An investigation into “affect”, “judgement” and “appreciation” in english lectures by

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
“AFFECT”, “JUDGEMENT” AND “APPRECIATION”
IN ENGLISH LECTURES
BY NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATES

MASTER THESIS IN
LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF
FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Da Nang, 2020


THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
“AFFECT”, “JUDGEMENT” AND “APPRECIATION”
IN ENGLISH LECTURES
BY NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATES
Major

: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Code

: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN
LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF
FOREIGN COUNTRIES
SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH HOA

Da Nang, 2020



ii

ABSTRACT

Appraisal Theory is first put forward by linguistic scholars Martin & White in
the 1990s and now used worldwide. Appraisal Theory is the development of
functional grammar in terms of interpersonal meaning. This study aims at
examining the linguistic features of the three sub-categories of “Attitude” namely
“Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation”in English Lectures by Nobel Peace
Prize Laureates (ELNPLs). The data for analysis are 395 samples of ELNPLs
collected from the official website of the Nobel Prize in the period from the
beginning of the 21st century to 2019. The methods mainly used in this study are
qualitative and quantitative combined approaches which include the descriptive
methods. This study focuses on analyzing syntactic realizations and semantic
features of the three sub-categories “Attitude” in ELNPLs in the light of Appraisal
Theory. In terms of the syntactic aspect, the “Attitude” sub-categories can be
recognized in various groups in which Nominal Groups and Adjectival Groups are
more noticeable than Verbal Groups, Adverbial Groups and Preposition Phrases . In

terms of the semantic aspect, the findings obtained from both positive and negative
values were shown in ELNPLs; however, the positive values were demonstrated
more commonly than the negative ones. With regard to theory, the findings of the
study can make a minor contribution to a better understanding of discourse features
and language used in ELNPLs. With regard to practice, the findings will provide
university students with an insight into the linguistic features of the three subcategories of “Attitude” as well as help to raise their awareness of the important
function of evaluative category of “Attitude”.


iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ......................................................................... i
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ....................................................v
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. viii
Chapter One INTRODUCTION .............................................................................1
1.1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY ..........................................................................1
1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES..................................................................................4
1.2.1. Aims of the Study .....................................................................................4
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study ............................................................................4
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..................................................................................4
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ....................................................................................5
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .....................................................................5
1.6. ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY ..................................................................5
Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ... 7
2.1. PREVIOUS RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE STUDY ...............................7

2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .....................................................................9
2.2.1. Appraisal Theory by Martin & White (2005) ..........................................9
2.2.2. The notion of “Attitude” and realizations of its sub-systems ................11
2.2.3. Differences among “Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation” ...........19
2.2.4. Syntactic Elements of Groups by Downing & Locke (2006) ................21
2.2.5. Overview of English Lectures by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates ............22
2.3. SUMMARY .......................................................................................................24
Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................25
3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN .......................................................................................25


iv

3.2. RESEARCH METHODS...................................................................................25
3.3. DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................25
3.3.1. Sampling .................................................................................................27
3.3.2. Instrument of Data Collection ................................................................28
3.4. DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................28
3.5. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY .....................................................................29
3.6. SUMMARY .......................................................................................................29
Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................30
4.1. SYNTACTIC REALIZATIONS OF “ATTITUDE” SUB-CATEGORIES ......30
4.1.1. Syntactic Realizations of “Affect” .........................................................30
4.1.2. Syntactic Realizations of “Judgement” ..................................................35
4.1.3. Syntactic Realizations of “Appreciation” ..............................................41
4.2. SEMANTIC FEATURES OF “ATTITUDE” SUB-CATEGORIES ................50
4.2.1. Semantic Features of “Affect” ...............................................................51
4.2.2. Semantic Features of “Judgement” ........................................................57
4.2.3. Semantic Features of “Appreciation” .....................................................62
4.3. SUMMARY .......................................................................................................73

Chapter Five CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .....................................74
5.1. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................74
5.2. IMPLICATIONS................................................................................................75
5.2.1. To the Lecturers ......................................................................................75
5.2.2. To the University Students .....................................................................76
5.3. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .....................................................................76
5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ..............................................77
REFERENCES
DATA SOURCES
QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN (Bản sao)


v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
EL

English Lectures

ELNPLs

English Lectures by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

NP

Nobel Prize

SFL

Systemic Functional Linguistics

(+)

Positive Attitude

(-)

Negative Attitude


vi

LIST OF TABLES

No.

