文档介绍：Abstract

Appraisal Theory, as a complement and extension of the interpersonal function in
SFG, is developed by a group of researchers led by James R. Martin in 1990s.
According to Martin and Rose (2003:22), the appraisal resources are used for
“negotiating our social relationships, by telling our listeners or readers how we feel
about things and people (in a word, what our attitudes are)”. The appraisal system
explains the way speakers\writers give judgements to people, people’s utterances,
material objects, affairs and states of affairs, and explores the way that relevant
attitudes, evaluations and emotions are explicitly or implicitly presented in texts. This
system consists of three subsystems: Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. In this
thesis, the Attitude System is adopted to analyze the ironic art in Mark Twain’s
novella.
American best-known writer, novelist, humorist, as well as an outstanding
representative of American critical realism, has been lauded as “the father of
American literature”. Mark Twain and his works have gained worldwide attention and
been analyzed from different angles, among which irony and satire are always
hotspots. The novella The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, as Mark Twain’s classic
and most famous middle-length novel, best expresses the ironic effect and has been
increasingly favored by many scholars, since it was written in the second period of
Mark Twain’s creation witnessing his writing style changing from light humor to
harsh satire. The framework of Attitude System in Appraisal Theory is adopted for the
analysis of the ironic art embedded in this novella is interpreted.
In order to reach this purpose, three topics are studied: irony to ugliness of
human nature (especially the bourgeoisie), irony to money worship and irony to
racism. Correspondently, three case studies are made, including the attitude resources
in Mr. Richards’ utterances, those refe