An attitudinal study of the novel “ the old man and the sea”by ernest hemingway

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

TRẦN THỊ HỒNG THẮM

AN ATTITUDINAL STUDY OF THE
NOVEL “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY
ERNEST HEMINGWAY

FIELD: English Linguistics
CODE: 8220201

Supervisor: VÕ DUY ĐỨC, Ph.D.


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

TRẦN THỊ HỒNG THẮM

NGHIÊN CỨU THÁI ĐỘ TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT
ÔNG GIÀ VÀ BIỂN CẢ CỦA NHÀ VĂN

ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số:

8220201

Người hướng dẫn: TS. VÕ DUY ĐỨC

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that the substance of this thesis has not already been submitted
for any degree and is not currently being submitted for any other degree or
award.
I also declare that any help received in preparing this thesis, and all
sources used, have been acknowledged in this thesis.

Binh Dinh, 2020

Trần Thị Hồng Thắm


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am filled with deep gratitude and I aspire to acknowledge many
individuals who have heartened me in various ways to arrive at this
accomplishment today.
My M.A. journey could not have been initiated without considerable
encouragement and invaluable support from my supervisor, Dr. Vo Duy Duc.
And without his timely enlightenment, my academic pathway could have
been unfortunately interrupted. I genuinely appreciate and learn a great deal
from his professionalism, dedication, intellectuality and loving personality.
Besides, I would like to express my gratitude to all the lecturers of my
master‟s course, who have enabled me to upgrade my skills and enrich my
knowledge of linguistics for the past two years. They all play a great part in
nurturing my interest in linguistic research to further explore the allurement of
both English language and my mother tongue, Vietnamese. I am also indebted
to the authors and experts whose works have been cited in the Literature
Review of my study.
Last but absolutely not least, I need to extend thanks to my family, who

have been my sources of motivation to conquer all the challenges and
obstacles during the time of my study.


ABSTRACT
This paper presents a study on Attitudinal resources in the novel The
Old Man and the Sea written by Enerst Hemingway. The main objectives are
to list, describe and classify attitudinal resources in the discourse and to reveal
Ernest Hemingway‟ s attitude towards the characters in the novel. The study
was carried out through the use of quantitative, qualitative, analytic, synthetic,
and descriptive approaches. The data were gathered from the entire novel.
The study was based on Appraisal Theory of Martin and White (2005), which
is considered as a new approach to evaluating languages. The study

registered the occurrence of all types of Attitudinal values, namely Affect,
Judgment, and Appreciation. Specifically, Judgment occupied the largest
proportion, the second highest was Appreciation and Affect was found to
occur at the lowest rate. Besides, Ernest Hemingway tends to employ more
positive Attitudinal values to show determination and strong ambition of
human beings about the future. The explicit resources were also preferable
than the implicit ones, featuring a detailed description of each of human
characteristics, nature, and fishing so that it evokes profound meanings
about the great dream of the working man. From the results, it is hopeful
that the study may make some contributions to linguistic theory and help
English learners use Attitudinal resources effectively.


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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Through time, literature has played a crucial part in human
communication because people have used it to fulfill awareness, educational,
and art functions and even exchange their viewpoints towards life. American
Literature has attracted worldwide attention because of its enormous influence.
Ernest Hemingway, whose works have attracted readers all over the world, is the
most influential American writer in the 20th century. His works have been
translated into many languages and taught at schools. The Nobel Laureate of
1954 in the field of Literature, Ernest Hemingway, has made significant
contributions in the literary world through his diversified writings. Among many
great American writers, Hemingway is well-known for his objective and terse
prose style. Of all the novels Hemingway published in his life, The Old Man and
the Sea, which is one of the best works of literature, typically reflects his unique
writing style. Mellouki and Berriha (2016) denote that the prominent feature in
the work is the simplicity and naturalness of the words and expressions. To
make the writing more interesting, he used Iceberg Theory as a special style
which is expressed more on the surface without revealing the theme, because the
true meaning may not be obvious in the story. Besides, numerous elements made
The Old Man and the Sea a masterpiece and attracted the attention worldwide.
Applying Appraisal Theory developed by Martin and White ( 2005) to
study written language is very popular in the field of discourse analysis. It has
been used as a popular framework for investigating how language is used to
evaluate emotions, judge human behaviors and appreciate things or phenomena.
Attitude, along with Engagement and Graduation, forms the Appraisal


