本文是一篇英语论文，本研究结合Martin and White（2005）的评估理论和亚里士多德的修辞说服，建立了一个理论框架，分析评估资源在一种促销活动中的说服功能，即产品发布演示，以回答三个研究问题。
CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
Taking four product launch presentations of Apple Company as research data,theresearch purpose of this study is to investigate the appraisal resources and theirpersuasive functions in product launch presentation discourses with the aid of UAMTool.To be more specific,first,the appraisal resources in product launchpresentations will be explored and described under the Appraisal Theory.Second,appraisal resources helping to realize persuasive functions in product launchpresentations will be interpreted from the perspective of Persuasion Theory.Third,possible factors influencing speakers to use these appraisal resources in productlaunch presentations will be explained from the angles of field and mode in RegisterTheory.
New product launch events are considered a critical stage in the process of newproduct development(Beard&Easingwood,1996).In recent decades,an increasingnumber of enterprises have been seen to promote their new products by means of newproduct launch events.An effective new product launch event can increase conversionand user engagement,and then encourage purchase(Gao&Zhang,2015).In theprocess of new product launch events,the presentation often makes greatcontributions to attracting audiences.The way how presenters,who usually hold thepost of CEO or manager of a company,introduce their new products or services iscrucial because it might influence audiences’first impressions of the newproducts/services and then their buying behaviors.The product launch presentation isan important form of business speech,where language is the main conveyor forconveying information of innovations,expressing an opinion,and persuadingaudiences.
1.2 Research significance
This paper aims to reveal how product launch presenters are using appraisalresources in practice,thus contributing to uncovering the persuasive proceduresduring the new product launch events.It is believed that this thesis has bothacademical contributions and practical implications on the analysis of appraisal theoryand new product launch events.
Academically speaking,first of all,this study may enrich the study of appraisaltheory on business discourse.Appraisal theory has gained much attention fromscholars.For example,many previous scholars have applied appraisal theory to doempirical research on translations and foreign language teachings.Most of themacknowledge the importance of appraisal theory for discourse analysis in particular.However,despite their recognition,they seldom try to deploy appraisal theory toresearch product launch presentations,a relatively new type of business discourse.In this study,the author will try to bridge this gap.It is believed that appraisal theory isfeasible to analyze the product launch presentation discourse by finding out thefrequency and distributions of appraisal resources in product launch presentations in arelatively detail way,which helps to extend the research scope of appraisal theory onbusiness discourse.Secondly,this study may also contribute to analyzing thelinguistic strategies for new product launch events.A successful new product launchevent concerns not only its non-linguistic perspectives but also its linguisticperspectives since presenters’discourse often takes up a very large proportion in anew product launch event.In this regard,this study investigates the success of a newproduct launch event,referring to persuasion realization in this thesis,from the angleof linguistic dimensions,enabling us to understand the important role of language ininnovation communication.
CHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies on Appraisal Theory
The development of the Appraisal Theory has gone through several decades.It isworth mentioning that the word“evaluation”is another name for appraisal which isfrequently used by previous scholars.Labov,who is considered as one of the pioneersstudying the evaluative functions of language,defines evaluation as“the means usedby the narrator to indicate the point of the narrative”(Labov,1972:207).Sinclair(1981)makes his contributions to the relationship between evaluation throughlinguistic features and language descriptions.He claims that evaluation makes itpossible for people to share experiences with each other.Conrad and Biber(2000)putforward three categories of adverbials that deal with the speaker/writer’s attitude.Later in the 80s and 90s,in Sydney,some functional linguists were witnessed todevelop a framework for analyzing evaluation in narrative discourses.However,theirfocuses are on the interpersonal metafunction of grammar,phonology and graphologywithout taking discourse semantics into consideration.To fill this gap,Martincombines the study of lexis in discourse analysis to extend the research oninterpersonal meaning.In this process,the term,Appraisal Theory has been formed.
The Appraisal Theory mainly focuses on the various attitudes that can benegotiated in discourses.Martin defines appraisal resources as the ones which areconcerned with“the interpersonal in language,with the subjective presence ofwriters/speakers in texts as they adopt stances towards both the material they presentand those with whom they communicate”(Martin&White,2005:1).
2.2 Previous studies on persuasion
Rhetoric has its origins in ancient Greece.As the father of western classicalrhetoric,Aristotle defines rhetoric as the ability to find available means of persuasionin any given case.He proposes that persuasion is a kind of argument because whensomething is proved,we are completely convinced(Aristotle,2010).Aristotle’sdefinition and explanation of rhetoric show a close relationship between rhetoric andpersuasion,namely,persuasion is the center of rhetoric.Many other scholars are infavor of this relationship.For example,Burke(1950)defines rhetoric as whichhumans use words to shape attitudes or influence others.And Enos et al.(1991)explicitly point out that rhetoric is the most important art of persuasive speeches.In abroad sense,all language used to persuade people to accept any possible things,like anew policy,a new science and technology and the like,is persuasion.In a narrowsense,however,persuasion can be defined as those choices of language whose goal isto change or influence the behaviors or beliefs that are already accepted(Helena&Tuija,2005).
