(Luận văn thạc sĩ) AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES IN ENGLISH LOVE SHORT STORIES

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

PHITSAKHONE TANSAVATH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDINAL
RESOURCES IN ENGLISH LOVE SHORT STORIES
Field: English Language
Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Võ Duy Đức, Ph.D


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

PHITSAKHONE TANSAVATH

NGHIÊN CỨU NGHĨA THÁI ĐỘ TRONG CHUYỆN
NGẮN TÌNH YÊU TRONG TIẾNG ANH

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: Võ Duy Đức, Ph.D


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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
Except where reference is made in the text of the research paper, this

thesis “ An Investigation into Attitudinal Resources in English love short
stories” contain no material published elsewhere or extracted in the whole, or
in part from paper by which I have qualified for or been award another degree
or diploma.
Moreover, no one’s work has been used without acknowledgement in
the paper.
This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or
diploma in any other territory institution.

Binh Dinh, June 2019

Phitsakhone TANSAVATH


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many who deserve recognition here for their contributions to
this work.
First, I would like to acknowledge my deep indebtedness to my
supervisor, Doctor Võ Duy Đức for his enthusiastic guidance and valuable
suggestions. Without his immense help, I would never have completed my
thesis.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of my professors at Quy
Nhon University for their useful lectures that provided a solid foundation for
me to carry out the study.
Lastly, I am deeply grateful to my friends who gave me great
encouragement and interesting discussions as well as all of the member of my
family for their love, understanding and support.

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ABSTRACT
The study aims to examine attitudinal resources used in English love
short stories. Appraisal Theory developed by Martin and White (2005) was
employed as a framework to analyze thirty English love short stories. The data
was mainly collected from Chobir Dokan and Success of Life, which are blogs
about love, friendship, and life. The combination of quantitative and
qualitative methods was applied for the data analysis. The findings show that
Affect resources are used the most in the stories, followed by Judgment and
finally Appreciation. The findings also show that implicit judgment on human
behavior depicted in the English love short story occurs more frequently than
explicit one. The study makes some theoretical and practical contribution to
language learning, teaching and translating practices.


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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
We – human beings are distinct from animals since we communicate
through language. It is our most important tool in expressing our thoughts and
feelings to each other. Language influences what we think and how we think;
language gives us a way of reflecting on our thinking, talking about our
thinking, thereby enabling us to greater control over our thinking.
It can be seen clearly that learning a language cannot be separated from
learning the culture where the language is spoken. This means language is one
among other products of cultures. This integration of cultures is carried out in

various areas of daily life such as economy, politics, sports, tourism, art and
literature. Literature is said to be a reflection of the society in which there are
good values and ills. Literature, as a mirror of human life, often presents a
picture of what people think, say and do in the society. It also commends
virtues or good values for people in the society to emulate. These can be
found in all genres of literature, especially in love short stories, in which we
can discover the feelings of love through the language - attitudinal values the writers often employ to convey their messages towards the readers.
Hallidays’s (1994) view on language and language learning address the
relationship between social meaning and language form. Instead of describing
language as a self contained system of rules, he has attempted to describe it in
terms of its use as a symbolic system reflecting the meanings generated and
shared within social group. Therefore, the concept of language is a tool to
convey our thoughts, ideas, concepts or feelings.
The Appraisal Theory (AT) is an extension of the linguistic theories of
Halliday (1994) and his colleagues - Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).


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It has emerged over a period of almost 15 years as a result of the work
conducted by a group of researchers led by Professor James Martin of the
Linguistics Department of the University of Sydney. AT is an approach to
exploring, describing and explaining the way language is used to evaluate, to
adopt stances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal
positioning and relationships.
As has been observed in the works on AT, the issue of showing
emotion through language has been an interest for researchers using
functionally and semiotically oriented approaches. AT can be also considered
a full-blown theory that provides those linguists with a systematic and
thorough approach in doing the research on the issue of using emotional

elements in any kinds of discourse. These have inspired me to carry out the
study “An investigation into Attitudinal Resources in English love short
stories” with the aim to find out how the writers employ attitudinal resources
to convey their messages towards the readers. On the basis of the results of
the study, I can give some suggestions in teaching and learning English as a
foreign language.
1.2. Aims and objectives

1.2.1. Aims
This study was carried out to uncover and analyze attitudinal resources
used in English love short stories. The study further attempts to demonstrate
how the identified attitudinal elements function to convey the messages of the
writers towards the readers.

