AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES IN ENGLISH LOVE SHORT STORIES

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

PHITSAKHONE TANSAVATH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDINAL

RESOURCES IN ENGLISH LOVE SHORT STORIES

Field: English Language

Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Võ Duy Đức, Ph.D

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

PHITSAKHONE TANSAVATH

NGHIÊN CỨU NGHĨA THÁI ĐỘ TRONG CHUYỆN

NGẮN TÌNH YÊU TRONG TIẾNG ANH

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: Võ Duy Đức, Ph.D

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where reference is made in the text of the research paper, this

thesis “ An Investigation into Attitudinal Resources in English love short

stories” contain no material published elsewhere or extracted in the whole, or

in part from paper by which I have qualified for or been award another degree

or diploma.

Moreover, no one’s work has been used without acknowledgement in

the paper.

This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or

diploma in any other territory institution.

Binh Dinh, June 2019

Phitsakhone TANSAVATH

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many who deserve recognition here for their contributions to

this work.

First, I would like to acknowledge my deep indebtedness to my

supervisor, Doctor Võ Duy Đức for his enthusiastic guidance and valuable

suggestions. Without his immense help, I would never have completed my

thesis.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of my professors at Quy

Nhon University for their useful lectures that provided a solid foundation for

me to carry out the study.

Lastly, I am deeply grateful to my friends who gave me great

encouragement and interesting discussions as well as all of the member of my

family for their love, understanding and support.

iii

ABSTRACT

The study aims to examine attitudinal resources used in English love

short stories. Appraisal Theory developed by Martin and White (2005) was

employed as a framework to analyze thirty English love short stories. The data

was mainly collected from Chobir Dokan and Success of Life, which are blogs

about love, friendship, and life. The combination of quantitative and

qualitative methods was applied for the data analysis. The findings show that

Affect resources are used the most in the stories, followed by Judgment and

finally Appreciation. The findings also show that implicit judgment on human

behavior depicted in the English love short story occurs more frequently than

explicit one. The study makes some theoretical and practical contribution to

language learning, teaching and translating practices.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................. i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................ ii

ABSTRACT................................................................................................. III

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................... VI

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................VII

LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................VIII

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................ 1

1.1. RATIONALE.......................................................................................... 1

1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ..................................................................... 2

1.2.1. Aims............................................................................................... 2

1.2.2. Objectives ...................................................................................... 2

1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..................................................................... 3

1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY........................................................................ 3

1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY......................................................... 3

1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ...................................................... 3

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................... 5

2.1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND......................................................... 5

2.1.1. Systemic Functional Linguistics..................................................... 5

2.1.2. Appraisal Theory............................................................................ 6

2.1.3. Attitude .......................................................................................... 7

2.1.3.1. Affect ...................................................................................... 7

2.1.3.2. Judgment .............................................................................. 10

2.1.3.3 Appreciation ........................................................................... 13

2.1.4. Engagement.................................................................................. 15

2.1.5. Graduation.................................................................................... 16

2.2. PREVIOUS STUDIES .......................................................................... 18

2.3. SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 20

CHAPTER 3. METHODS AND PROCEDURES .................................... 21

v

3.1. RESEARCH METHODS ...................................................................... 21

3.2. DESCRIPTION OF DATA ................................................................... 21

3.3. DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 22

3.4. RESEARCH PROCEDURES................................................................ 22

3.5. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY......................................................... 23

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION........................................ 24

4.1. GENERAL FEATURES OF ARS IN ENGLISH LOVE SHORT

STORIES (ELSSS) .............................................................................. 24

4.2. ARS OF AFFECT ................................................................................. 25

4.2.1. Dis/Inclination.............................................................................. 26

4.2.2. Un/Happiness............................................................................... 29

4.2.3. In/Security.................................................................................... 33

4.2.4. Dis/Satisfaction ............................................................................ 35

4.3. ARS OF JUDGMENT........................................................................... 36

4.3.1. Social Esteem............................................................................... 37

4.3.2. Social Sanction............................................................................. 41

4.4. ARS OF APPRECIATION.................................................................... 44

4.4.1. Reaction ....................................................................................... 45

4.4.2. Composition ................................................................................. 49

4.4.3. Valuation...................................................................................... 51

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS......................... 54

5.1. CONCLUSIONS................................................................................... 54

5.2. IMPLICATIONS................................................................................... 55

5.3. LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................... 56

5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ................................... 56

REFERENCES........................................................................................... 58

APPENDIX................................................................................................. 60