AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE OF EVALUATION IN THE FILM “GONE WITH THE WIND” FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF APPRAISAL

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGQUY NHON UNIVERSITY VÕ THÚY TRIỀU AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE OF EVALUATION IN THE FILM “GONE WITH THE WIND” FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF APPRAISAL Field: Code:

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

VÕ THÚY TRIỀU

AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE OF EVALUATION

IN THE FILM “GONE WITH THE WIND” FROM

THE PERSPECTIVE OF APPRAISAL

Field:

Code:

English Linguistics 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền

VÕ THÚY TRIỀU

NGÔN NGỮ ĐÁNH GIÁ TRONG PHIM

“CUỐN THEO CHIỀU GIÓ” THEO QUAN ĐIỂM

CỦA THUYẾT ĐÁNH GIÁ

Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền

Binh Dinh, 2019

Võ Thúy Triều

Secondly, I would like to express my grateful thanks to the lecturers ofForeign Language Department in Quy Nhon University for their valuablelectures, which provide essential knowledge for this thesis.

Thirdly, I am deeply thankful to authors whose books and materialsplay a fundamental part in laying theoretical background for this study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my parents for their love andsupport during the fulfillment of this study I am grateful to my husband fortaking care of my child so that I could spend more time on my thesis and Ialso owe a deep debt to my child, who provide me with great support duringthe time I wrote this thesis

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at examining the evaluative values from theperspective of Appraisal Theory by Martin and White (2005) namely Attitude,Engagement and Graduation and their functions expressed in the language ofthe film “Gone with the Wind” Then, the main objective was to compare thefrequencies of occurrence of these values to reveal the choice of language ofevaluation in the language of this film and highlight the functions andsignificance of those evaluative values To answer the research questions,qualitative and quantitative methods were employed The data was justlimited in the language of the first part of the film “Gone with the Wind”,which is about 8,500 words The findings showed that the three categories ofevaluation values –Engagement, Attitude and Graduation were all utilized inthe data, but their proportions were totally different The most frequently-usedtype was Engagement resources Next, the second most popular resourcesbelonged to Attitude, which comprehensively made Graduation resources atthe bottom position with a small fraction Additionally, the scriptwriter aimed

to use a great amount of positive Attitude resources to vividly depict maincharacters’ love and inner feelings Some suggestions and implications to helpEnglish learners to effectively use evaluation values in daily communicationand further researches were also justified

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In the 1980s and 1990s, the framework of Appraisal Theory wasconducted by a group of scholars led by linguists James Martin and PeterWhite This theory is considered as a new expansion in the linguistics fieldsince it is concerned with the linguistic resources by which a speaker uses toexpress and negotiate a specific ideological position As reported by White(2015), Appraisal Theory framework is a particular approach to exploring,describing and explaining the way language is used to evaluate, to adoptstances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal positioningand relationships Hence, the creation of Appraisal Theory as well as itssubsequent development is an effective framework for analyzing attitudeexpressions and interpersonal meanings in various types of discourse such asliterary works, news, academic and narrative discourse

In the field of literary works, there are a range of scholars who analyzethe Attitude resources using Appraisal Theory in various features ofdiscourses For instance, Shuhong and Yali (2006) use Appraisal resources atthree levels (word, clause, and discourse) to analyze the power relation

between the characters in “Blackmail” from “Hotel” Besides, Xia and Li

(2011) exploit the Attitude meanings by Elizabeth in “Pride and Prejudice”,and then evaluate her attitudes Similarly, Nuraisiah, Nababan, and Santosa(2018) examine Attitudes toward sexism in Gone Girl novel Concerningnews discourses, Shizhu and Jinlong (2004) figure out the three sub-systems

of Appraisal Theory in news discourses and their dominant features Besides,

Zhang and Liu (2015) explore the distribution of Appraisal resources in 32news coverage from New York Times and China Daily (English version)under the guidance of Engagement system Moreover, many studies involvingthe application of Appraisal Theory are also found in the field of academicdiscourse such as the practical application of Appraisal Theory on readingskill in college respectively done by Liu (2010) and Ruomei (2016) Inaddition, a different study of Appraising research to take stance in Academicwriting is conducted by Hood (2004) With respect to narrative texts, Horarik(2003) considers the role of Appraisal systems in narrative discourse from thepoint of view of writer/reader relations Additionally, Shiro (2003) examinesVenezuelan children's developing abilities to use evaluative language infictional and personal narratives