1.2.2. Objectives
The objectives of the study are:
1. To find out the attitudinal resources employed in English love short stories;


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2. To examine how the identified attitudinal resources are used to convey
the messages of the writers towards the readers.
1.3. Research questions
The study aims at investigating the following questions:
1. What types of attitudinal resources are used in English love short stories?
2. How are the identified attitudinal resources used to convey the messages
of the writers towards the readers?
1.4. Scope of the study
We would like to study English love short stories in the light of

Appraisal Theory by Martin (2005). Because of the limitation of time and our
own ability, in this thesis we just mainly focus on the attitudinal resources
employed to convey the messages of the writers. Moreover, the relevant data
are taken just from thirty English love short stories.
1.5. Significance of the study
Findings of the study are expected to offer both theoretical and
practical contributions. Theoretically, the findings of the study will provide
the information for further research to be done on this field using Appraisal
Theory. Practically, the study will provide some practical suggestions for
teaching and learning English as a foreign language.
1.6. Organization of the study
The study is organized into five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, contains the rationale, aims and objectives,
research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and
the organization of the study.


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Chapter 2, Literature Review provides the theoretical background on
which the present study is based. Also, this chapter presents a review of
previous studies on the topic of the thesis.
Chapter 3, Research Methodology and Procedure, describes research
methods, research procedures, description of data, data analysis. Besides,
reliability and validity of the data are mentioned in this chapter.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, focuses on analyzing the data and
discussing the results found through the analysis of data.
Chapter 5, Conclusions and Implications, gives a summary of the
results of the study. It also offers the implications, the limitations of the study
and the suggestions for further research.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter consists of two parts. The first part will present the
theories which are relevant to the purpose of the study. The second part is the
description of the prior research related to the study.
2.1. Theoretical background
2.1.1. Systemic Functional Linguistics
Although it has been mentioned in the previous chapter that AT is a
full-blown theory about emotion in text, the theory is still put “under the
heading” of another theory: SFL, Systemic Functional Linguistics, was first
introduced and developed by the English linguist Michael Alexander
Kirkwood Halliday, emeritus professor of linguistics at the University of
Sydney, Australia. It is an approach to linguistics that considers language as a
social semiotic system.
Halliday (1994:53) introduces the general functional concepts which
relate to the three aspects of the meanings of the clause: ideational,
interpersonal, and textual. He states that they are “different kinds of meaning
potential that relate to the most general functions that language has evolved to
serve.” (Halliday, 2004:198). Ideational meanings deal with the way the
language represents the interlocutor’s experience. Interpersonal meanings
focus on the interactivity of the language which is used to describe interaction
and to convey attitudes. Textual meanings tend to organize experiential and
interpersonal meanings into a linear and coherent whole.
Halliday (1994) states that the interpersonal meta-function can be
realized lexico-grammatically by mood and modality. Mood system, which
consists of Subject and Finite element, is the system to establish and maintain