Name of Tables

Page

2.1

Grammatical Realization of “Affect” (Martin & White,

13

2005:46)
2.2

Main subclasses of “Affect” (Martin & White, 2005:48-51)

13

2.3

Types of “Judgement” (Martin & White 2005:53)

16

2.4

Types of “Appreciation” (Martin & White, 2005:56)

18

2.5

Points of Differences/Borders (Martin & White, 2005:57-60)

20

2.6

Clauses for Clearing Differences (Martin & White, 2005:58-59)

20

3.1

Statistic list of the number of ELNPLs and their coding

25

4.1

“Affect” in the structure of complex Nominal Groups

31

4.2

“Affect” in the structure of Verbal Groups

32

4.3

“Affect” in the structure of Adjectival Groups

33

4.4

“Affect” in the structure of Prepositional Phrases

34

4.5

“Judgement” in the structure of complex Nominal Groups

36

4.6

“Judgement” in the structure of Verbal Groups

37

4.7

“Judgement” in the structure of Adjectival Groups

38

4.8

“Judgement” in the structure of Adverbial Groups

39

4.9

“Judgement” in the structure of Prepositional Phrases

40

4.10

“Appreciation” in the structure of complex Nominal Groups

42

4.11

“Appreciation” in the structure of Verbal Groups in passive forms

44

4.12

“Appreciation” in the structure of Adjectival Groups

45

4.13

“Appreciation” in the structure of Adverbial Groups

46

4.14

“Appreciation” in the structure of Prepositional Phrases

47

4.15

Summary of types of groups expressing “Appreciation”

48

subcategory in terms of syntactic realizations in ELNPLs.
4.16

Distribution of types of groups in the “Attitude” sub-categories

49


vii

No.

Name of Tables

Page

4.17

Un/happiness by means of “Affect” Markers

52

4.18

Dis/satisfaction by means of “Affect” Markers

53

4.19

In/security by means of “Affect” Markers

54

4.20

Dis/inclination by means of “Affect” Markers

55

4.21

Occurrence Frequencies of “Affect” Semantic Values

56

4.22

Social Esteem by means of “Judgement” Markers

59

4.23

Social Sanction by means of “Judgement” Markers

60

4.24

Occurrence Frequencies of “Judgement” Semantic Values

61

4.25

Reaction by means of “Appreciation” Markers

64

4.26

Composition by means of “Appreciation” markers

66

4.27

Valuation by means of “Appreciation” Markers

67

4.28

Occurrence Frequencies of “Appreciation” Semantic Values

67

4.29

Summary of Semantic Features of “Attitude” sub-categories

69

4.30

Distribution of Positive and Negative of “Attitude” sub-

72

categories in terms of semantic features


viii

LIST OF FIGURES
Name of Figures

No.

Page

2.1

Overview of Appraisal Resources [Martin & White, 2005:38]

11

3.1

Data processing interface of the Sketch Engine tool

28

4.1

Occurrence Frequencies of the “Attitude” sub-categoriesin

49

terms of Syntactic Realizations
4.2

Sub-systems of Attitude (Martin & White, 2005)

51

4.3

Occurrence Frequencies in terms of semantic items of “Affect”

56

4.4

Occurence Frequencies in terms of Semantic items of

62

“Judgement”
4.5

Occurrence Frequencies in terms of Semantic items ofthe

68

subcategory “Appreciation”
4.6

Occurrence Frequencies of Positive and Negative Evaluations
of the three sub-categories of “Attitude”

