The term `Appraisal' is used as a cover-all term to encompass all evaluative uses of language, including those by which speakers/writers adopt particular value positions or stances and by which they negotiate these stances with either actual or potential respondents. According, Appraisal - the evaluative use of language - is seen to perform the following functions.
Here we are concerned with might be thought of as `praising' and `blaming', with meanings by which writers/speakers indicate either a positive or negative assessment of people, places, things, happenings and states of affairs.
Some obvious examples of attitudinal positioning are provided by the following extracts. The first is from a radio interview with the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, in 1999 on the subject of the high charges then being imposed by banks on their customers. The second is from a newspaper comment piece defending the behaviour of one of the contestants/characters in the `reality TV' series/documentary, Big Brother which ran in the UK in 2000. The third is from a newspaper article feature lauding the merits of that icon of 1960s motoring, the E-type Jaguar. (Attitudinal elements are underlined).
1. There is an argument, though, is there, the banks have been a bit greedy I mean, the profits are high and good on them, they're entitled to have high profits, but at the same time the fees are bordering on the unreasonable now. 2. No doubt the men want to sleep with her but they also respect, like and trust her. She is upfront and gutsy. If Mel were a man, I'd have a crush on her... I would adore her as a friend. 3. It [the E-type Jaguar] is a masterpiece of styling whose proportions are dramatic yet perfectly judged and well-mannered; its crisp details are in complete harmony with the broader outlines of the gorgeous general arrangement, and, symbolically, it evokes with exquisite eloquence all the ideas of speed, glamour and romance associated with travel. You can just feel air and bodies rushing and swooning all over that lascivious shape. Never, ever, has that creaking old trope about form and function had a better character witness. (The Independent, Weekend Review: p.1 27/01/2001)