roles and role relationships between interlocutors. Modality system, which


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can be further divided into Modalization and Modulation, refers to the
intermediate ground between positive and negative polarity. It functions to
express the speaker’s attitude and judgement. It is worth noting that the
interpersonal metafunction serves to be the basis of the whole enterprise of
AT. The following section deals with this theory in detail.
2.1.2. Appraisal Theory
Appraisal is a relatively new branch of linguistics, developed primarily
by Martin (2005) and his colleagues and derived from Halliday’s theory of
Systemic Functional Linguistics. A great deal of their work is derived from
the University of Sydney, Australia. According to White (2001: 1), Appraisal
is defined as “An approach to exploring, describing and explaining the way
language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct textual personal
and to manage interpersonal positionings and relationships”.
AT concerns itself with the interpersonal meaning of a language. It is
considered to be a significant development within the paradigm of SFL. The
major concerns of AT include how writers or speakers express their stance
toward the things or on-going events in the world, how they express their
agreement or disagreement with the potential responses from the other
readers, and how they establish and strengthen their identities in a text or
discourse. Martin and White (2005: 20) believe that Appraisal items in a
language should be assigned to the rank of discourse semantics. The level of
discourse semantics is more abstract than the level of grammar and lexis,
which is more abstract than the level of phonology and graphology. The
highest rank, discourse semantics, is about how to organize clauses into a
meaningful discourse. The function practiced by Appraisal items in a

discourse is to help writers or speakers to express their evaluation, negotiate
their relationship with the respondents, and establish their persona.


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Appraisal is divided into three sub-systems including Attitude,
Engagement and Graduation. In the system of meanings labeled as Attitude,
three semantic categories are involved: Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation.
They refer to the concepts of emotion, ethics and aesthetics respectively. The
focus of the study is on Attitude, which is presented in more detail below.
2.1.3. Attitude
According to Martin and White (2005), Attitude is a resource of
language that enables writers to express their attitude(s) towards people,
events, and other phenomena. It is expressed through words of judgment,
appreciation, or emotion. Attitude covers “our feelings, including emotional
reactions, Judgments of behavior and evaluation of things” (ibid). Attitude
can be divided into sub-types, namely Affect, Judgment and Appreciation.
Below are explanations of each region.
2.1.3.1. Affect
Affect deals with positive and negative feelings of people such as
happiness or sadness, confidence or anxiety, interest or bore. In the domain of
affect, the different categories can be identified on the basis of the following
factors, being drawn from Martin and White (2005: 46-49):
(1) The Dis/Inclination subcategory relates to fear and desire as
outlined in Table 2.1 below.
Table 2.1 Affect - Dis/Inclination (Martin and White, 2005: 48)
DIS/INCLINATION

Surge (of behavior)

Disposition

fear

Tremble
shudder
cower

wary
fearful
terrorized

desire

Suggest
request
demand

miss
long for
yearn for


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(2) The un/happiness set of meanings is probably the first to come to
mind when we think about emotions, and it is included in all of the
inventories we have encountered. It covers emotions concerned with “affairs
of heart” – sadness, hate, happiness and love as in Table 2.2

Table 2.2 Affect - Un/happiness (Martin and White, 2005: 49)
UN/HAPPINESS

Surge (of behavior)

Disposition

unhappiness
misery
[mood: ‘in me’]
Antipathy

Whimper
cry
wail
rubbish
abuse
revile

down [low]
sad [median]
miserable [high]
dislike
hate
abhor

Happiness
cheer

Chuckle

laugh
rejoice
shake hands
hug
embrace

Cheerful
Buoyant
Jubilant
be fond of
love
adore

affection

(3) The in/security variable covers our feelings of peace and anxiety in
relation to our environs, including the people sharing with them. It covers
emotions concerned with ecosocial well-being – anxiety, fear, confidence and
trust as presented in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3 Affect - In/security (Martin and White, 2005: 50)
In/security

Surge (of behavior)

Disposition

Restless

uneasy

Twitching

anxious

shaking

freaked out

start

startled

cry out

jolted

faint

staggered

insecurity
disquiet
surprise


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security
confidence

declare

together

assert

confident

faint

assured

delegate

comfortable with

commit

confident in/about

entrust

trusting

trust

(4) The dis/satisfaction deals with our feelings of achievement and
frustration in relation to the activities in which we are engaged. It covers
emotions concerned with telos (the pursuit of goals) - ennui, displeasure,
curiosity, respect as presented in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4 Affect - Dis/satisfaction (Martin and White, 2005: 51)
DIS/SATISFACTION

Surge (of behavior)