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System. It plays an integral role in the expression of interpersonal meanings of
the language. Attitude consists of three sub- systems: Affect- expressions of

feelings and emotions, Judgement- evaluations of human behaviours and
Appreciation-evaluations of things and entities.
The language employed by well- known writers can also be deemed
valuable, authentic linguistic resources for language learners and researchers.
Researches relating to the linguistic resources in literary works have been
carried out. There have been lots of studies based on Appraisal Theory to
investigate various features of discourses. A significant number of studies on
attitudinal resources have been conducted, with various types of discourse being
investigated, ranging from American leaders‟ speeches ( Le Thi Van Tue, 2017),
Vo Thi Ngoc Hien (2014), travel advertisements (Nguyen Tiet Hanh, 2015),
readers‟ opinions (Vo Thi Kim Thao, 2017), travellers‟ holiday reviews
(Nguyen Thi Lien, 2017), letters of complaint (Le Thi Bao Chau, 2017), film
reviews (Phan Thi Thanh Hoa, 2017), news about environment (Ngo Ai Quynh
Nhu, 2017), advertising slogans (Nguyen Thi Minh Ngan, 2017), love song
lyrics (Nguyen Thi Ngan, 2018), to Expressives by the Judges (Le Huu Loc,
2019).
The attitudinal resources of the language that Hemingway used in the
story The Old Man and the Sea in terms of its interpersonal meaning may lead
us to uncover Hemingway‟s attitude towards life. Although the novel which has
been studied by many other researchers from different perspectives, the value of
the work has been credited by various scholars, no research has been conducted
on that by applying Appraisal Theory. From the above reasons, “An attitudinal
analysis of the story The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway” is the
focus of my study. This research contributes to a specific investigation into the
attitudinal resources in the story.


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1.2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES
1.2.1. Aim of the study

This research aims at studying the attitudinal values in the story The Old
Man and the Sea in the light of Appraisal theory, thereby interpreting the
evaluations of the writer toward the plot of the story.
1.2.2. Objectives
To achieve the aims, these following objectives are focused on:
- To investigate the sub-types of attitudinal resources in the novel
including Affect, Judgement and Appreciation;
- To find out the frequency of occurrence of these values and determine
which of them are widely used in the story.
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To fulfill the aims and objectives of the study, the following research
questions are focused on:
1. What sub-types of Attitude are employed in the novel “The Old Man
and the Sea”?
2. What are the frequencies of their occurrence of Attitudinal resources
in the novel?
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Attitude, along with Engagement and Graduation builds up a complete
evaluation of language in any discourse. Attitude involves three semantic
regions relating to emotions, ethics and aesthetics. It plays an important role in
expressing author‟s viewpoints through plots, contents and characters of the
novel. In this study, I would like to investigate the Attitudinal resources in the
story The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Emotional, ethical and
aesthical aspects are investigated to find out how the author expresses his style
in writing and understand more about the unique features of the novel.


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1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study focuses on analyzing Attitude, which is concerned with

feelings, including emotional reactions, judgments of behavior and evaluation of
things, and its effectiveness in the story.
The study emphasizes the importance of Appraisal Theory as a
framework. The learners of English can know how to use attitudinal resources
effectively and naturally in communication.
1.6. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
The thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1, “Introduction” presents the rationale, aims, and objectives,
research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the
organization of the study.
Chapter 2, “Literature Review”, briefly reviews the literature of previous
studies relating to this study. This chapter also provides the theoretical
background of the study.
Chapter 3, “Methodology”, deals with the research methods, the
description of the data, data analysis, and research procedures.
Chapter 4, “Findings and Discussions”, presents the results of the data
analysis, discusses Attitudinal resources employed in the novel The Old Man
and the Sea.
Chapter 5, “Conclusion and Implications” summarizes the results of the
study. It also offers implications for writing and mentions the limitations of the
study and the suggestions for further research.