Basically, film genres refer to types of films or classifications or groups

of films Stephen (2018) divided films into 20 genres which were Action,Adventure, Animation, Biography, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Family, Fantasy,History, Horror, Music, Musical, Mystery, Romance, Sci-fi, Sport, Thriller,War and Western Generally, every film is made in a particular genre andusually belongs to the established form and plot lines of that genre Thelanguage of films is similar to novels or short stories in that they tell a story.The academic study of film often involves looking at generic conventions andespecially the use and function of various aspects of film language As aresult, a variety of studies have been taken to approach different angles offilm language To illustrate, Amela (2016) explores lexical blends in theEnglish of animated films and presents the identification of blends inanimated films and their morpho-semantic analysis In the field of translation,another research is carried out by Spanakaki (2007) to maintain humor intranslating film language In another study , Khalid (2016) identifies the main

challenges for translators during subtitling process and solutions to overcomethem In pragmatic field, Rose (2006) investigates implications ofcompliments and compliment responses in film for pragmatic research andlanguage teaching Taylor and John (2008) explore the specific identifiablecharacteristics of film language that distinguish it from genuine spontaneousdiscourse With reference to language teaching, Quinn (2013) uses NarrativeFilm in Second Language Acquisition to enable learners to achieve targetlanguage easily However, it can be seen that there are not many studies thathave been carried out on conversations in film language This is because theresearchers often focus on the contents of the film more than the language thatthe scriptwriter uses to convey ideas in a conversation.

It is visible that many researchers are attracted by the aspect of studyinglanguage from various perspectives However, an investigation into language

of evaluation in film language has not received much concern As a result,Appraisal Theory by Martin and White (2005) is an effective way to interpretfilm language so as to help readers understand the film language fully and

concisely For all the reasons mentioned above, the topic “An Analysis of

Language of Evaluation in the film “Gone with the Wind” from the Perspective of Appraisal” has been chosen hoping to fill the gap to a certain

“Gone with the Wind”

1.2.2 Objectives

The study attempts to achieve the following objectives:

- To identify and classify different values in terms of Attitude,Engagement and Graduation in the American epic historical romance film

“Gone with the Wind”

- To compare the frequencies of occurrence of these values to reveal the choice of language of evaluation in the language of this film

1.4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on identifying and classifying evaluative valuesfound in the conversations of the American epic historical romance film

“Gone with the Wind”

Because of time limitation, the data was just limited in the first part ofthe film, which is about 8,500 words long on the website Scripts.com (2019)

1.5 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study emphasizes the significant role of AppraisalTheory as an analytical framework which helps to highlight the language of

evaluation in not only newspapers as usual but also in different areas.Practically, the study is hoped to be a reference for other researchers who arekeen on considering film and its language Additionally, this study mayprovide the teachers with the overall knowledge of Appraisal Theory to teachtheir students productive skills and the findings will be regarded as a valuablesource of reference for students of English.

1.6 Organization of the study

The study consists of five chapters, and each one takes responsibilityfor a particular function

Chapter 1 Introduction

This first chapter reveals an overview of the study including therationale, research aim and objectives, research questions, the scope of thestudy, the significance and organization of the study

Chapter 2 Literature Review

In this second chapter, all the related concepts in Appraisal Theorydeveloped by Martin and White (2005) are described in details to be treated astheoretical background for the study to be processed Then, previous relevantstudies are introduced as well

Chapter 3 Methodology

This third chapter shows the core methods applied to collect andanalyze data for the study In addition, this chapter also mentions adescription of the data, the research procedures, the data analysis, validity andreliability of the study

Chapter 4 Findings and Discussions

This chapter depicts the results of the study from the collected data toanswer the research questions and a detailed discussion with illustration,

interpretation, and comments about evaluative values in the film “Gone withthe Wind”

Chapter 5 Conclusions and Implications

This final chapter summarizes the main findings of the research, bringsout the implications, indicates the limitations of the study and givessuggestions for the further researches related to the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter mentions all the related concepts in AppraisalTheory developed by Martin and White (2005) in details to form thetheoretical background for the study to be processed Furthermore, previousrelevant studies are introduced as well

2.1 Appraisal Theory

The Appraisal framework was developed by Martin and White andtheir colleagues in the 1990s and 2000s This framework

“provides for analyses of those meanings by which texts convey positive

or negative assessments, by which the intensity or directness of such attitudinal utterances is strengthened or weakened and by which speakers/writers engage dialogistically with prior speakers or with potential respondents to the current proposition”

(Peter, 2015, p.1)Appraisal Theory, the evaluative use of language, offers a frameworkfor the assessment of people, things, happenings, places or processes Its main

function is to help “writers/speakers positively or negatively evaluate the

entities, happenings and states-of-affairs with which their texts are concerned” (Martin & White, 2005, p.2).