Disposition

fidget

flat

yawn

stale

turn out

jaded

caution

cross, bored with

scold

angry, sick of

castigate

furious, fed up with

attentive

Involved

busy

Absorbed

industrious

Engrossed

pat on the back

satisfied, impressed

compliment

pleased, charmed

reward

chuffed, thrilled

dissatisfaction
ennui

displeasure

satisfaction
interest

pleasure


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2.1.3.2. Judgment
The second category of Attitude is Judgment. This Appraisal category
refers to the expression of evaluations about the ethics, morality, or social
values of people’s behavior, which capture the speaker’s evaluation of the
verbal, mental or physical behavior of others. In this sense, Judgment
represents resources for evaluating someone’s behavior as conforming to the
speaker’s social norms. These appraisals would answer the question how
would you judge that behavior? However, according to the authors, the
analysis of Judgment must distinguish between what can be termed inscribed
(or explicit) judgment and tokens of Judgment (implicit). In the
inscribed/explicit category, the evaluation is explicitly presented by means of
a lexical item carrying the Judgment value. It is possible, as Martin and White
(2005) argue on the Appraisal webpage, that Judgment values are evoked
rather than inscribed, via tokens of Judgment. These tokens have the capacity
in the culture to evoke judgmental responses (depending upon the reader’s
social/ cultural/ideological position).
Judgment is sub-divided into two categories by Martin & White (2005:
65): (a) those dealing with 'social esteem' and (b) those regarding 'social
sanction'. Social esteem is the region of judgments in which the evaluation of
people’s conduct is based on social ethics or on a standard of appropriateness.
Judgments of esteem (criticism or admiration) have to do with 'normality'
(how unusual someone is), 'capacity' (how capable they are) and 'tenacity'

(how resolute they are). In contrast, social sanction is the region of judgments
in which the evaluation of people’s conduct is based on legal/religious rules.
Unlike those underlying social esteem, the rules on which social sanction are
based are usually codified in writing, as edicts, decrees, rules, regulations and
laws about how to behave as surveilled by church and state. Therefore,


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judgments of social sanctions deal with 'veracity' (how truthful someone is)
and 'propriety' (how ethical someone is).
Illustrative realizations for social esteem and social sanction are
presented in Table 2.5 below.
Table 2.5 Judgments of Esteem and Sanction (Martin and White, 2005: 53)
SOCIAL
ESTEEM

Positive [admire]

Negative [criticise]

Normality
‘ how special?’

lucky, fortunate, charmed …;
normal, natural, familiar …;
cool, stable, predictable …;
in, fashionable, avant garde …;
celebrated, unsung …

unlucky, hapless, star-crossed …;
odd, peculiar, eccentric …;
erratic, unpredictable …;
dated, daggy, retrograde …;
obscure, also-ran …

Capacity
‘how capable?’

powerful, vigorous, robust …;
sound, healthy, fit …;
adult, mature, experienced …;
witty, humorous, droll …;

mild, weak, whimpy …;
unsound, sick, crippled …;
immature, childish, helpless …;
dull, dreary, grave …;

insightful, clever, gifted …;
balanced, together, sane …;
sensible, expert, shrewd …;
literate, educated, learned …;
competent, accomplished …;

slow, stupid, thick …;
flaky, neurotic, insane …;
naive, inexpert, foolish …;
illiterate, uneducated, ignorant
…;

successful, productive …

incompetent; unaccomplished …;
unsuccessful, unproductive …

plucky, brave, heroic …;
Tenacity
‘how dependable?’ cautious, wary, patient …;
careful, thorough, meticulous

timid, cowardly, gutless …;
rash, impatient, impetuous …;
hasty, capricious, reckless …;

tireless, persevering, resolute …;
reliable, dependable …;
faithful, loyal, constant …;
flexible, adaptable,

weak, distracted, despondent …;
unreliable, undependable …;
unfaithful, disloyal, inconstant
…;

accommodating…

stubborn, obstinate, wilful …

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Table 2.6. Types and Sub-types of Judgment (Martin & White, 2005:53)
Types of

Sub-types

Positive

Negative

Judgement
Normality

Luck, fortunate...

‘How special?’