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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theoretical framework the study is based on and
the previous studies relating to the topic. It consists of three parts. The first part

is about the theoretical background of the study. The second part deals with
Ernest Hemingway, the content of The Old Man and the Sea and the description
of the previous studies.
2.1. APPRAISAL THEORY
Appraisal has emerged for over three decades as a framework for
investigating how language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct
textual personas, and to manage interpersonal positioning and relationships. It is
an extension of the interpersonal function of language described in Systemic
Functional Linguistics by a notable linguist, M.A.K. Halliday, and is developed
by a group of linguists led by James Martin. As Martin and White (2005: 34-35)
state, Appraisal “is one of three major discourse semantic resources construing
interpersonal meaning” accompanied by involvement and negotiation. Appraisal
is concerned with evaluation- the kinds of attitudes that are negotiated in a text,
the strength of the feelings involved, and how values are sourced and readers
aligned (Martin & Rose, 2007).
According to Butt, et al. (2012), the Appraisal system is used to highlight
the ways speakers or writers position their audience by expressing their
emotions (Affect), their judgments of people‟s behavior and their appreciation
of phenomena in the world through the choice of phonological and lexicogrammatical patterns of evaluative language.
As White (2015) mentioned, Appraisal Theory (AT) is an effective
framework for analyzing attitudes expressed and interpersonal meanings in


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various literary works, news, legal, scientific and academic discourse. It is a
particular approach to describing and explaining the way language is used to
evaluate, to reveal the speaker‟s attitudes and positionings. This framework is
used to analyze the language of evaluation and investigate how the writers or
speakers express their attitudes and establish a certain authorial identity. Vo Duy
Duc (2017) defines „Appraisal‟ as an umbrella term used to refer to the semantic

resources including words, phrases, and structures that speakers or writers
employ to negotiate emotions, judgments, and valuations. From the perspective
of semantics, AT can be regionalized as three interacting domains – „Attitude‟,
„Engagement‟ and „Graduation‟. Among these domains, Attitude takes a central
position. It is concerned with our feelings, including emotional reactions,
judgments of behavior, and evaluation of things; Engagement deals with
sourcing attitudes and the play of voices around opinions in discourse;
Graduation attends to grading phenomena whereby feelings and categories
blurred (Martin & White, 2005). The three systems can be further subdivided.
Attitude can be separated by three types of feelings depending on the nature of
the appraised, namely Affect, Judgement and Appreciation; while Engagement
has two subsystems: Monoglossia, and Heteglossia; and Graduation also
consists of two ranges: Force and Focus.
2.1.1. Engagement
According to Martin and White (2005), Engagement is the resource of
intersubjective stance and dialogistic positioning. It allocates rising attitudes and
the scope of expressions around opinions in discourse. The classification of
meanings is aimed at identifying the particular dialogistic positionings
associated with given meanings and towards describing what meaning is
necessary to employ. Engagement involves resources for positioning the
speaker's/author's voice with respect to the various propositions and proposals


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conveyed by a text. Engagement is subdivided into two kinds: Monoglossic and
Heteroglossic. The distinction is based on the status of the “bare” or categorical
assertion with the resources of dialogistic positioning. Monoglossic makes no
reference to other voices and viewpoints, which is the factuality, makes no
recognition of dialogistic alternatives while Heteroglossic allows for recognition
of dialogistic alternatives. The overview of Appraisal Theory is presented in

Figure 1.

Figure 2.1. Appraisal System
(Martin & White, 2005)

The following examples illustrate the two types of the domain
Engagement.


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Table 2.1. The Monoglossic and the Heteroglossic

(Martin & White, 2005:100)
Monoglosic (no

Heteroglossic (recognition of the

recognition of dialogistic

dialogistic alternatives)

alternatives)
The

banks

greedy.

have

been

There is the argument though that the banks
have been greedy.
In my view the banks have been greedy.
Callers to talkback radio see the banks have
been greedy.
The chairman of the consumer‟s association
has stated that the banks have been greedy.
There can be no denying the banks have been
greedy.
Everyone knows the banks have been greedy.
The banks haven‟t been greedy.