The term “language of evaluation” is made up by grouping theseresources of evaluation together

The outline of Appraisal framework is introduced as in Figure 2.1

Figure 2.1 An overview of appraisal resources (Martin & White, 2005, p.38)

As seen in Figure 2.1 Appraisal is divided into three groups ofevaluation resources, namely Engagement, Attitude and Graduation

2.1.1 Engagement

Whenever speakers want to engage listeners in discourse, they useEngagement Engagement resources help people engage into the interaction ofthe conversation and also keep listeners engaged interpersonally

According to Martin and White (2005), there are two categories of

Engagement: Monogloss and Heterogloss as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2 The Engagement system (Martin & White, 2005, p104)

While Monogloss relates to factual information (single voice),

Heterogloss involves in multiple voices which consist of Contract and Expand Table 2.1 will illustrate some examples related to Monogloss and

Heterogloss

Table 2.1 The Monoglossic and the Heteroglossic

(Martin & White, 2005, p.100)

Monoglossic (no recognition of Heteroglossic (recognition of dialogistic dialogistic alternatives) alternatives)

The banks have been greedy. There is the argument though that the banks have

been greedy.

In my view the banks have been greedy.

Callers to talkback radio see the banks as being

greedy.

The chairman of the consumers association has stated

that the banks are being greedy.

There can be no denying the banks have been greedy Everyone knows the banks are greedy.

The banks haven’t been greedy.

From the above examples, it is clear that the sentence “The banks have

been greedy” is a fact and makes no reference to other voices or viewpoints.

However, the sentence “In my view the banks have been greedy” is only an

idea among a range points of view and it does actively allow for dialogisticalternatives

With respect to Heterogloss, it involves in multiple voices including

Contract and Expand In Contract, the speaker usually engages his own

opinion with other people’s views In Expand, the speaker presents currentproposition which is one view among a possible range of views By the sametoken, it opens space as well as engages more speakers to the conversation

“Follain punctures the romantic myth that the mafia started as Robin Hoodstyle groups of men protecting the poor He shows that the mafia began in the 19th century as armed bands protecting the interests of the absentee landlords who owned most of Sicily He also demonstrates how the mafia has forged links with Italy’s ruling Christian Democrat party since the war.” [Cobuild Bank of English]

(Martin & White, 2005, p.102)

In the above example of Contract, the authorial voice presents the

proposition through the reporting verbs “shows” and “demonstrates” and

aligns itself with the external voice Therefore, they close down the space forany dialogic alternatives

“Tickner said regardless of the result, the royal commission was a waste

of money and he would proceed with a separate inquiry into the issue headed by Justice Jane Matthews His attack came as the Aboriginal women involved in the case demanded a female minister examine the religious beliefs they claim are inherent in their fight against a bridge to the island near Goolwa in South Australia.” [Cobuild Bank of English]

(Martin & White, 2005, p.102)

In the above example of Expand, the verb “claim” distances the textual

voice and the proposition, so it invites other dialogic alternatives to thedialogic space

Contract includes disclaim (deny and counter) and proclaim (concur, pronounce and endorse) Expand consists of entertain (internal voice of speaker) and attribute (external sources) In Figure 2.3, the Heterogloss

system is generally presented as following

Figure 2.3 The Heterogloss system (Martin & White, 2005, p.134)

Table 2.2 will describe each sub-type of Heterogloss in details with the hope of giving insights into this genre

Table 2.2 Types of Heterogloss (adapted from Martin & White, 2005, p.97-98)

Types of Heterogloss

Disclaim means that About proclaim, “by Entertain refers to the Attribute is

“the textual voice representing the explicit presentation demonstrated by

positions itself as at proposition as highly about “the proposition “representing

odds with, or warrantable (compelling, as grounded in its own proposition as

rejecting, some valid, plausible, well- contingent, individual grounded in the

contrary position” founded, generally subjectivity, the subjectivity of an

agreed, reliable, etc.), the authorial voice external voice, the textual voice sets itself represents the textual voice against, suppresses or proposition as but one represents the rules out alternative of a range of possible proposition as but one positions” positions” of a range of possible

positions”

-You don’t need to - naturally…, of course -it seems, the evidence - X said , X believes …,

give up potatoes to …, obviously suggests, apparently, I according to X, in X’s lose weight …,admittedly…etc.; some hear -perhaps, view (acknowledge)

(deny – negation) types of ‘rhetorical’ or probably, maybe, it’s - X claims that, it’s

- Although he ate ‘leading’ question possible, some types of rumoured that…

potatoes most days he (concur) ‘rhetorical’ or (distance)

still lost weight -I contend …, the truth of ‘expository’ question.

(counter- concession) the matter is …, there can

be no doubt that … etc.

(pronounce) -X has demonstrated that

…; As X has shown

…etc.(endorse)

2.1.2 Attitude

“Attitude is concerned with our feelings, including emotional reaction,

judgements of behaviour and evaluation of things” (Martin & White, 2005,

p.35) This system is composed of three kinds: Affect, Judgement and Appreciation.