SOCIAL

Capacity

ESTEEM

‘How capable?’
Tenacity

crossed, odd...
vigorous, robust,
sound…

plucky, brave,

‘How dependable?’
Veracity

SOCIAL

‘How honest?’

SANCTION

Propriety

Unlucky, hapless, star-

heroic…
truthful, honest,
frank…

‘How ethical?’

mild, weak, unsound,
sick, crippled…
timid, cowardly, gutless,
rash…
dishonest, lying,
deceptive, devious…
bad, immoral, evil,
corrupt…

Besides, as Martin and White (2005) state, there is a connection
between Modality/Modulation and Judgment. Specifically, modalities of
ability can be related to Judgments of Capacity:
He can go.
They can solve those problems.
(ibid)
For proposals, modulations of inclination can be related to lexicalized
Tenacity:
I’ll leave for New York.
I’m determined to leave for New York.
(ibid)
And modulations of obligation can be related to lexicalized Judgments
of Propriety:
He should go.


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It’s expected he’ll go.
(ibid)
2.1.3.3 Appreciation
The third region of feeling is Appreciation. This attitude "involves
evaluations of semiotic and natural phenomena." In other words, this attitude
investigates how certain events are evaluated by the author or speaker, for
example a fan's rave review of a Stevie Ray Vaughn CD: “... and, as a bonus,
a very psychedelic, destructive (literally!), cathartic, and liberatory version
of Jimi Hendrix's 'Third Stone from the Sun'.” [Amazon.com online reviews]
Martin & White (2005: 69) distinguish three categories within this
attitude: (a) "our 'reactions' to things (do they catch our attention?; do they
please us?, (b) their 'composition' (balance and complexity), and (c) their

'value' (how innovative, authentic, timely, etc.)."
Illustrative realizations for Appreciation are presented in Table 2.7
below.
Table 2.7. Types of appreciation (Martin and White, 2005: 56)
Positive

Negative

impact ‘did it grap

arresting, captivating, engaging …;

dull, boring, tedious …;

me?’

fascinating, exciting, moving ..;

dry, ascetic, uninviting .;

lively, dramatic, intense …;

flat, predictable …;

remarkable, notable, sensational …

unremarkable ……

quality ‘did I

okay, fine, good …;

bad, yuk, nasty …;

like it?’

lively, beautiful, splendid …;

plain, ugly, grotesque ..

appealing, enchanting, welcome …

repulsive, revolting …

balanced, harmonious, unified,

unbalanced, discordant,

Reaction

Reaction

Composition
balance ‘did it


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hang together?’

symmetrical, proportioned …;

irregular, uneven ..;

consistent, considered, logical …;

contradictory …;

shapely, curvaceous, willowy …

shapeless, amorphous ...

Complexity

simple, pure, elegant …;

ornate, extravagant,

‘was it hard to

lucid, clear, precise …;

arcane, unclear, woolly

follow?

intricate, rich, detailed …

plain, monolithic …

Valuation

penetrating, profound, deep …;

shallow, reductive …;

‘was it

innovative, original, creative …;

derivative, conventional

worthwhile?’

timely, long awaited, landmark …;

dated, overdue, untimely

inimitable, exceptional, unique …;

dime-a-dozen, common

authentic, real, genuine …;

fake, bogus, glitzy …;

Composition

valuable, priceless, worthwhile …;
appropriate, helpul, effective …

worthless, shoddy …;
ineffective, useless, …

In terms of grammar, Martin and White (2005) state that we might
think of Reaction, Composition and Valuation in relation to mental processes.
Reaction is related to affection (emotive – “It attracts me”, desiderative – “I
need it”), Composition deals with perception (our view of order), and
Valuation is related to cognition (our considered opinions). In other words,
the Appreciation framework might be interpreted metafunctionally – with
Reaction oriented to interpersonal significance, Composition to textual
organization and Valuation to ideational worth (Martin & White, 2005). The
whole system of Attitude is summarized in the figure below.


