Appraisal (discourse analysis)

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In Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), appraisal refers to the ways that writers or speakers express approval or disapproval for things, people, behaviour or ideas. [1] Language users build relationships with their interlocutors by expressing, such positions. In other approaches in linguistics (including linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics), alternative terms such as evaluation, [2] [3] or stance [4] [5] are preferred.

J.R. Martin and P.R.R. White's approach to appraisal regionalised the concept into three interacting domains: 'attitude', 'engagement' and 'graduation'. [1] Each of these has various sub-systems; for example, 'attitude' includes 'affect' (expression of emotion), 'appreciation' (evaluation of things/entities), and 'judgement' (evaluation of people and their behaviour), with different choices within these sub-systems. [1] In the case of 'affect', for instance, these more delicate choices relate to different types of emotion. [1] [6] However, there is debate about the different sub-systems that should be recognised, and various researchers have since suggested modifications of the initial description. [7] [6]

The analysis of appraisal has also become influential outside Systemic Functional Linguistics, in various types of discourse analysis. [8]

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Michele Zappavigna is an Australian linguist. She is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Her major contributions are based on the discourse of social media and ambient affiliation. Her work is interdisciplinary and covers studies in systemic functional linguistics (SFL), corpus linguistics, multimodality, social media, online discourse and social semiotics. Zappavigna is the author of six books and numerous journal articles covering these disciplines.

Suzanne Eggins is an Australian linguist who is an Honorary Fellow at Australian National University (ANU), associated with the ANU Institute for Communication in Health Care. Eggins is the author of a best selling introduction to systemic functional linguistics and she is known for her extensive work on critical linguistic analysis of spontaneous interactions in informal and institutional healthcare settings. 

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Martin, J.R.; White, P.R.R. (2005). The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave. ISBN   140390409X.
  2. Bednarek, Monika (2006). Evaluation in media discourse: Analysis of a newspaper corpus. London: Continuum. ISBN   978-0-8264-9126-8. OCLC   76941675.
  3. Hunston, Susan (2011). Corpus approaches to evaluation: Phraseology and evaluative language. New York. ISBN   978-0-415-83651-7. OCLC   823552375.
  4. DuBois, John (2007). "The stance triangle". In Robert Englebretson (ed.). Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction. John Benjamins. pp. 139–182. ISBN   978-90-272-5408-5 . Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  5. Hyland, Ken; Sancho Guinda, Carmen, eds. (2012). Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres. doi:10.1057/9781137030825. ISBN   978-1-349-33788-0. S2CID   145774189.
  6. 1 2 Bednarek, Monika (2008). Emotion talk across corpora . Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. pp.  160–178. ISBN   978-0-230-28571-2. OCLC   681926200.
  7. "Appraisal Symposium 2013: Current Issues in Appraisal Analysis". Social Semiotics. 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  8. Su, Hang; Bednarek, Monika (2018). "Bibliography of Appraisal". Research Gate. Retrieved 15 December 2019.