As can be seen from Table 2.1, the example in Monoglossic type which is
presented as taken-for-granted does not refer to other voices or recognize
alternative positions, whereas the ones in Heteroglossic present the writer‟s
views or arguments on the issue such as in my view , there is the argument
though that , callers to talkback radio see, everyone knows, there can be no
denying…The use of these expressions denote the background of previous
utterances, alternative viewpoints, and predicted responses.
In terms of Heteroglossic, it is classified into two distinctive categories,
namely dialogic contraction and dialogic expansion. The former relates to
closing down the dialogically alternative value positions and textual voices. It
involves two subcategories: Disclaim which refers to refusals and concessions


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and Proclaim which represents the proposition as highly reasonable. The latter is
composed of those expressions which expand the scope for dialogic alternatives.

This sub-type includes Entertain and Attribute. Concerning Entertain, it refers to
individual subjectivity, the authorial voice. In terms of Attribute, it presents
propositions in the subjectivity of an external voice.
2.1.2. Graduation
The second system is Graduation, which is regarded as “grading
phenomena whereby feelings are amplified and categories blurred” (Martin &
White, 2005:35). This means it operates across two peaks of scalability from
grading basing on intensity or amount to prototypicality and the preciseness. It is
also a general property of values of Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation that
they interpret a wide extent of positivity or negativity. From this gradability,
Graduation can be categorized into two main forms: Force (the strengthening or
weakening) and Focus (the sharpening or softening).
Force deals with gradable assessments as to the degree of intensity and as
to amount. It is divided into two subtypes: Intensification and Quantification.
The first type contains the assessments of the degree of intensity which can
operate over qualities (quantification) (e.g. slightly hot, extremely hot; he drives
very quickly), over processes (This slightly affected us, this greatly affected us),
or over the verbal modalities of likelihood, usuality, inclination, and obligation
(e.g. it‟s just possible that). Besides, Quantification is the assessments applying
to measuring the presence or mass of entities according to such features as their
size, weight, distribution, proximity (e.g. small school, large amount, a nearby
village) or number (e.g. a few days, many years).
In terms of Focus, when considered from an experiential perspective,
Graduation is non-gradable resources. Focus consists of the value of sharpening
and softening. As for Sharpening, it is possible to up-scale the indicated


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prototypicality, which strongly signifies a positive attitudinal assessment (a real
mother, a true friendship); while Softening is used to down-scale the instance

having one marginal membership with a negative assessment (e.g. they sort of
play jazz, they are kind of jealous, it was an excuse of sorts). Softening values,
which can be recognized under headings as „hedges‟ and „vague language‟,
while the sharpening of values can be expressed by the heading of intensifiers,
boosters, and amplifiers.
2.1.3. Attitude
Attitude is the major subsystem in Appraisal framework and one of three
major discourse semantic resources forming interpersonal meaning. This system is
concerned with our feelings, including emotional reactions, judgements of
behaviour, and evaluation of things. Martin and White (2005) also divided Attitude
into three sections of feelings: Affect, Judgment and Appreciation. Affect deals
with resources of construing emotional reactions; Judgment assesses behavior
according to normative principles and Appreciation reveals the value of things
including natural phenomena and semiosis.
According to Thompson & Hunston (2000), in the general sense, Affect,
Judgement, and Appreciation all encode feelings. They constitute an
interconnected and interactive system of evaluation. They are all motivated by
affectual response with judgment institutionalizing affectual positioning with
respect to human behaviour and appreciation institutionalizing affectual
positioning with respect to product and process. The affect is the center of
institutionalized feelings. This interaction among the three attitudinal categories
is illustrated as Figure 3.


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Figure 2.2. Judgement and appreciation as institutionalised affect
(Martin & White, 2005: 45)

Attitude, one of the three sub-systems of Appraisal framework, has drawn

more attention for researchers than two other ones. The following figure shows
the sub-systems of Attitude.

Figure 2.3. Typology of Attitude subsystems (Liu & Thompson, 2009)


