A Discourse Analysis of Attitude Resources in Two Political Eulogies: A Comparative Study
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"GLOBAL RESEARCH NETWORK" LLC
Abstract
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This study aims at investigating the evaluative strategies used by eulogists to reveal their feelings, judgements and appreciations. It also aims at specifying the most dominant attitudinal subsystem and the reason of its dominance. Furthermore, the study takes into account the orientation of feelings, judgements and appreciations towards deducting whether they are direct or indirect, positive or negative. In this respect, two samples of political eulogies have been chosen for the analysis which are; first, Charles Spencer’s eulogy of Princess Diana, and second, Barrack Obama’s eulogy of John McCain. Results crop to prove that the two eulogies have similar and different indications and ways of expressing the feelings. The adjectives are appropriately used to describe and/or evaluate the deceased, his situations and attributes and finally gender and relationship differences between the eulogist and the eulogized play a fundamental role in expressing the feelings, judgments and appreciations. The study comprises two parts: a theoretical background to discuss the concept of discourse, discourse analysis, eulogy and the chosen model, Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory, and a practical part which involves the analysis of attitude resources detected in the selected texts.
Keywords
Discourse, Discourse Analysis, Eulogy and Appraisal Theory