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Dis/inclination: desire, fear
Un/happiness: happy, sad
Affect

In/security: confident, anxious
Dis/satisfaction: pleased, angry
Normality: fortunate, hapless
Esteem

Judgment

Capacity: powerful, weak
Tenacity: resolute, reckless

Sanction

Veracity: truthful, dishonest
Propriety: ethical, immoral

Reaction

impact: exciting, tedious
Quality: good, nasty

Appreciation

Composition

Balance: unified, discordant
Complexity: simple, simplistic

Valuation: profound, shallow
Figure 2.1. Sub-system 0f Attitude (Martin & White, 2005:42-58)
2.1.4. Engagement
Engagement deals with language resources for positioning the
speaker's/author's voice with respect to the various propositions and proposals
conveyed by a text. In other words, through Engagement, the writer either
affirms or distances himself/herself from what is written/spoken. In Martin’s
work (2003) on the Appraisal system in English, he indicates that
Engagement is related to “the speaker’s degree of commitment to the
Appraisal being expressed” (ibid: 142).
The Engagement system, as Martin (2000) states, can be divided
as monoglossia (single voice) and heteroglossia (multiple voices), where the

former mostly appears in narrative genres, in which the authorial voice is


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dominant. The heteroglossic nature of academic writing can “[invoke] or
allow for dialogistic alternatives” i.e., allowing other voices to participate in
the text, or as references to support and evidence.
Heteroglossia

is

further

divided

into

two

dimensions:

the

dialogic expansion and contraction. The former deals with semantic resources
entertaining other voices, acknowledging sources, distancing from the authorial
voice. The latter is used to narrow the space for certain dialogic alternative
through DISCLAIM (denial and countering) and PROCLAIM (limitation).
DISCLAIM is further divided into DENY (negation) and COUNTER
(concession), while PROCLAIM has three subcategories: CONCUR

(alignment), PRONOUNCE (emphasis of authorial intervention) and
ENDORSEMENT (sourcing warrantable external sources).
2.1.5. Graduation
Graduation covers language sources used to make the message in the
text more intense or less intense. When we make the message more or less
intense, we are modifying the force of the message. On the other hand, when
we sharpen or blur the message, we are modifying the focus of the message.
Focus covers those meanings which are elsewhere typically analyzed
under the headings of ‘hedging’ and ‘vague language’. Typical values are:
he kindly admitted it; he effectively admitted it, he as good as admitted etc; a
whale is a fish, softly. Also, values which sharpen rather than blur the focus
are included; for example, a true friend, pure folly, he drank his friend under
the table, literally.
Force includes values which have elsewhere been labeled such as
intensifiers, down-tones, boosters, emphatics etc. Perhaps this category’s most
obvious mode of expression is through the adverbs of intensification; for


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instance, slightly, a bit, somewhat, rather, really, very, completely etc.
Somewhat more problematically, this principle of scaling also applies to those
values which act to measure quantity, extent, and proximity in time and space
such as small, large; a few, many, near, far etc. Force may also be expressed
through lexical items in which the scaling value (typically a high value of
intensity) is fused with some ideational meaning. This mode of force is found
widely in the media; for example, the temperature plunged, prices
skyrocketed, they've axed the entire accounting division, the storm cut a swath
through etc.
Followings are the examples to illustrate these categories:

Force:
Social networks are somewhat harmful.
Social networks are really harmful.
I just don’t love country music, I adore it.
Focus:
Well they play something which is sort of like jazz music.
They play true jazz.
(White, 1998: 3)
In summary, the Appraisal system includes three main domains,
namely attitude, engagement and graduation. Attitude deals with our feelings,
including emotional reactions, judgments of behavior and evaluation of
things. It can be interpreted as “praise” or “blame” in so far as it can be
categorized as positive or negative evaluation. Engagement is concerned with
language that reveals the sources of opinions while graduation is concerned
with language that explores the degree of evaluation.