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2.1.3. 1. Affect
Affect is concerned with semantic resources for interpreting emotional
reactions, and registering positive and negative feelings, such as: happiness,
sadness, confidence, anxiety, boredom or interest… Affect is also the emotional
response to the person, thing, happening or state of affairs and is indicated
through various lexical items as verbs of emotion, adverbs and adjectives of
emotion, and nominalization. It can be positive or negative; explicit or invoked;
authorial or non- authorial (observed.)
Attitude was developed by Martin and White as a discourse semantic
system, so the general realisations of the grammar and semantics of affect are
well understood. Affect is concerned with emotional response and disposition
and is typically realised through mental processes of reaction and through
attributive relational states (e.g. I‟m sad; I‟m happy; She‟s proud of her
achievements; He‟s frightened of spiders, ect), through norminalisations of
qualities and processes (e.g. His anger made everyone tired). Appraisal values in
general and Affectual positioning in particular may be indicated by:
(1) verbs of emotion (behavioural, mental or relational process)
eg She smiled at him/ She liked him/ She felt happy with him.
(2) adverbs (typically Circumstances of Manner) such as happily/ sadly
For example: The captain left sadly.
(3) adjectives of emotion: happy/ sad; worried/ confident, angry/ pleased,
keen/ uninterested, scared
For example: I‟m happy she‟s joining the group.

(4) nominalization (the turning of verbs and adjectives into nouns): joy/
despair, confidence/insecurity, happiness, …
For example: His fear was obvious to all.
(5) A phrase: When he got the news, he jumped up and down like a


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young child welcoming his mom back home from the market.
As reviewed by Martin and White (2005), Affect can be realized by
quality, mental, and behavioral processes, modal adjuncts, and nominalizations.
These realizations are illustrated in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2. Grammatical realizations of Affect

(Martin & White, 2005: 46)
Types

Grammatical

Examples

realizations
affect as „quality‟
- describing participants Epithet

a sad captain

- attributed to
participants

Attribute

the captain was sad

- manner of processes

Circumstance

the captain left sadly

affect as „process‟
- affective mental
- af fective behavioral

his departure upset him
Process

he missed them

Modal Adjunct

sadly, he had to go

affect as „comment‟
- desiderative

According to Martin & White (2005), Affect is classified into four subtypes: Dis/ inclination, Un/ happiness, In/ security and Dis/satisfaction.
Dis/ inclination deals with irrealis affect, which describes fear and desire.
The common words through which Dis/inclination are indicated are words of
behavior like tremble, shudder, suggest, demand… and words of disposition, for
example, wary, keen, miss…

Un/happiness covers speaker‟s emotions concerned with „affairs of the
heart‟ such as sadness, hate, happiness and love; it deals with the moods of feeling
happy or sad and can be expressed through words as cry, laugh, hug, embrace,


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hate, sad, cheerful, love, be fond of…
In/security refers to the speaker‟s emotions concerned with ecosocial wellbeing such as anxiety, fear, confidence and trust; it also mentions the mood of
feeling peaceful and anxious in relation to the surroundings. This sub-type can be
typically presented through words like restless, cry out, shaking, anxious,
confident, comfortable…
Dis/satisfaction stresses the speaker‟s feeling of achievement and
frustration; and mentions emotions concerned with the pursuit of goals – ennui,
displeasure, curiosity, respect. Some words such as yawn, fed up with, angry, busy,
attentive, compliment… are used to clarify Dis/satisfaction.
Martin and Rose (2007) demonstated how people expressed their feelings in
discourse, finding that they varied in two general ways. Firstly, there are good
feelings or bad feelings, so all four sub-types of Affect can be classified as either
positive (good vibes that are enjoyable to experience) or negative emotional
dispositions (bad vibes that are better avoided). Secondly, people‟s feelings can be
expressed directly, or inferred from the way people are feeling indirectly from their
behavior, so affect can be expressed directly or implied.
The table below summarizes all four sub-types of Affectual values.
Table 2.3 The system of Affect

(Ngo & Unsworth, 2015:4)
Affect

Positive

Negative

DIES/INCLINA

- desire: suggest, request, -

TION

demand, miss, long for, neglect, reluctant, refuse
yearn for,…

non-desire:

ignore,

to, disinclined, …

- cheer: laugh, chuckle, - misery: cry, sad, cry,
UN/HAPPINESS rejoice,

cheerful, whimper, miserable,

buoyant, jubilant,

down, depressed,


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Affect

Positive

Negative
sorrowful, joyless, tearful,
in tears, dejected,…
- antipathy: abuse, hate,

- affection: hug, love, rubbish,

abuse,

dislike,

like, adore, shake hands, abhor,
embrace, be fond of, …
- disquiet

and

fear:

- confidence: together, stressed, nervous, uneasy,
no pressure, confident, … anxious,
IN/SECURITY