72


1

Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
1.1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Today, millions of prizes are offered in many various fields around the world
but only a few are internationally renowned. However, there is only one prize
recognized around the world as the pinnacle of achievement in making the world a
better place and the Nobel Prize is one of them. Alfred Nobel had a vision of a
better world. He believed that people are capable of helping to improve society
through knowledge, science and humanism. This is why he created a prize that
would reward the discoveries that have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry,
physiology or medicine, literature and peace, while a memorial prize in economic
sciences was added in 1968. The Nobel Prize is an annual international award
administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize is
bestowed in a number of categories by Scandinavian committees in recognition of
cultural and scientific advances. Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been
awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine,
literature and for peace. One of the most important fields to be concerned is the
Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded annually to an author
from any country that has the most outstanding work in the field of peace. Each
Nobel Prize is regarded as the most prestigious award in its field.
According to Lundestad (2019:1), the Nobel Peace Prize is the most prestigious
prize in the world. It has probably never been in a stronger position than it is today.
The Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary History describes it as “the world’s most
prestigious prize.” Moreover, Jay Nordlinger, an American conservative writer
published a book about the Peace Prize in 2012, entitled “Peace, They Say. A
History of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Most Famous and Controversial Prize in
the World”, had not received the Peace Prize but he also came to admire the Peace


2

Prize and concluded that no prize, not even the Oscars, had greater prestige than the
Nobel Peace Prize: “The Nobel Peace Prize is almost certainly No. 1.”
The Nobel Prize is a collection of international awards held annually since 1901
for individuals who have achieved achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry,
medicine, literature, economics and peace; especially peace can be given to an
organization or to an individual. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the person
who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the
abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of

peace congresses”. That‟s a prize worth striving for. Many laureates have described
how their lives changed dramatically after receiving the prize. They know that as a
result of the prize, their lives will change forever. Nearly all doors are opened once
you have become a laureate.
In recent years, researching linguistic objectives in the framework of Appraisal
theory has become more and more popular. Appraisal Theory is a model of
evaluation that evolved within the general theoretical framework of Systemic
Functional Linguistics. It is an extension of linguistic theories of Halliday (2004)
and his colleagues to develop a comprehensive way to analyze evaluation in
discourse by a group of Functional linguists in Sydney in the late 1980s and early
1990s. Appraisal Theory is a particular approach to exploring, describing, and
explaining the way language used to express the writer's or speaker's opinion on
people and things. By using this theory, language is used to express “Attitude”,
“Affect”, “Judgement”, and “Appreciation”, especially in ELs, it can be realized
with understanding and empathy of the speaker, and finally, come to the purpose of
persuasion to the hearer. Therefore, this is a potential approach to discover the
“Attitude”, the evaluation as well as the personal meaning a speaker implies in his
words. Therefore, this is a potential approach to discover the attitude, the evaluation
as well as the personal meaning a speaker implies in his words. With ELNPLs, this
approach is applicable.


3

Viewed from the importance of Nobel Peace Prize, as a teacher, we desire to
have a further insight into what Attitudinal linguistic features are realized in English
Lectures by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (ELNPLs), how the laureates express their
feelings or emotions, and how they convey their appreciation on the issue of
harmony world peace which is one of the issues that are most concerned today. For
all the reasons mentioned above, I decided to carry out the thesis entitled “An

Investigation into “Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation” in English
Lectures by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates”. I attempted to apply an Appraisal
Theory to analyze this study in terms of syntactic realizations and semantic features.
It is hoped that the study provides partly a small contribution in order to help
English learners be able to apply the category “Attitude” as well as the Appraisal
Theory to English teaching and learning in Vietnam.
The “Attitude”sub-categories are illustrated by the following bolded extracts
from ELNPLs in which the extracts have been used the evaluative language of the
category “Attitude”.
(1.1) I am very proud of the 2,300 hard working men and women that make up
the IAEA staff - the colleagues with whom I share this honour.
Source: ( />In this example, “proud” belongs to the “Affect” subsystem of “Attitude”. It is
used to show the positive “Happiness” by means of “Affect” markers in ELNPLs. It
is also used to comment on the feeling of the laureates who express their attitude
when receiving the award.
(1.2) Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands
of young Americans to battle in a distant land.
Source: ( />

4

From the example above, we can see an adjective “responsible”, it is the
positive “Veracity” by means of “Judgement” markers. It is used to express the
attitude and behavior of the speaker to others.
(1.3) It is clear that global challenges must be met with an emphasis on peace,
in harmony with others, with strong alliances and international consensus.
Source: ( />In this example, “clear” belongs to the “Appreciation” subsystem of
“Attitude”.

