AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LANGUAGE OF APPRECIATION IN LITERATURE REVIEW OF THESES ON LANGUAGE STUDIES IN ENGLISH

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the use of Appreciation through using linguistic expressions to show the writers/ authors’ appreciative viewpoint in Literature review of theses written in English in the light of Appraisal theory. The study focuses on Appreciation, one of the three subsystems of Attitude within the Appraisal framework. The descriptive quantitative and qualitative study was conducted based on a descriptive framework of functional grammar and appraisal theory. The data were extracted from literature review of master theses, written in English, in terms of linguistics and English language on websites. 170 English samples showing the authors/ writers’ viewpoint about prior studies such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, clauses and sentences were collected from the literature review of master theses. The sampling was done with random manner so that every sample has the equal opportunity to occur in the data. The data were chosen, analyzed and classified into two different categories in terms of syntactic and semantic features of Appreciation in the review of literature. Syntactically, appreciation was examined in view of clause as message and nominal groups in the light of functional grammar. Semantically, appreciation was analyzed in terms of appraisal theory. Based on the result of data analysis, some implications and suggestions comprehending and using appreciation in showing writer’s appreciative viewpoint were given to Vietnamese learners of English language and those who are interested in the Appraisal of literature review in theses.