Appraisal

BY
M SHAFQAT NAWAZ
 INTRODUCTION
The appraisal framework, developed by Martin and White and their
colleagues in the 1990s and 2000s (provides for analyses of those
meanings by which texts convey positive or negative assessments.
by which the intensity or directness of such attitudinal utterances is
strengthened or weakened
and by which speakers/writers engage dialogistically with prior
speakers or with potential respondents to the current proposition.
These meaning making resources are grouped together as the
“language of evaluation” on the grounds that they are all means by
which the speaker’s/writer’s personal, evaluative involvement in the
text is revealed as they adopt stances
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The evaluative meanings described by the appraisal
framework provide some of the mechanisms by which
the “interpersonal” metafunction operates.
They present speakers/writers as revealing their
feelings, tastes, and opinions with greater or lesser
degrees of intensity and directness
Construing propositions as more or as less contentious
or warrantable, and as thereby aligning or disaligning
with value positions in play in the current
communicative context.
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Within the model of the interpersonal metafunction proposed by
Martin (1997) these resources of “appraisal” operate alongside
two other interpersonal systems
 Mood: those communicative resources by which speakers/writers
perform speech functions such as asserting, questioning,
responding, commanding, advising, and offering
 and the system of meanings by which speakers indicate greater
or lesser degrees of “involvement” with those they address—for
example via the use of slang, jargon, specialist terms, and the
informal lexis associated with social intimacy
 Some say Appraisal Theory. Others say expansion of interpersonal
metafunction
 Appraisal Resources
Attitude/ Positive and Negative assessment
Graduation/ Force and Semantic Focus
Engagement/ Resources of Dialogistic
Positioning
 Attitude
Attitude is concerned with the feelings of the
speaker and how these are expressed in the text.
A taxonomy of these positively or negatively
attitudinal meanings is provided which is
sensitive to such issues as the basis for the
attitudinal assessment, the nature of what is
being assessed, what is at stake socially, and
whether the attitude is conveyed explicitly or
implicitly.
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this can be further divided into
 Affect
 Judgment
 Appreciation
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Affect
Affect deals with the expression of emotion
and the elements of a text which reveal this
With the feelings that are expressed in
relation to people, objects or events around
us. These feelings can be positive or negative.
Positive/negative assessment presented as
emotional reactions
 Examples of Affect
1. “No,” he said. “I’m glad I got to do it. I’m glad [Affect
—positive assessment via emotional reaction of
satisfaction] I got to do what I was trained to do. I
wouldn’t want it another way.”
2. I started watching with a huge amount of
trepidation in my heart. But by the end of the
episode, where almost every single cast member
gets a close-up of them looking away suspiciously,
just in case they turn out to be the mole, I was all
but punching the air with delight
 Judgement
Judgement is about the ways in which we
express attitudes towards people and their
behaviour
We may admire or criticize, condemn or praise
and so on.
Positive/negative assessments of human
behavior and character by reference to
ethics/morality and other systems of
conventionalized or institutionalized norms
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 Judgement is subclassified into those
assessments that involve breaches or
upholding of ethical and legal values (termed
values of “social sanction”)
and those that put at risk one’s esteem in the
community but which are not of an ethical or
moral nature (assessments of psychological
disposition, capacity, and normality, termed
“social esteem”).
 Examples of Jugement
1. The quick-thinking [Judgment—a positive
assessment of human capacity] and
incredible heroism [Judgement—positive
assessment of human tenacity] of Secret
Service agent Tim McCarthy probably saved
the 70-year-old President Reagan from taking
another bullet
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2. The Tories have always neglected the arts, seeing them
as an easy target for cuts. They do not understand the role
that culture can play in the lives of individuals, in the
futures of our towns and cities, and in the prosperity of our
country. The choice is forward with new Labour to more
sport in schools, arts for all children and young people, and
continued investment in culture. Or back to the Tories and
cuts of £207 million across culture, arts and sport.
 Social Sanction for Tory (Conservative party) and Socail
Esteem for Labour Party
 Appreciation
Appreciation can also be seen in terms of
positive and negative.
Assessments of objects, artifacts, texts, states
of affairs, and processes in terms of how they
are assigned value socially
assessment of artifacts, entities, happenings,
and states of affairs by reference to aesthetics
and other systems of social valuation
 Example of Appreciation
Thirty years ago this week, Secret Service
agent Tim McCarthy set out for work at the
White House in a brand-new suit, the nicest
[Appreciation—positive assessment by
reference to aesthetic impact] one he’d ever
owned.