It

is

the

positive

“Composition-Complexity”

by

means

of

“Appreciation”markers. It is also used to evaluate the things related to the global
challenges occurring in the world.

1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.2.1. Aims of the Study
The study is aimed at identifying and describing the linguistic features of
“Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation” used in ELNPLs in terms of syntactic
realizations and semantic features.
This study is also expected to help the Vietnamese learners of English raise the
awareness of Appraisal language resources and know how to use evaluative
language effectively in ELNPLs.
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study
This study is intended to achieve the following objectives:
- To identify and describe the syntactic realizations and semantic features of
“Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation” in ELNPLs.

- To suggest some implications for Vietnamese lecturers and university students
of English and those who are interested in this field.

1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to attain the aims and objectives mentioned above, this study seeks to
answer the following questions:
1. What are the syntactic realizations of “Affect”, “Judgement” and
“Appreciation” in ELNPLs?


5

2. What are the semantic features of the above-mentioned sub-categories of
“Attitude” in ELNPLs?

1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is mainly concerned with an investigation into “Affect”, “Judgement”
and “Appreciation” in ELNPLs in terms of their syntactic realizations by Angela
Downing & Philip Locke (2006)‟s view and semantic features in the light of
Appraisal Theory by Martin & White (2005).
The samples are collected from the official website of the Nobel Prize
( in the period from the beginning of the 21st
century to 2019. This timeline is chosen because human society is living in a new
century and they are always hungry for peace.

1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
By investigating the syntactic realizations and semantic features of “Affect”,
“Judgement” and “Appreciation” in ELNPLs, the findings of the study is expected
to be able to make a minor contribution to a better understanding of discourse
features and language used in ELNPLs for Vietnamese learners of English.

In addition, the findings will help the readers/ learners not only recognize the
role of evaluative language but also understand more ELNPLs and the author's
perspective on peace. It is hoped that the thesis can be a source of reference for
those who teach and study English in higher education institutes.

1.6. ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY
This study consists of five chapters as follows:
Chapter One: Introduction - presents the reason why the topic is chosen, the
aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the significance, and the
organization of the study. The framework of this paper is provided in this chapter.
Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Background - introduces
the summarizing previous studies and the authors‟ comments, presents theoretical
background related to conceptions of research, the study with regard to view points


6

of “Attitude” in Appraisal paradigm, followed by “Attitude” sub-categories with
their instances.
Chapter Three: Research Methodology – presents the research design and
methods of the study, materials, research procedures, instruments for analysis, data
collection anddata analysis. The reliability and validity of the thesis are also
mentioned.
Chapter Four: Findings and Discussion - mainly replies the research
questions, investigates syntactic realizations and semantic features of expressions in
the language of “Attitude” through ELNPLs, and discusses the result of discourse
analysis to provide knowledge values in evaluation language for learners and
lecturers of English.
Chapter Five: Conclusions and Implications - summarizes the main point of
the thesis based on the findings, the practical recommendations, some limitations of

the study, some useful implications for teaching and learning English and some
suggestions for further research.


7

Chapter Two
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. PREVIOUS RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE STUDY
Appraisal theory has been developed at the beginning of the 1990s and has
become popular ever since. Its primary impetus was the project called “Write It
Right” of the New South Wales Disadvantaged Schools Program (Sydney,
Australia), which was led by linguist James R. Martin and his associates in the
1980s with the aim to explore the literacy requirements of the discourses of science,
technology, the media, history, geography, English literature studies and the visual
arts. The theory is fully presented in one of their typical works: The Language of
Evaluation – Appraisal in English, published in 2005. The theory concerns of
Appraisal Theory concentrate on the linguistic resources by how writers or speakers
express their stance toward the things or ongoing events in the world, how they
express their agreement or disagreement with the potential responses from the other
readers, and how they establish and strengthen their identities in a text or a
discourse. The function practiced by appraisal items in a discourse is to help writers
or speakers to express their evaluation, negotiate their relationship with the
respondents, and establish their persona.
Up to now, many studies have been conducted using the Appraisal framework.
Among them, there are studies on “Attitude” category. As a starting point with
White (2004), he distinguishes between opinion and emotion. By indicating the
term “emotion” refers to descriptions of the emotional reactions or states of human
subjects and the term “opinion” is an inherent property of the phenomenon being
evaluated. He also proposes that opinion can furthermore be divided into