2.1.2.1 Affect

Affect is involved in “registering positive and negative feelings: do we

feel happy or sad, confident or anxious, interested or bored?” (Martin &

White, 2005, p.42) Generally, Affect deals with resources for construingemotional reactions as in the following example about feeling of shock inrelation to the events of 9/11:

“The terrible events of the past week have left us with feelings – in order

of occurrence – of horror, worry, anger, and now, just a general gloom.” (Mourning 2001)

(Martin & White, 2005, p.35)

Affect is divided into two sub-types, including Authorial Affect

(author’s own emotions) and Observed Affect or Non-authorial Affect (the

characters’ emotions in the text) Attitude resources in general and Affect

values in particular are either positive (+) such as “the captain was happy” (Martin & White, 2005, p.47) or negative (-) such as “the captain was sad”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.47)

Under Affect, it is concerned with positive and negative emotionalresponses and dispositions According to Peter (2014), it can be indicated by

 verbs of emotion (Mental Processes) such as to love/to hate, to

frighten/to reassure, to interest/to bore, to enrage/to placate …

 adverbs (typically Circumstances of Manner) such as happily/sadly …

 adjectives of emotion such as happy/sad, worried/confident,

angry/pleased, keen/uninterested …

 nominalisation such as joy/despair, confidence/insecurity …

The emotional values of Affect are grouped into three main sets which

are un/happiness, in/security and dis/satisfaction.

The un/happiness set of meanings is related to “affairs of the heart” (Martin & White, 2005, p.49) such as sadness, hate, happiness and love.

Obviously, they are typical emotions whenever we think about Affect values

For instance, “the captain felt sad/happy” (Martin & White, 2005, p.49) In

addition, this un/happiness set of meanings also involves the possibility of

directing these feelings at a “Trigger” by liking or disliking it.

The in/security set of meanings is identified with “ecosocial

well-being” feelings (Martin & White, 2005, p.49) such as anxiety, fear,

confidence and trust For example, “the captain felt anxious/confident”(Martin & White, 2005, p.49) This sentence shows the mood ofanxiety/confidence

The dis/satisfaction set of meanings covers emotions with “the pursuit

of goals” (Martin & White, 2005, p.49) – ennui, displeasure, curiosity, and respect For instance, “the captain felt fed up/absorbed” (Martin & White,

2005, p.49) This sentence indicates the mood of displeasure

2.1.2.2 Judgement

Judgement deals with “attitudes towards behaviour, which we admire

or criticise, praise or condemn” (Martin & White, 2005, p.42) Generally, this

concept concerns with positive or negative judgement of human behaviour

and their character Judgement has two broad categories: Social Esteem and Social Sanction.

Social Esteem assesses people conduct from the perspectives of socialethics and the standard of appropriateness In the opinion of Martin and White

(2005), Social Esteem has to handle with Judgement of Normality (how

unusual someone is), Judgement of Capacity (how capable someone is) and

Judgement of Tenacity (how resolute someone is).

Items of Judgement of Normality are lucky, fortunate, charmed …;

unlucky, hapless, star-crossed …; normal, natural, familiar …; odd, peculiar, eccentric …; celebrated, unsung …; obscure, also-ran … (Martin & White,

2005, p.53) Some typical examples of this group are as follows.

- “She’s a real one-off [+], there’s no one who can learn a

language as quickly as she does.”

- “He’s a real weirdo [-] – he eats hamburgers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

(Peter, 2014, p.18)

Items of Judgement of Capacity are powerful, vigorous, robust …;

mild, weak, whimpy …; sound, healthy, fit …; unsound, sick, crippled …; adult, mature, experienced …; immature, childish, helpless … (Martin &

White, 2005, p.53) Following are some illustrating examples

- “She’s an absolute genius [+] when it comes to learning

languages.”

- “I’m afraid I’m completely incompetent [-] when it comes to mechanical things.”

(Peter, 2014, p.18)

Items of Judgement of Tenacity are plucky, brave, heroic …; timid,

cowardly, gutless …; cautious, wary, patient …; rash, impatient, impetuous

…; careful, thorough, meticulous hasty, capricious, reckless … (Martin &

White, 2005, p.53) There are some examples of this type as following

rules It is composed of two kinds, namely Judgement of Veracity and Judgement of Propriety Table 2.3 will illustrate more about them.

