Attitudinal Resources and Elicitors of Identii cation in The Analects

• 作者: Yumei Ju
• 来源期刊: 语言与符号学研究
• 学科: 文学
• 年，卷（期）: 2015,（4）
• 页码范围: 146-159
• 页数: 14页
• 分类号: H15

摘要

Though The Analects is considered one of the major classics of both Confucianism and Chinese culture,little work has been done in investigating the discursive and rhetorical elements of the text and the ways in which it seeks to create a positive perception of Confucius and Confucianism.Based on the Appraisal Theory developed in systemic-functional linguistics for studying interpersonal meaning,this paper focuses on the role of the kinds of attitude constructed and features of attitudinal resources used to determine how Confucius and Confucianism are projected into the text.Drawing on a detailed analysis of 10 texts,the paper explores the ways in which attitudinal resources work as elicitors of identification in The Analects.The study shows that all of the selected texts are rich in attitudinal resources,although the three attitude values,i.e.affect,judgment,and appreciation,are not equally distributed.The resources of judgment in the texts make up 57%of the total,while the frequencies of occurrence for affect and appreciation make up the remainder almost equivalently.The qualitative analysis of the corpus demonstrates how features of attitudes are used to create a positive image of Confucianism and thus achieve reader identif ication.The study provides a strong argument for the need to examine varieties of attitudes as components of rhetoric and suggests that those interested in the study of The Analects need to become more aware of how aspects of attitude and appraisal were used to accomplish rhetorical goals.