“Appreciation” (opinion about aesthetics) and “Judgement” (opinion about ethics).
In addition, Andy (2008) illustrated that how the reality producing effect of
language is itself an enactment of design, allowing a new understanding of the


8

connections between creative behaviors which are distributed across social spaces
and mediated through language.
Besides, Bednarek (2009), with the help of Appraisal Theory (Martin, J. R., &
White, P. R. R., 2005) distinguishes between different types of evaluation. She
investigates how far linguistic patterns support this “Attitude” category.
Furthermore, the study of Cheng (2008) with topic “Attitudinal Meanings: A
Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Linguistics Book Reviews” is conducted
in the light of the Appraisal theory. It mainly studies the similarities and differences
between English linguistics book reviews and Chinese linguistics book reviews with
respect to the three attitude variables of “Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation”.
Besides, it also reveals some genre-dependent and language-specific rhetorical
preferences, and what causes them to be that way.
Also, Liu & Thompson (2009) investigate the use of evaluative language in
argumentative writing by a Chinese student. Susan (2004) used the Appraisal theory
in her research: “Taking a Stance in academic writing”. She carried out the
construction of evaluation stance in the introductory in academic literacy in English.
Painter (2003) applies the Appraisal theory to develop “Attitude” category in her
research. To analyze the child‟s own feelings and behavior, she argues for boarding
her consideration of the interpersonal in language development to include the
emergence of evaluative and attitudinal language.
Regarding to cross-linguistic studies based on the Appraisal theory between
English and Vietnamese, it should be named here some recent studies as follows:
Tôn Nữ Hồng Hà (2011) investigated “A Study of Linguistic Devices to

Attribute Source of Information in News Reports – English and Vietnamese”. In her
M.A. thesis, the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of attribute source of
information were described and analyzed based on the framework of Appraisal
Theory and she also compared and pointed out the similarities and differences
between the linguistic devices of attribute source of information in the two
languages.


9

In their research paper entitled “An Expansion Resources Analysis of English
and Vietnamese Political Editorials in the Light of Appraisal Theory”, Nguyễn Thị
Thu Hiền and her colleague (2014) investigated the use of Expansion resources in
the English and Vietnamese political editorials about North Korea by drawing on
Appraisal Theory.
Nguyễn Văn Khôi (2006) conducted “A Study of Proclaim Markers in English
and Vietnamese”. In this paper, he pointed out Proclaim markers in English and
Vietnamese based on a theoretical framework of Appraisal. The author examined
the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of proclaim markers in epistemic
modality and evidentiality, speech acts, force dynamics, politeness principles and
dialogistic view.
In his M.A. thesis, Trần Hữu Thuần (2014) explored the use of “Appreciation”
in football commentaries in English and Vietnamese. His thesis focuses on
“Appreciation” in the category of “Attitude”, one of the three subsystems within the
Appraisal Theory. This descriptive qualitative study was conducted based on a
descriptive framework of functional grammar, appraisal and speech acts theory.
To sum up, a large number of researchers have been conducted in various
subfields and on a variety of materials in the light of Appraisal Theory. However,
up to now, there has hardly been any deep exploitation into “Affect”, “Judgement”
and “Appreciation” in ELNPLsfor the being time. This is also one of the main

reasons why I conducted this thesis.

2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.2.1. Appraisal Theory by Martin & White (2005)
Appraisal Theory (Martin 2000; Martin & Rose 2003; Martin & White 2005),
which has been developed within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), is an
analytical approach to explore, describe and explain the ways a language is used to
evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal
positioning and relationships.


