Comparative Analysis of Ecological Discourse From the Perspective of Appraisal Theory: The Ponds and The Pond in Winter in Walden

Abstract

This paper intends to use UAM Corpus Tool 6.2 corpus annotation software to conduct a comparative ecological discourse analysis of the selections of the ecological literary work Walden - The Ponds and The Pond in Winter from the perspective of the attitude system of appraisal theory, aiming to reveal Thoreau’s attitude towards ecological environment and to prove the practicality of appraisal theory in the ecological discourse analysis of the literary work, and at the same time, to broaden the research for the ecological discourse analysis. It was found that the number of appreciative resources in The Ponds (412) was much greater than the number of judgement (61) and affect (39) resources and that the number of positive eco-discourses (270) and neutral/ambiguous eco-discourses (179) was also much greater than the number of negative discourses (63). The number of appraisal resources (185) in The Pond in Winter is much larger than that of judgement resources (50) and emotion resources (35), and the number of positive ecological discourses (270) and neutral/ambiguous ecological discourses (179) is much larger than that of negative ecological discourses (63), and positive ecological discourse (172) is much larger than neutral/ambiguous ecological discourse (65) and negative discourse (33). This reflects Thoreau’s ecological orientation of loving nature, respecting nature, opposing excessive destruction of nature by human beings, and advocating calling on human beings to protect nature.