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Within the Attitude system, there are three main types of attitude that
can be tracked: Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation. Affect deals with
resources for construing emotional reactions. Judgment is concerned with
resources for assessing behavior according to various normative principles.
Appreciation looks at resources for construing the value of things, including
natural phenomena and semiosis.The system of Attitude serves as the
framework of the study. The section that follows deals with previous studies.
2.2. Previous studies
After more than 15 years of development, the Theory of Appraisal has
been attracting more and more attention from a number of reseachers. Up to
now, there have been a lot of studies carried out to analyze different fields of

linguistics from the perspective of Appraisal theory. First of all, Ruth E. Page
(2003) analyzes the evaluation offered by women and men when narrating
experiences about childbirth. His study supports current trends in the study of
language and gender. Besides, Birot (2008) in the study “Evaluation Media
Reporting: A Comparative Analysis in BBC, CNN and Aljazera Reports”
focuses on the three sub-types of Attitude, namely Affect, Judgement and
Appreciation to examine the evaluative language employed by different
media agencies named BBC, CNN and Aljazera. By exploring evaluation
patterns occurring in three sets of media reports, he found out the perspective
of the agency released each set of reports and the relationship between the
perspective of a media agency and the social cultural contexts in which it
broadcasts. Furthermore, Wang (2010: I) examines “the operationality and
practicability of Martin’s Appraisal theory towards the exploration on the
interpersonal meaning and the distribution rules of Appraisal resources in
Nobel Prize for Literature Acceptance Speeches (NPFLAS)”. His findings
show that (1) three kinds of Appraisal – Attitude, Engagement and Graduation


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– are used in NPFLAS, (2) the interpersonal function is mainly realized by the
prosodic structures in NPFLAS and (3) the use of positive attitude is more
than that of negative attitude. This thesis proves the importance of the
interpersonal meaning of Appraisal resources in NPFLAS. Pascual & Unger
(2010) focus on using Appraisal to evaluate Argentinean researchers’ writing
for grant proposals while Giles (2012) analyzes the evaluative language used
by undergraduate student writers in a Mexican university in the introductions
of their final research reports. All these studies have contributed a lot to
evaluate the language by using Appraisal theory.
In recent years, in Vietnam, the theory of Appraisal has also attracted

the interest of numerous researchers. More and more master theses
concerning this theory have been carried out. For example, in her study of
discourse analysis, Nguyen Uy Dung (2010) investigated and pointed out
some linguistic features of stylistic devices in political speeches by the US
Presidents in light of AT. Particularly, Vo Duy Duc (2011) in his study “Style,
Structure and Ideology in English and Vietnamese Business Hard News
Reporting: A Comparative Study” uses Appraisal Theory to evaluate the
language of hard business news in English and Vietnamese. His findings from
this thesis reveal that English and Vietnamese texts generally share “the same
orbital structure and that these new stories basically operate with the same
reporter voice” and there is a remarkable difference between English and
Vietnamese in the presentation of the key social groups. These findings make
contributions toward teaching English for journalism at tertiary level in
Vietnam. Furthermore, Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien (2014) conducts a study for
exploring interpersonal meaning in hotel brochures written in English and
Vietnamese. Her thesis is carried out based on Appraisal theory with different


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methods. The key finding of this thesis is that both English and Vietnamese
share a great similarity in using attitudinal language in hotel brochures.
It can be seen that a considerable number of studies have been carried
out so far in Vietnam and in other countries. However, no prior research is
found in investigating attitudinal resources in short love stories in English
from the perspective of AT by J.R. Martin and P.R.R. White (2005), a new
model to evaluate the text in terms of Appraisal elements. Thus, I want to
carry out the thesis “An investigation into Attitudinal Resources in English
love short stories” with a hope to fulfill the overall picture of this field.
Furthermore, it is hoped that this thesis will help language learners of English

have a better insight into the use of attitudinal resources in love short stories.
2.3. Summary
In chapter 2, we have reviewed the previous studies and theories of
Appraisal Theory, especially the Attitude resources from the overviews of
many linguists in which the studies of Martin & White are significant in terms
of theoretical background of this thesis. Along with that, we have consulted
the definitions and classifications of Appraisal theory as well as Attitude
resources and then showed the differences between the three sub divisions of
Attitude. All of the above support us for analyzing the Attitude resources in
the love stories.