-

trust:

comfortable, - distrust: never trust,

optimistic, trusted…

reluctant,

reserve,

suspicion, doubt, doubtful,
hesitate…
-

interest:

busy, - ennui: yawn, turn out,

attentive, involved, …

jaded, flat, cry, …

DIS/SATISFAC

- pleasure: compliment,

- displeasure: caution,

TION

reward,
impressed,

satisfied, scold,

castigate,

angry,

pleased, sick of, bored with, fed up

charmed, thrilled,…

with, …

Furthermore, another term is proposed by White about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
person‟s emotional response, Affect is itself classified into Authorial Affect and
Observed Affect. The first person emotional response is called Authorial affect
where she/he is emotionally involved in expressing affect or related to the
author‟s own emotions; through Authorial Affect, “the speaker/writer strongly
foregrounds his/her subjective presence in the communicative process” (White,


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2015b). In the case of the Non-Authorial Affect, the speakers or writers express
feelings of the other individuals. Those are the instances “where it is not the
author‟s emotions which are described but those of other human individuals or
groups” (White, 2015b). As a result, he/she makes use of the second and third
person to offer evaluations on others‟ emotions. For example: when a speaker
says: “I am interested in reading novels.”, he/ she expresses his/ her interest
while the second and third person‟s emotion is called Non-Authorial Affect
which the first person merely expresses affect from the second or third person.
In other words, the first person is not emotionally involved, and concerned with

emotions of other human individuals or groups. For instance, when a speaker
says: “Many students are worried about their coming exams”, he/ she does not
show his/ her feelings toward the matter (Ananda et al., 2018). The expression
of Affect can be also codified through a grammatical metaphor (Halliday and
Matthiessen, 2014), which includes nominalized realizations of qualities (joy,
sadness, sorrow) and processes (grief, sobs).
The systems of Affect, Judgement and Appreciation not only follow the
distinction between positive and negative polarity but also can be classified as
direct or implied appraisals. This latter distinction is treated in the Appraisal
model as an inscribed and evoked Appraisal (tokens). An inscribed Appraisal is
explicitly expressed in the text and is associated with specific lexical items and
their graduation, whereas an evoked Appraisal is manifested in an implicit
manner by reference, for example, to a metaphorical language that can provoke
a particular meaning. Martin (2000:155) explains:
[As] far as reading affect is concerned, inscribed affect is more prescriptive
about the reading position naturalized – it is harder to resist or ignore;
evoked affect on the other hand is more open – accommodating a wider
range of reading positions, including readings that may work against the


17
response otherwise naturalized by the text.

In short, Affect can be indicated not only by the lexico-grammatical
realizations such as types of words or word classes, phrases and
clauses or sentences but also by semantics of four sub-types : Dis/ inclination,
Un/ happiness, In/ security and Dis/satisfaction. Another sub-type of Attitude is
Judgment, which is applied to evaluate people‟s behavior, is demonstrated in the
following section.
2.1.3. 2. Judgment

The semantic domain of Judgement, as already mentioned, can be seen as
the feelings in terms of proposals or norms about how people should and should
not behave. This subsystem also has a positive and negative dimension, and can
be inscribed or evoked in the discourse. Martin and White (2005) propose a
subdivision of Judgement into two major groups: Social Esteem (values of
Normality, Capacity and Tenacity) and Social Sanction (values of Veracity and
Propriety). Judgement of Social Esteem can be classified into three sub-types:
„Normality‟ which expresses how unusual or special someone is, „Capacity‟
which shows how capable they are and „Tenacity‟ which indicates how resolute
they are. Ngo and Unsworth (2015) suggest the range of realisations
categorisation of Normality is very diverse in meaning, it can be divided into
three subcategories dealing with the meanings of Fortune, Reputation, and
Behaviour. Realisations of Capacity can be categorised into three groups:
Mental Capacity, Material Capacity and Social Capacity. Mental Capacity refers
to mental or cognitive performances and academic or professional skills.
Material Capacity has to do with physical performance, physical and technical
skills. Social Capacity refers to personal and interpersonal performances. As for
Judgement of Sanction, there are two terms „Veracity‟ with the meaning of how
truthful someone is and „Propriety‟ modifying how ethical someone is. The


