Discourse Analysis From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

In 2021,China won an all-round victory in the fight against extreme poverty and completed the arduous task.To record China’s great journey of eliminating extreme poverty,introduce China’s exploration and practice of human poverty reduction,and share China’s experience and practices in poverty alleviation,Poverty Alleviation: China’s Experience and Contribution is issued.Studies have shown that there are few documents studying the white paper from the perspective of linguistics,and no documents studying the white paper from the perspective of system functional linguistics.This white paper contains the position of the Chinese government on poverty reduction hoping to get support from potential audiences and enhance interpersonal relationships.Therefore,Martin’s Appraisal Theory with a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods is chose by the author to conduct a discourse analysis of Poverty Alleviation: China’s Experience and Contribution.The research process is as follows: First of all,describing the current research status of evaluation theory,the white paper,and the government work reports about poverty reduction.Secondly,introducing the Appraisal Theory to lay a theoretical foundation for the subsequent discourse analysis.Thirdly,applying UAM Corpus Tool 3 to collect the Attitude resources,Engagement resources and Graduation resources in the discourse to analyze the government’s attitude,position and value on poverty reduction.Finally,summarizing the characteristics of the application of Appraisal Theory in the discourse,putting forward a new perspective for the study of the government work reports,and deepening the understanding of government official documents.Through research,the following conclusions are drawn:Attitude resources are mostly applied,which are marked with 507 places,accounting for 52.43% of the total.Followed by Graduation resources,232 places are marked,accounting for 23.99% of the total.The least is the Engagement resources,a total of 228 places are marked,accounting for 23.58% of the total.Compared with Graduation resources and Engagement resources,Attitude resources can more intuitively reflect the government’s understanding of the major victory in poverty alleviation and its position on poverty alleviation.Among the Attitude resources,reporters mostly employ Judgment resources.A total of 120 Affect resources are marked,accounting for 12.41% of the total.A total of 206 Judgment resources are marked,accounting for 21.30% of the total.Appreciation resources are marked with 181 places,accounting for 18.72% of the total.Judgment resources are often applied in the discourse to summarize the achievements China has made in the process of poverty alleviation,which presents that China has the strength and ability to lead the people across the country to get a moderately prosperous life.Among Engagement resources,Contraction resources are more than Expansion resources.A total of 162 Contraction were marked,accounting for 16.57% of the total.A total of 66 Expansion were marked,accounting for 6.83% of the total.It reveals that China has a certain right to speak and a certain degree of authority on the road of human poverty reduction.Among the Graduation resources,Force is far more than Focus.A total of 126 Force are marked,accounting for 13.03% of the total.A total of 106 Focus were marked,accounting for 10.96% of the total.Reporters often use vocabulary and expressions that indicate number and span to specifically present the results achieved in the process of poverty reduction,so as to highlight the authenticity and feasibility of the report.The thesis enriches the discourse research on government documents and official discourse,and at the same time makes a meager effort for the development of appraisal theory.By summarizing the characteristics of the application of evaluation resources in the white paper,this research can help people to accurately understand the official attitudes and positions and deepen the interpretation of the government official documents.The application of Appraisal Theory also sheds some light on the government official documents.