The Appraisal of Eulogies Delivered at Mrs. Lee Kuan Yew Memorial Service

Djoko Sutopo,Inayatul Maula,Sri Wuli Fitriati

doi:10.15294/eej.v8i4.25506

Abstract

The study reports the appraisal analysis and the rhetorical structure of eulogies delivered at Mrs. Lee Kuan Yew memorial service. Eulogies are meant to remember the person who died in a positive light, and offer an opportunity to speak about who the deceased was and the ways in which she or he made a difference in the lives of family, friends, and his or her community. Since eulogy contains praises for someone admired, and the speaker recalls the memories shared, he has to evaluate his feelings and relation by expressing attitude, his position towards the deceased, and gradable valuation. Such evaluation has to do with appraisal system. The research integrates the appraisal theory proposed by Martin and White (2005) and rhetorical structure (Kunkel and Dennis, 2003). This study employs discourse analysis method of research. The findings reveals that the eulogies have primarily used the judgement resources rather than affect and appreciation within the attitude system. As eulogizing function, the eulogy composed largely of laudation and praise, the use of judgement appraising items shows how the eulogizerâ€™s assessment towards the admiring behaviour of the deceased during her life. Moreover, the utilization of the rhetorical structure contributes to the achievement of the communicative purpose of eulogy. Through the well-structured eulogies, the eulogizers heighten the audience memberâ€™s feelings of regard, love, and appreciation for the deceased.

Highlights

Listening is one of the skills that need to be mastered by university students
The lesson plan is for every meeting: I prepare the materials before teaching; usually I take the materials from the book, the course guide book or sometimes from the Internet
It was found that this lecturer, who taught listening, made preparations for the whole course and selected all the materials to be used in the teaching processes

Summary

Introduction

Listening is one of the skills that need to be mastered by university students. The ability to listen and understand a person talking in English to communicate with other people is important. Students who are good at listening will understand more of what the speaker says. Morley (1991, p.82 in Celce-Murcia, n.d.) states that “they expect to listen twice as much as they speak, four times more than they read, and five times more than they write”. Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. 2) argues that “it has been estimated that adults spend almost half of their communication time listening. Students may receive as much as 90% of their information through listening to instructors and to one another”. Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. Listening must be done in real time. There is no second chance, unless, the listeners ask for repetition when they listen to speakers

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