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Mystical Glastonbury, of ancient Christian and
Arthurian legend. Even more caves, cliffs and wildlife
at Cheddar Gorge. Windswept walking and
spectacular views in the Mendip Hills Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty. The bustling nightlife of
Weston-super-Mare, with its popular Grand Pier and
safe sandy beaches. Top quality shopping at Clarks
Village and Kilver Court, Bath, founded by the Romans
and beloved of Jane Austen, and Bristol, famed for
Brunel’s finest achievements and for vibrant nightlife.
 Some Significant Distinctions
There are many more finer or more delicate
distinctions which can be made, notably that
between “inscribed”, or explicit, expression
and “invoked”, or implicit, expression.
 An Extended Example
“On the face of it, the situation does appear baffling. Here is a
supremely talented athlete, skilled not just in one sport, but the five
different disciplines that make up modern pentathlon – fencing,
swimming, show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running.
She won gold at the Rio Games, thrillingly so in the run and shoot,
coming from a way behind to clinch victory in a stirring finale to the
competition. In doing so, she marked herself out as one of the best, if
not the best, woman in the world in her sport. Esposito is just 25 but
talks with a maturity that belies her age. That said, an infectious
enthusiasm still shines through and it’s not difficult to see why she has
become an inspiration to many girls and young women in sport. And
then there is the omnipresent smile – the kind of smile a marketeer
dreams about”
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 Engagement
Under the appraisal framework all the
formulations are analyzed as involving
mechanisms by which speakers/writers adopt
different stances vis-à-vis the attitudinal
propositions being advanced and are
accordingly dealt with as instances of
dialogistic “engagement.”
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The media has been lying in its coverage of the
gun-control debate.
Obviously the media has been lying in its coverage
of the gun-control debate
 Admittedly the media has been lying
 The facts of the matter are that the media has
been lying
The media, of course, has been lying
 It’s probable the media has been lying …
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Within the function of engagement, the speaker
can simply put forward something which he
accepts as being his own position (Monoglossic)
In the second case, where he puts forward
something taking into account other points of
view, it is said to be “heteroglossic”.
Where we have heteroglossic engagement, it is
possible to distinguish between “disclaiming”,
“proclaiming”, “entertaining” and “attributing”.
 Disclaiming, proclaiming, entertaining, and
attributing
In heteroglossic engagement, disclaiming is
where the speaker presents something as
being the position of others, but which he
does not necessarily accept, by denying or
countering it in some way.
o “It is condescending and foolish to caricature
the outlook of our international students and
imagine that they will behave in a certain way,
or not be interested in wider issues”
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Proclaiming, on the other hand, is where the speaker
specifically accepts or approves the point of view put
forward.
 “In my latest book I advocate the end of marriage as a
state-recognised institution”
When a speaker entertains a point of view, he accepts
the possibility of it being the case.
 I suppose a large part of me wants to believe that we
might finally have reached a point in history when one
country’s success does not mean another’s failure.
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Attributing is where the speaker presents
something as being the point of view of
someone else, and so, at least by implication,
not necessarily his own point of view.
 “For the Pope, a world order based on the
unlimited satisfaction of individual wants is
unattainable, and the attempt to reach it
destructive of the world around us, and the
peace of our inner worlds”
 Graduation
Graduation deals with the resources we use to
reinforce or weaken the ways in which we
express our feelings and attitudes.
 “Focus” grades the extent to which we say
something is prototypical or not.
“Force” is the degree to which we say
something is strong or weak.
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The appraisal framework deals with this
parameter by reference to notions of “force”
(meanings by which propositions are
strengthened or mitigated)
and of “focus” (meanings by which the
boundaries of semantic categories can be
blurred or sharpened).
 Example of Graduation
“The boat trip reaches Lindisfarne at high tide
when the Island is cut off from the mainland and
the true peace and tranquillity of Island life can
be experienced” ( Focus)
Agent McCarthy, … in a superhero [intensified
judgment] move, used his body as a shield
(Force: Fused)
“It was a very [intensified appreciation] new
suit, so it wasn’t one of those cheap suits I had.”