Author(s)

Zuo Yayu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of English Studies, Xi'an International Studies University, Xi'an, 710128, China

Corresponding Author

Zuo Yayu

ABSTRACT

United Nations speeches are a form of institutional public discourse that requires speakers to negotiate stance and values with a global audience. Based on Appraisal Theory, this study conducts an attitudinal analysis of Emma Watson's speech delivered at the United Nations, aiming to examine how evaluative meanings are constructed and function discursively. Using the full text of the speech as data, a combined quantitative and qualitative approach is adopted to identify and classify attitudinal resources into affect, judgment, and appreciation. The results indicate that appreciation resources are most frequently used, mainly to evaluate abstract social values and ideological concepts related to gender equality. Judgment resources serve to construct moral responsibility and ethical positioning, while affect resources, though less frequent, contribute to emotional engagement and audience identification. The study shows that the strategic use of attitudinal resources enables the speaker to balance emotional appeal, moral legitimacy, and value alignment in an international institutional context, demonstrating the applicability of Appraisal Theory to speech discourse analysis.

KEYWORDS

Appraisal theory; attitudinal analysis; United Nations speech; discourse analysis; Emma Watson

CITE THIS PAPER

Zuo Yayu, An Attitudinal Analysis of Emma Watson's United Nations Speech from the Perspective of Appraisal Theory. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2026) Vol. 9: 1-8. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2026.090101.

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