A Corpus-based Study Of Attitudinal Resources In Oral Academic Discourse

Oral academic discourse is characterized by oral discourse and academic discourse.Hence,it is of great value to do the research.Speakers not only transmit information but also express attitudes via language,prompting listeners to accept their views.On the basis of Appraisal Theory,the thesis aims at exploring attitudinal resources in oral academic discourse.The research analyzes attitudinal resources in the Michigan Academic English Spoken Language Corpus via quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the distribution features,interpersonal functions,and differences in attitudinal resources between the disciplines of Science and Liberal Arts.The major findings are as follows.Firstly,there are three types of attitudinal resources in oral academic discourse on the whole.As to polarity,there are more positive attitudinal resources than negative attitudinal resources.There is a significant difference between the positive use and negative use of lexical items like educated,like,and good.Secondly,the use of positive affect resources triggers emotional resonance between speakers and listeners and creates a relaxing atmosphere for communication,whereas negative affect resources have an impact on listeners’ feelings.The use of positive and negative judgement resources is beneficial to construct character images.Positive appreciation resources are conducive to drawing listeners’ attention and facilitating communication between speakers and listeners so as to gain the approval of listeners.Negative appreciation resources are employed to persuade listeners from the opposite perspective.Finally,affect and judgement resources are more frequently used in disciplines of Liberal Arts than in disciplines of Science,whereas appreciation resources are more commonly adopted in disciplines of Science than in disciplines of Liberal Arts.As for polarity,there are significant differences in attitudinal resources between disciplines apart from negative appreciation resources.In line with the Chisquare values,there are significant differences in the use of lexical items between disciplines such as like,love,and loyal.The research extends the scope of applied research of Appraisal Theory.It is conducive to improving speakers’ academic speaking ability to achieve communication purpose and interpersonal functions in academic events.