Table 2.3 Judgement - Social sanction (Martin & White, 2005, p.53)

Social Sanction

Positive [praise] Negative [condemn]

‘mortal’

veracity [truth] truthful, honest, credible …; dishonest, deceitful, lying …;

‘how honest?’ frank, candid, direct … deceptive, manipulative, devious …;

discrete, tactful…; blunt, blabbermouth …

propriety [ethics] good, moral, ethical …; bad, immoral, evil …;

‘how far beyond law abiding, fair, just …; corrupt, unfair, unjust …;

reproach?’ sensitive, kind, caring …; insensitive, mean, cruel …;

unassuming, modest, humble …; vain, snobby, arrogant …;

polite, respectful, reverent …; rude, discourteous, irreverent …; altruistic, generous, charitable… selfish, greedy, avaricious …

2.1.2.3 Appreciation

“Appreciation looks at resources for construing the value of things, including natural phenomena and semiosis (as either product or process)”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.36) It is separated into 3 sub-types: Reaction

(emotional impact of something on the reader or listener), Composition (the

texture of something) and Valuation (social value of something) The below

table is giving more details about Appreciation sub-categories

Table 2.4 The Sub-categories of Appreciation (Martin & White, 2005, p.56)

Reaction: arresting, captivating, engaging dull, boring, tedious …;

impact ‘did it fascinating, exciting, moving …; dry, ascetic, uninviting …;

remarkable, notable, sensational unremarkable, pedestrian …

quality ‘did I lovely, beautiful, splendid …; plain, ugly, grotesque …;

like it?’ appealing, enchanting, welcome repulsive, revolting, off-putting … Composition: balanced, harmonious, unified, unbalanced, discordant, irregular, balance ‘did it symmetrical, proportioned …; uneven, flawed …;

Graduation is defined as the one “attends to grading phenomena

whereby feelings are amplified and categories blurred” (Martin & White,

2005, p.35) Similarly, Becker (2007) also agreed that Graduation is

formulations by which speakers graduate (raise or lower) the interpersonalimpact, Force or volume of their utterances, and by which they graduate (blur

or sharpen) the focus of their semantic categorization It includes two types,

namely Force and Focus.

2.1.3.1 Force

Martin and White (2005) claim that Force covers assessments as to

degree of intensity and as to amount It is in the form of Intensification and Quantification.

With regard to Intensification, it assesses the degree of intensity

through the scaling of qualities or processes It is realized via Isolating

(up-scaling/down-scaling), Infusing or Repetition (Martin & White, 2005).

The Isolating realizations are illustrated by the up/down-scaling ofqualities, verbal processes or modalities; comparatives and superlatives.Following are some illustrating examples

-Up/down-scaling of qualities - [pre-modification of an adjective]

“a bit miserable, somewhat miserable, relatively miserable, fairly miserable, rather miserable, very miserable, extremely miserable, utterly miserable”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.141)-Up/down-scaling of modalities

“ just possible, somewhat possible, quite possible, very possible” “reasonably often, quite often, very often, extremely often”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.142)-Comparatives and superlatives

-“less miserable, least miserable, more miserable, most miserable”

-“more probable, most probable”

- “happier, happiest” (Martin & White, 2005, p.142) In reference

to Infused Intensification, separate lexical form conveying

the sense of up-scaling or down-scaling cannot be obtained “Rather the

scaling is conveyed as but one aspect of the meaning of a single term” (Martin

& White, 2005, p.143) The following illustrations characterize different modes of Infused Intensification

-Quality: “(she performed) competently, skillfully, brilliantly.” -Process: “The clouds drifted across the sky The clouds raced across the sky.”

-Modality: “possible, probable, certain; rarely, occasionally, sometimes, often, always”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.144)

In the above examples, the Infusion of Quality describes the girl’sexcellent performance with increasing degree by using various adverbs In theInfusion of Process, the two sentences describe the move of the clouds by

using “drifted” (move slowly) or “raced” (move fast) to depict the movement

in a more concrete way The Infusion of Modality includes adjectivesshowing possibility and the adverbs of frequency

In respect of Repetition, it is realized as a mode of Intensification which

is in two primary forms: “the repeating of the same lexical item” or “the

assembling of lists of terms which are closely related semantically” (Martin &

White, 2005, p.144) To illustrate, some examples are presented as following

“It’s hot hot hot.”

“We laughed and laughed and laughed ”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.144)

The above examples are the typical realization of repeating lexical item

“hot” and “laughed” Otherwise, the following example is the typical

realization of repeating the assembling of lists of adjectives which aresemantically related

“In fact it was probably the most immature, irresponsible, disgraceful and misleading address ever given by a British Prime Minister.”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.144)The realization may be either figurative or non-figurative as in thebelow illustrations

"crystal clear”

“prices sky-rocketed”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.148)

In a figurative sense, the word “crystal” describes a completely clear and bright status and “skyrocketed” describes the commercial situation in

which price rockets up at the highest value By contrast, the below exampleexemplifies Intensification with no referential meanings, but they seem toconvey attitudinal overtone

“very clear , greatly reduced, moved rapidly”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.148)Being the second type of Force, the term Quantification involves

“scaling with respect to amount (eg size, weight, strength, number),

and with respect to extent, with extent covering scope in time and space (ie how widely distributed, how long lasting) and proximity in time and space (ie how near, how recent).”