In his masterpiece Rhetoric,Aristotle puts forward that inartificial proofs andartificial proofs are two elements for successful persuasion.His three means ofpersuasion for rhetoric,namely the rational appeals(logos),the affective appeals(pathos)and the moral appeals(ethos),are by far the most widely used persuasionmechanism around the globe.Based on the research perspectives to persuasion,previous studies on persuasion can be categorized into pragmatic perspective,metadiscourse perspective,and finally appraisal theory perspective.
CHAPTER 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK..............................................15
3.1 Appraisal Theory.................................15
3.1.1 Attitude.............................................16
3.1.2 Engagement.........................................18
3.1.3 Graduation.....................................19
CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH PROCEDURES..............................................26
4.1 Research questions.......................................26
4.2 Data collection................................................26
4.3 Research method..............................................27
CHAPTER 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION..............................29
5.1 Overall distribution of appraisal resources in Apple’s product launch presentations...............29
5.1.1 Attitude resources..................................30
5.1.2 Engagement resources...................................37
CHAPTER 5RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Overall distribution of appraisal resources in Apple’s product launchpresentations
Assisted with the UAM Corpus Tool 3.3,a total of 31,542 words of the fourproduct launch presentations are analyzed with the guideline of the appraisal systemput forward by Martin and White,through which a quantitative pattern of appraisalresources in the product launch presentations is captured.And Table 5-1 is designed toshow the distribution features of appraisal resources in the product launchpresentations.
As is illustrated in Table 5-1,overall,appraisal resources are frequently appliedby presenters in product launch presentations.Generally speaking,under the guidelineof the appraisal system,a total of 3,805 appraisal resources are found in the corpus.However,if we take a closer look,it can be noticed that the proportion of eachsub-system of the appraisal system is spread unevenly.Let’s go into a bit more detail,the attitudinal resources take up the most proportion and it accounts for 61.58%,graduation resources take up the middle accounting for 27.28%while engagementresources take up the least only accounting for 11.14%,which is far less than the othertwo sub-systems.
CHAPTER 6CONCLUSIONS
6.1 Findings
Combining the Appraisal Theory of Martin and White(2005)with the RhetoricPersuasion of Aristotle,this study has carried out a theoretical framework foranalyzing the persuasive functions of appraisal resources in a kind of promotionactivity,that is,product launch presentation to answer three research questions.Andthe major findings of the three research questions are shown as follows：
First of all,a quantitative analysis is designed to carry out the distribution patternof appraisal resources in product launch presentations.A total of 3,805 units ofappraisal resources among 31,542 words are found in the corpus.All the threesub-systems,namely attitude system,engagement system and graduation system areapplied by the presenters.However,these three sub-systems distribute unevenly in theproduct launch presentations,with the attitude system taking up the largest proportion(2,343 units,61.58%),graduation the middle(1,038 units,27.28%)and engagementresources the least(424 units,11.14%).Among attitude system,appreciation resourcesare the most frequently used,taking up 1,311 units,55.95%,judgment resources arethe second most frequent use,taking up 794 units,33.89%and affect resources are theleast frequent use,covering 238 units,10.16%only.Within affect resources,un/happiness resources are the most often used(112 units,47.06%)and it is forexpressing presenters’excitement towards introducing the new products and services.Within judgment resources,capacity resources that belong to the social esteem sub-type cover the most proportion(461 units,58.06%)and they are applied to showhow competent the company is.In appreciation resources,reaction resources accountfor the largest proportion(925 units,70.56%),and presenters deploy them mainly fordescribing the functions and characteristics of the new products and services.In theengagement system,only heteroglossic resources are discussed in this study.It isfound that dialogic contraction resources in heterogloss take up a very largeproportion,with 394 units and 92.92%while only 30 units and 7.08%dialogicexpansion resources are found in the corpus.Among dialogic contraction,the mostfrequently used is counter resources(192 units,48.72%).Entertain resources are morepreferred(23 units,76.67%)by the presenters in dialogic expansion.In the graduationsystem,force resources take up the whole share meaning that no focus resources arefound in the product launch presentations.Within force,intensification resources takeup more than quantification resources,with a proportion of 851 units and 81.98%,and187 units and 18.02%respectively.
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