatives in ALS.Secondly,TLS tends to employ median-value modal operators but ALS tends to use low-value modal operators.Thirdly,second persons are frequently used in ALS while they do not appear in TLS at all.Fourthly,within appraisal resources,graduation resources take up the highest proportion in TLS but it is engagement resources that take up the highest proportion in ALS.This research analyzes these similarities from the perspectives of the function of letters to shareholders and the ways to realize such a function in these letters.It also analyzes these differences from the perspectives of cultural differences between China and America,and different enterprise orientations between Tencent and Amazon.Its purposes are to help the readers better understand how TLS and ALS realize the interpersonal function and to supply references for domestic companies to write and translate their letters to shareholders with the intention to effectively realize the interpersonal function.