(Martin & White, 2005, p148-149)

It is complicated to clarify the semantics of this sub-system due to the

quantified entity which may be either concrete (e.g large shark, many sharks,

nearby sharks) (Martin & White, 2005, p.149) or abstract (e.g a large problem, many problems; a few anxieties, a slight fear; a great success, her many betrayals) (Martin & White, 2005, p.149) Regarding the abstract

entities, they normally convey attitudinal meanings A system network fordifferent modes of Quantification is provided in Figure 2.4

Figure 2.4 Force: Quantification (Martin & White, 2005, p.151)

Quantification is realized via “an isolated term acting as a modifier of

the graduated entity” (Martin & White, 2005, p.151).

To make the discussion clear, some examples of Quantification arepresented below

-Isolation: “many, large, heavy, near, recent, long-lasting…” -Infusion: “The trickle of enquiries rapidly became a stream.”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.151)

In the above example, the Isolation - mofifier describes the graduated

entities through the words “many”, “large” … while the Infusion estimates the quantity of graduated entities through the nouns “trickle” and “stream”

themselves

2.1.3.2 Focus

Force values in most cases are gradable, but it is not in the case ofFocus With reference to Focus, it deals with class membership and points outhow strong or weak that membership is (to our mind) The followingGraduation network will demonstrate its organization

Figure 2.5 A preliminary outline of Graduation (Martin & White, 2005, p.138)

The above outline has shown that “sharpen” (up-scale) and “soften”

(down-scale) are the two elements under Focus In the following example of

sharpen, the prototypicality is indicated at upper scaling

“a real father, a true friend”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.138)

On the other hand, it is possible to down scale in the next example ofsoften, the specification so as to characterise an instance as having onlymarginal membership in the category

“they sort of play jazz, they are kind of crazy, it was an apology

of sorts”

(Martin & White, 2005, p.138)

2.2 Previous relevant studies

2.2.1 Studies on conversations applying different approaches

It is worth noting that the film language is basically realized in the form

of conversations, so the investigation of film language, itself, is a study ofconversation dialogues For that reason, the review of previous relevantstudies is going to be limited to the relevant studies on conversations

The concept of conversation may refer to different communicativesituations It involves interactive, communicative exchanges between twopeople or a group of people Through conversations, people exchangeinformation, build up relationships and attain different goals Therefore, asmentioned above, there are a range of scholars analyzing the conversationapplying different approaches such as Pragmatics, Applied Linguistics,Discourse Analysis …

With regard to Pragmatics, Janice, Brian, and Mayhew (1977)investigate Pragmatics in memory through natural and purposefulcommunication The pragmatic information, which is referred to theinteractional content of an utterance, includes the speaker's intentions, beliefs,and attitude toward the listener The control studies on memory indicate thatthere is a difference in memory for high and low interactional contentstatements because of the differences in the textual properties of the sentences

or the reconstruction based on knowledge of the speaker's stylistic habits.Another study to be mentioned here is the study conducted by Brasdefe(2006) to provide pedagogical advice in teaching students through the

enhance of the teaching of Pragmatics in various discourses of conversations.The findings broaden our understanding of second language Pragmatics andconfirm that the use of pragmalinguistic resources is essential to produce andcomprehend speech acts in conversations In addition, Nguyễn Thùy Gia Ly

(2014) conducts an investigation into conceptual metaphors used in "Gone

with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and its Vietnamese translational version

of “Cuốn Theo Chiều Gió” by Vũ Kim Thư The author wants to study how conceptual metaphors in “Gone with the Wind” are translated into Vietnamese

translational version and then makes a comparison of metaphors betweenthem From the findings, the popularity of conceptual metaphors used in thedata seems to dominate the application of some expressions of metaphors intranslating the conversations, and then, affects the translational efficiency inthe conversations

With reference to Applied Linguistics, Wong (2002) explores Englishtelephone dialogues as a second language textbooks against the backdrop ofwhat is reported about real telephone interaction in conversation analysisresearch The results lead us to the conclusion that there is a notabledifference in what conversation analysts say about natural telephoneconversation and the examples found in the data of eight textbooks.Specifically, the textbook dialogues rarely include summon answer,identification, greeting, and how-are-you sequences That difference,therefore, shows the tension between linguistic competence and linguisticperformance Moreover, Michael (1983) carries out a linguistic study onnative speaker/non-native speaker conversation Then, it is found thatmodifications of the interactional structure of conversation are more important

in the speech modifications of native speakers The researcher

It is obvious that a large amount of studies are carried out onconversation in different discourses They are related to various fields oflinguistics and serve with practical purposes All of the findings in thesestudies, to some extent, have revealed certain features of conversations.