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following examples further explain the distinction of sub-types of Judgment
Normality : He is fashionable/he is dated.
Capacity : She is an expert/she is inexpert.
Tenacity : He is tireless/he is weak.
Veracity: He is honest/he is dishonest.
Propriety: She is humble/she is arrogant
(Oteiza, 2017)
The full system of Judgment set out below in Table 2.4 illustrates the

Judgment domain in detail.
Table 2.4. The full system of JUDGMENT (Martin & White, 2005: 53)

Social Esteem

positive [admire]

negative [criticise]

normality

lucky, fortunate,

unlucky, hapless, star-

„how special?‟/ „is the charmed …; normal,
person's

behaviour natural, familiar …;

unusual,
customary?'

special, cool, stable, predictable

crossed…;
odd,

eccentric,

peculiar,

erratic,

unpredictable …, dated,

…; in, fashionable,

daggy,

avant garde …;

obscure,

celebrated, unsung …

unfashionable,

retrograde,
unfortunate...;
also-

ran…
capacity

powerful, vigorous,

mild, weak, whimpy …;

„how capable?‟

robust …; sound,

unsound, sick, crippled

`is the person competent, healthy, fit …; adult,
capable?'

…; immature, childish,

mature, experienced …;

helpless …;

witty, humorous, droll

dull, dreary, grave …;

…; insightful, clever,

slow, stupid, thick …;

gifted …; balanced,

flaky, neurotic, insane

together, sane …;

…; naive, inexpert,

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sensible, expert, shrewd

foolish …; illiterate,

…; literate, educated,

uneducated, ignorant …;

learned …; competent,

incompetent;

accomplished …;

unaccomplished …;

successful, productive …

unsuccessful,
unproductive …

tenacity

plucky, brave, heroic...;

„how dependable?‟

cautious, wary, patient, …; rash, impatient,

`is

the

person careful,

dependable,

thorough, impetuous …;

well meticulous,

disposed?'

timid, cowardly, gutless

dependable...;

reliable, hasty, capricious,
faithful, reckless …;

loyal, constant, flexible, weak, distracted,
adaptable,

despondent …;

accommodating,

unreliable, undependable

indefatigable,

…; unfaithful, disloyal,

determined,

resolute, inconstant …; stubborn,

persevering, …

obstinate, wilful …

Social Sanction

positive [praise]

negative [condemn]

veracity [truth]

truthful, honest, credible

dishonest, deceitful,

„how honest?‟

…; frank, candid, direct

lying …; deceptive,

„is the person honest?'

…; discrete, tactful …

manipulative, devious
…; blunt, blabbermouth
…

propriety [ethics]
„how

far

reproach?‟

good, moral, ethical …;

bad, immoral, evil …;

beyond law abiding, fair, just …; corrupt, unfair, unjust
sensitive, kind, caring

…; insensitive, mean,

`is the person ethical, …; unassuming, modest, cruel …; vain, snobby,


20
beyond reproach?'

humble …;
polite,

arrogant …; rude,
respectful, discourteous, irreverent

reverent …; altruistic, …; selfish, greedy,
generous, charitable …

avaricious …

According to White (2015b), under Judgment, we may assess behaviour
as moral or immoral, as legal or illegal, as socially acceptable or unacceptable,
as laudable or deplorable, as normal or abnormal and so on.
As White (2015) suggests that, Judgment resources can be realized as
follows:
+ Adverbials: justly, fairly, virtuously, honestly, pluckily, indefatigably,
cleverly, stupidly, eccentrically.
+ Attributes and epithets: a corrupt politician, that was dishonest, don‟t
be cruel, she‟s very brave, he‟s indefatigable, a skillful performer, truly
eccentric behavior.
+ Nominals: a brutal tyrant, a cheat and a liar, a hero, a genius, a
maverick.
+ Verbs: to cheat, to deceive, to sin, to lust after, to chicken out, and to
triumph.
The attitudinal sub-system of Judgement encompasses meanings which
serve to evaluate human behavior positively and negatively by reference to a set of
institutionalized norms. Like Affect, values of Judgment have either positive or
negative status. Specifically, positive values of Judgment deal with admiration and

praise while negative ones concern with criticism and condemn. In other words,
values of Judgment have either positive or negative status like the following
opposites:
virtuous versus immoral, honest versus deceitful, brave versus cowardly, smart vers