10

Appraisal Theory is used to analyze how the speaker/writer values the entities
(people and things) within the text that they produce. It is a theoretical system
which is supposed to describe and explain the usage of language. In other words,
Appraisal framework is known as a particular approach to exploring, describing and
explaining the way language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct
textual personas and to manage interpersonal positionings and relationships.
Appraisal Framework is located within the framework of SFL. It offers a framework
for the exploration of speakers‟, writers‟ style in their positive or negative
assessment of people, places, things, happenings and states of affairs.
In the other view, Appraisal Theory is concerned with a) how text producers
(writers/ speakers) construe particular authorial identities for themselves, b) how
authors align/ disalign themselves with actual or potential respondents and c) how
writers or speakers construct an idea audience for their texts (Martin & White, 2005).
Appraisal is divided into three sub-categories: “Attitude”, “Graduation”, and
“Engagement”. The “Attitude” deals more comprehensively with feelings including
“Affect”, “Judgement”, and “Appreciation”. The “Graduation” is concerned with
language that explores the degree of evaluation. The graduation system is also

divided into two sub-systems, they are force and focus. The last system in Appraisal
framework is “Engagement”. The “Engagement” relates to the linguistic resources
which explicitly position a text‟s proposals and propositions inter-subjectively.
Monogloss and Heterogloss are the two brands of this system.
A brief introduction of the Appraisal framework is presented by the Figure 2.1
as follows:


11

Figure 2.1. Overview of Appraisal Resources [Martin & White, 2005:38]
Angela Downing & Philip Locke (2006) take a functional approach to English
grammar, basing their analysis on the works of Halliday (2004). By identifying
language functions and the many grammatical and structural ways of expressing
these functions, the functional approach brings interesting insights to the study of a
second language, specifically by highlighting the distinction between form and
function.
To lay the foundation for further investigation, in terms of syntactic realizations
of the “Attitude” sub-categories in ELNPLs, the researcher based on Martin &
White‟s view (2005) and in terms of semantic features based on the theoretical
framework of Downing & Locke (2006) because these two theories have a close
relationship.
2.2.2. The notion of “Attitude” and realizations of its sub-systems
a. Notion of “Attitude”
“Attitude” is one of sub-systems of Appraisal Theory which refers to “our
feelings, including emotional reactions, judgement of behaviours and evaluation of
things” (Martin & White, 2005:35). The system of meanings as “Attitude” is a


12

framework for mapping feeling as they are construed in texts. It is concerned with
emotional responses, judgement of human behaviours and evaluation of products
and processes.
According to Martin & White (2005:35), “Attitude” itself is divided into three
sub-categories, namely “Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation”. As the basic
framework of this study, “Attitude” and its sub-categories will be further explained
in the next section.
b. The sub-category “Affect”
“Affect” being one of the three branches of “Attitude” is modelled as a semantic
resource for showing the characterization with reference to emotional responses. It
is referred to expressing “positive and negative feelings: do we feel happy or sad,
confident or anxious, interested or bored?”
According to Martin & White (2005:49), they suggest six factors that are
applicable to categorize “Affect”: cultural vibes, emerging emotion, reaction to
specific emotional phenomena and a general mood or Undirected Mood, the scale of
feelings, the intention or reaction.
Based on those criteria, “Affect” emotion groups are divided into four major
sets:
- Dis/Inclination: how the speaker/ writer inclined or disinclined to something.
The typical words classified in this region are:miss, long for, etc.
- Un/Happiness: emotional feeling of the speaker/ writer whether he is happy or
sad. The typical words classified in this region are:cheerful, gloomy, buoyant, etc.
- In/Security: the speaker/writer‟s emotions which is related with his ecosocial
well-being: anxiety, fear, confidence and trust - in relation to the environment. The
typical words are: confident, comfortable, trusting, etc.
- Dis/Satisfaction: emotions concerned with telos-the pursuit of goals-ennui,
displeasure, curiosity, respect. The typical words are: engrossed, satisfied, pleased, etc.
The realizations of “Affect” are expected across a range of grammatical function
and its kinds. They are represented as Tables 2.1 & 2.2.

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Table 2.1. Grammatical Realization of “Affect” (Martin & White, 2005:46)
Type

Quality

Grammatical Function

Example

Epithet

a happy woman

Attribute

She was sad.

Circumstance

She left happily.

Process

I liked her.

Process

- mental

She pleased him.
- behavioural
Comment
Nominalizations

She smiled.
Modal Adjunct

Happily, the man won.

Subject, Object, …

sadness, grief, etc.