2.2.2 Studies on different genres using Appraisal Theory

In the light of Appraisal Theory, a productive theoretical framework, alot of scientific investigations have been conducted in different discourses likeEnglish literary works, news discourse, academic and narrative discourse

In respect of English literary works, Shuhong and Yali (2006) utilizeAppraisal resources at word, clause, and discourse level to clarify the power

relation between the characters in “Blackmail” from “Hotel” In another study, Xia and Li (2011) analyze the Attitude resources in “Pride and

Prejudice” and after that they consider the attitudes of the main

character-Elizabeth Those two studies come to the conclusion that Attitude resources

seem to be essential elements to express emotional feelings and developcharacters’ personalities Similarly, in translation field, Khrisna and Dyah

(2016) make an Appraisal Analysis on the main character of the novel “The

Old Man and the Sea” (Santiago) and its three Indonesian-translated versions.

This framework is employed as an approach to evaluate Santiago’s physicalappearance (Appreciation), emotional feelings (Affect), and personality(Judgement) In almost the same way, Nuraisiah et al (2018) examine

Attitudes toward sexism in “Gone Girl” novel to disclose the unequal

evaluation of applying Attitude resources toward male and female, whichportrays writer’s sexist point of view The research reveals how speaker/writernegotiates his/her social relationship in sexism From the two studies above,the noticeable role of Attitude resources has been exploited to portraycharacters’ appearances, emotions and personalities as well as expose thewriter’s viewpoint of certain social issues

In addition, a variety of studies have used Appraisal Theory for newsdiscourse analysis For instance, Shizhu and Jinlong (2004) conduct aresearch which chiefly analyzes the three systems of Appraisal Theory innews discourse and their dominant features This study has also proposed

“evaluative reading”- a new method of reading news at that time.

Additionally, Zhang and Liu (2015) explore the distribution of Appraisalresources in 32 news coverage from New York Times and China Daily(English version) under the guidance of Engagement system to analyze theconveyance of ideology maintained by news reports The final results showthat similar distributions of Engagement resources in the news reports areadopted when engaged in an ideological attitude In another study, Sabao(2016) carries out a research about arguments for an Appraisal linguistic

discourse approach to the analysis of “objectivity” in “hard” news reports.

The data comparatively analyze two news reports on the death of retiredGeneral, Solomon Mujuru in two Zimbabwean newspapers The conclusionsindicate the importance of Appraisal Theory in providing logical explanationabout the way(s) in which language interprets Attitude, and allowing thereporters to place themselves evaluatively with the viewpoints of otherspeakers In addition, Hien (2016) examines the interpersonal function inEnglish press commentaries from functional grammar and evaluation theory.The results of the study emphasize the importance of Appraisal Theory indiscovering layers of sentiments such as the appraisers and objects ofappraisal, the Attitudes and the ways of engaging in the different sentimentexpression

Besides, a large number of studies involving the application ofAppraisal Theory are also found in the field of academic discourse (Liu,2010) and Hood (2004) try to apply Appraisal Theory into teaching process in

an attempt to get better results for students of English In line with that study,

a practical application of Appraisal Theory on critical reading in collegeEnglish teaching is done by Ruomei (2016) to realize the critical Judgmentand identification to author’s value Affect Furthermore, Pascual and Unger(2010) conduct a research about Appraisal in research genres The findings ofthe study show that most proposals are highly Heteroglossic, and theEngagement resources are mainly utilized which means that the authors tend

to engage instead of challenging their colleagues’ views

With reference to narrative discourse, Horarik (2003) considers the role

of Appraisal systems in narrative discourse from the point of view ofwriter/reader relations The analysis concentrates on considering thecontribution of Appraisal resources, their trends, co-patterning andtransformation to the production of a text axiology What’s more, the work on

Attitude also unpacks the meaning of reader positioning in a certain text type.Shiro (2003) examines Venezuelan children's developing abilities to useevaluative language in fictional and personal narratives with the detailed

question “How does the use of evaluative language vary in fictional and

personal narratives?” For this study, 444 personal and fictional stories are

elicited in semistructured interviews in 6 different schools with 113monolingual native speakers of Venezuelan Spanish between the ages of 6and 11 Then, the findings assert that both age and socio-economic statuscreate huge impacts on the use of evaluative language in fictional stories than

in personal narratives A similar study uses the Appraisal framework toanalyze the attitudinal evaluation offered by women and men when narratingexperiences about childbirth In the line with narrative, Ruth (2003)investigates childbirth narratives with special consideration of gender andstorytelling style The stories analyzed in this study are a set of 23 oralnarratives that were elicited in an informal interview situation Key findingsindicate that the relative proportion of Affect and Appreciation found in thenarratives of the women and men exposes subtly differing story-telling styles.Through the expression of Judgement, the writer also emphasizes the vitalrole of gender in understanding the speakers’ self characterization

