This set of notes explores the Appraisal framework, 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. Thus it explores how speakers and writers pass judgements on people generally, other writers/speakers and their utterances, material objects, happenings and states of affairs and thereby form alliances with those who share these views and distance themselves from those who don't. It explores how attitudes, judgements and emotive responses are explicitly presented in texts and how they may be more indirectly implied, presupposed or assumed. As well, it explores how the expression of such attitudes and judgements is, in many instances, carefully managed so as to take into account the ever-present possibility of challenge or contradiction from those who hold differing views.
The Appraisal framework has emerged over a period of almost 15 as a result of work conducted by a group of researchers lead by Professor James Martin of the University of Sydney. Work in developing the Appraisal framework is now being carried out by researchers based at various centres both in Australia and now internationally. The University of Birmingham in the UK, for example, has a research group devoted to developing our understanding of the language of evaluation and stance. Some of the key publications in Appraisal include (in chronological order): Iedema, Feez, and White 1994, Martin 1995a, Martin 1995b, Christie and Martin 1997, Martin 1997, Coffin 1997, Eggins and Slade 1997 (especially chapter 4), White 1998, Martin 2000, Coffin 2000, White 2000, Körner 2001, Rothery and Stenglin in press, and a special edition of the journal Text edited by Jim Martin and Mary Macken to appear in 2002.
The following set of notes relies primarily upon Iedema et al. 1994, Christie and Martin 1997, Martin 2000, White 1998and White to appear from which most of the material is taken.
Below are just a few illustrative example of the type of questions which an understanding of the linguistic resources of Appraisal enables us to investigate:
