Comparative Analysis of Ecological Discourse From the Perspective of Appraisal Theory: The Ponds and The Pond in Winter in Walden
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1408.15Keywords:
appraisal theory, attitude system, ecological discourse analysis, The Ponds, The Pond in WinterAbstract
This paper intends to use UAM Corpus Tool 6.2 corpus annotation software to conduct a comparative ecological discourse analysis of the selections of the ecological literary work Walden - The Ponds and The Pond in Winter from the perspective of the attitude system of appraisal theory, aiming to reveal Thoreau’s attitude towards ecological environment and to prove the practicality of appraisal theory in the ecological discourse analysis of the literary work, and at the same time, to broaden the research for the ecological discourse analysis. It was found that the number of appreciative resources in The Ponds (412) was much greater than the number of judgement (61) and affect (39) resources and that the number of positive eco-discourses (270) and neutral/ambiguous eco-discourses (179) was also much greater than the number of negative discourses (63). The number of appraisal resources (185) in The Pond in Winter is much larger than that of judgement resources (50) and emotion resources (35), and the number of positive ecological discourses (270) and neutral/ambiguous ecological discourses (179) is much larger than that of negative ecological discourses (63), and positive ecological discourse (172) is much larger than neutral/ambiguous ecological discourse (65) and negative discourse (33). This reflects Thoreau’s ecological orientation of loving nature, respecting nature, opposing excessive destruction of nature by human beings, and advocating calling on human beings to protect nature.
References
Alexander, R., & Stibbe, A. (2014). From the analysis of ecological discourse to the ecological analysis of discourse. Language Sciences, (41), 104–110.
Bartlett, T. (2018). Positive discourse analysis. In Flowerdew, J., & Richardson, J. E. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies. (pp. 133-147). Routledge Press.
Gach, N. (2016). Conceptualization of nature in the African American poetry: Ecocritical discourse analysis. International Journal of Language and Literature, 4(1), 273–85.
Goudong, G. U., & Afzaal, M. (2023). Understanding Political Debates from the Perspective of Appraisal Theory of China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis. Bru ELT Journal, 1(1), 83–98.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1985). Language, context and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Deakin University Press.
Hameed, A., Jabeen, I., & Afzal, N. (2022). Towards an eco-friendly future: A corpus-based analysis of media discourse on “Saudi Green Initiative”. Lege Artis, 7(1), 84–119.
Han, X., & Liu, H. (2019). Eco-Discourse Analysis of Natural Poetry from the Perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Modern Linguistics, 7(4), 454–459.
Hu, Z. L., Zhu, Y. S., & Zhang, D. L. (1989). Introduction to Systemic Functional Grammar. Hunan Education Publishing House Press.
Laviosa, S., Pagano, A., Kemppanen, H., Ji, M., Laviosa, S., Pagano, A., ... & Ji, M. (2017). A corpus analysis of translation of environmental news on BBC China. Textual and contextual analysis in empirical translation studies, 129–157.
Martin, J. R. (2000). Beyond exchange: APPRAISAL Systems in English. In S. Hunston and G. Thompson. (Eds.), Evaluation in Text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2003). Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause. Continuum Press.
Nasir, D. M. H., Habib, D. A., & Yousaf, D. M. (2022). Climate Change and Media Representation: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Clean Green Pakistan Policy from Eco-linguistic Perspective. University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics & Literature, 6, 198–211.
Qi, W., & Hu, Y. (2022). A Multimodal Ecological Discourse Analysis of Presentation PowerPoint Slides in Business English Class. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 13(6), 1341–1350.
Song, X., & Perry, M. S. (2023). Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Communicative English for Chinese Learners (Integrated Course) From the Perspective of Ecosophy. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 46(3), 459–484.
Stibbe, A. (2014). An ecolinguistic approach to critical discourse studies. Critical Discourse Studies, (1), 117–128.
Stibbe, A. (2015). Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live by. Routledge Press.
Stibbe, A. (2017). Positive discourse analysis: Re-thinking human ecological relationships. In A. Fill & H. Penz, (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics. Routledge Press.
ul Ghafar, A., Qasim, H. M., & Akhter, S. M. (2022). Exploring the Attitude Resources of Emotions in Winds and Clouds over a Funeral as a Literary Discourse: An Appraisal Theory Analysis. Research Journal of Social Sciences and Economics Review, 3(3), 64–74.
Wang, Z. H. (2001). Evaluation systems and their operation: A new development in systemic functional linguistics. Journal of Foreign Languages, (06), 13–20.
Yang, M., & Wang, Z. (2023). A corpus-based discourse analysis of China’s national image constructed by environmental news in The New York Times. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1–12.
Yang, Y. (2023). Ecological Civilization in Microblogging Discourse: A Positive Discourse Analysis Perspective. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 45(3), 45–60+102.
Yuan, X. F. (2010). Retrospect and Prospect: A Decade of Evaluation System Theory in China. Journal of Shaoxing University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), (6), 87–93.
Zhou, W. J. (2016). Interview with Professor Alwyn Fell. Journal of Poyang Lake, (4), 25–29+125.
Zhu, W. J. (1990). Language and culture. Language Teaching and Research, (02), 123–140.