Apart from the above studies, Ngan (2017) clarifies the evaluativelanguage in English advertising slogans, and the study realizes that thefrequencies of occurrence of the evaluative values are unequal and different inevery sub-type However, they cooperate tightly to contribute the success of

an English advertising slogan From a social semiotic perspective, Chen(2010) examines how multimodal resources in EFL textbooks are deployed toenable dialogic Engagement with readers The researcher bases on theAppraisal systems of Engagement and Graduation to show the functions of

From the above previous studies related to the language ofconversations from different perspectives and the application of AppraisalTheory in certain areas, it can be seen that the exploration of evaluative values

in film language is still uncommon The functions of those values construct tothose art works, therefore, are neglected There are still rooms for this paper

to closely follow the previous ones of the same area to give insights into thisgap

In summary, a detailed discussion about the framework of AppraisalTheory by Martin and White (2005) is presented in this chapter In addition,the remaining parts of the chapter present a general review about the relevantprevious studies related to the topic of this study

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In Chapter 3, there is a detailed presentation about research procedure,description of data and data analysis Besides, the research methods applied toilluminate the research questions are also mentioned in this chapter

3.1 Research methods

In order to analyze the values of evaluation in the language of the film

“Gone with the Wind”, this study was conducted with both quantitative andqualitative methods in which the quantitative method helped to find out thefrequencies of occurrence of evaluative values in the film transcript Thesequantitative data answered the question of how frequently each value is used

The qualitative method was utilized to describe fundamental features ofvalues of evaluation in the film through analyzing the examples and theresults were later put in a discussion to reveal their functions in the film

3.2 Procedure

The procedure of the study included the following steps At first,through reviewing relevant previous studies, the gap for investigation wasfound out The theoretical framework of Appraisal Theory for analyzing thedata was chosen Next, the film transcript “Gone with the Wind” wascollected from the website After that, the film transcript was analyzed intosub-types of Attitude, Engagement and Graduation and then they weresynthesized into frequencies of occurrence At last, the final results weredisplayed in tables or charts, and the findings were discussed with

3.4 Data analysis

The film transcript, which is about 8,500 words, was analyzed in thelight of the Appraisal Theory, so the sub-types of Attitude, Engagement andGraduation were firstly taken into account and identified

After that, the frequencies of occurrence of those evaluative resourceswere quantitatively and respectively converted into percentage in the form oftables and charts

Next, the data was discussed with examples for illustration andexplanation There was a comparison of the distribution of Attitude,Engagement and Appreciation in the film so that their functions were laterdrawn out in details

3.5 Validity and Reliability

Appraisal Theory by Martin and White (2005) was chosen as thefundamental framework for this study Moreover, the data was also carefullyselected based on the gaps for investigation and then analyzed in details Fromthat, the findings and discussions drawn out from the data analysis were

made to be reliable and specific by statistics from tables or charts andexamples for illustrations.

In summary, this chapter presents the research methods employed inthe study together with data collection, data analysis and research procedures,thus helps to clarify the findings and discussions in Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter represents the data analysis and a discussion of theresearch findings which are related to the research questions The data wereanalyzed to identify the Engagement, Attitude and Graduation before theywere synthesized and then put into percentage After that they were presented

in tables or charts in order to reveal the similarities and differences in thechoice of the language evaluation, and finally there was a discussion about thefunction of Engagement, Attitude and Graduation in the data

4.1 Engagement, Attitude and Graduation in “Gone with the Wind” film subtitle

The analysis of the first part in “Gone with the Wind” film subtitlereveals that there are three types of Appraisal values being employed,including Engagement, Attitude and Graduation resources, with 1767instances in total data Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1 below will provide numericaldata on their frequency of occurrence

Table 4.1 Types of Appraisal values in the data

No. Appraisal types Frequency of occurrence Percentage

EngagementAttitude

56.42%

Figure 4.1 Distribution of Engagement, Attitude and Graduation in the data

Figure 4.1 delineates the distribution of Engagement, Attitude andGraduation in “Gone with the Wind” film subtitle At the first glance, thedistribution of these values is not balanced The striking feature which trulystands out is the overwhelming dominance of Engagement Specifically,Engagement makes up the backbone of the pie with 56.42% Engagementaccounts for more than a half of the total evaluative resources which meansthat these values have been widespread in the film subtitle Then, Attituderesources, which constitute 28.92%, are about twice as popular as Graduationresources, which are 14.66% It is worth noticing that Graduation is at thelowest proportion of the total evaluative resources In comparison withEngagement, Graduation is nearly four times smaller (54.62% and 14.66%respectively)