An attitudinal analysis of english song discourse from the perspective of appraisal theory

Abstract

Appraisal theory is a new development of the interpersonal meaning in systematic functional linguistics. In recent years, the appraisal theory has been widely used in different genres to study whether and how slightly different appraisal methods are used in them. However, analysis of English song discourse with the appraisal theory is rare. Therefore, based on the attitude meaning in the appraisal theory the author analyzes several English song discourses. Through analysis of characteristics of the distribution of attitude resources in the English discourse it aims to find language feature in the English song discourse so as to make readers understand the emotion expressed by the author of the song discourse and the importance of the attitude meaning of the appraisal theory in building interpersonal relations between the author of the song discourse and readers.