Table 2.2. Main subclasses of “Affect” (Martin & White, 2005:48-51)
DIS/INCLINATION

Behaviour

Disposition

Fear

tremble/ shudder/ cower

wary/ fearful/ terrorized

Desire

suggest/ request/ demand

miss/ long for/ yearn for

UN/HAPPINESS

Behaviour

Disposition

- misery

whimper/ cry/ wail

down/ sad/ miserable

- antipathy

rubbish/ abuse/ revile

dislike/ hate/ abhor

- cheer

chuckle/ laugh/ rejoice

cheerful/ buoyant/ jubilant

- affection

shake

Unhappiness

Happiness

hands/

hug/ be found of/ love/ adore

embrace
IN/SECURITY

Behaviour

Disposition

Insecurity
- disquiet

restless/

uneasy/ anxious/ freaked out

- surprise

twitching/ shaking

startled/ jolted/ staggered

Security

start/ cry out/ faint


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DIS/INCLINATION

Behaviour

Disposition

- confidence

declare/ assert/ proclaim

together/ confident/ assured

- trust

delegate/ commit/ entrust

comfortable with
confident in/ abouttrusting

DIS/SATISFACTION

Behaviour

Disposition

Dissatisfaction
- ennui

fidget/ yawn/ tune out

flat/ stale/ jaded

- displeasure

caution/ scold/ castigate

cross, bored with/ angry/ sick
of/furious/fed up with

Satisfaction
- interest

attentive/busy/industrious satisfied/impressed/

- pleasure

pat on the back/

pleased/charmed/chuffed/thri

compliment/reward

lled

c. The sub-category “Judgement”
According to Martin & White ( 2005:52), “Judgement” is the domain of meaning
which construes our attitude to people or their behavior. It covers meaning to
evaluate human and human behavior either positively or negatively by reference to
a set of conventional norms.“Judgement” evaluates human behaviours as moral or
immoral, legal or illegal, socially acceptable or unacceptable, normal or abnormal,
etc. It is a sort of language to criticize, praise, condemn or applaud the actions,
deeds, beliefs… of human individual or groups. Values can be realized as:
1. Adverbial: justly, fairly, virtuously, honestly, pluckily, indefatigably,
cleverly, stupidly, eccentrically.
2. Attribute and Epithet: a corrupt politician, that was dishonest, don’t be
cruel, she’s very brave, he’s indefatigable, a skillful performer, truly eccentric
behavior.
3. Nominal: abrutal tyrant, a cheat and a liar, a hero, a genius, a maverick.
4. Verbal: to cheat, to deceive, to sin, to lust after, to chicken out, to triumph.


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In general terms, “Judgement”, as Martin & White (2005)‟s view, it can be
divided into Social Esteem and Social Sanction. Social Esteem deals with
Normality, Capacity and Tenacity. Social Sanction is concerned with Veracity and
Propriety.
Social Esteem: is the region of judgements in which the evaluation of people‟s
conduct is based on social ethics; on a standard of appropriateness. In this region
there are judgements of:
a. „Normality‟ (how unusual someone is); the typical words classified in this
domain are: normal, natural, familiar, lucky, stable, etc.

b. „Capacity‟ (how capable someone is): powerful, vigorous, healthy, fit, etc.
c. „Tenacity‟ (how resolute someone is): plucky, reliable, tireless, loyal, etc.
Social Sanction: Social Sanction is the region of judgements in which the
evaluation of people‟s conduct is based on legal/religious rules. Unlike those
underlying social esteem, the rules on which social sanction are based are usually
codified and written. Therefore violations of these rules are usually penalized; while
on the other hand, people who violate social esteem rules are only considered
“unfortunate” or, at the worst level, “strange”. The latter stigma is about the worst
„punishment‟ a violator of social esteem meet. In short, if you break social esteem
rules, you need the help of a lawyer. (Martin & White, 2005:53 and Martin & Rose,
2003:68). Back to social sanction, this region comprises “Judgement” of two traits:
a. „Veracity‟ (how truthful someone is); the typical words classified in this
region are:truthful, candid, tactful, etc.
b. „Propriety‟ (how ethical someone is): polite, ethical, law abiding, etc.
Like “Affect”, values of “Judgement” have either positive or negative status.
The realization of full system of “Judgement” is set out below.