The System of

Appraisal
Where are we in the model?

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Appraisal theory is used to analyze how the
writer/speaker values the
entities (people and things)
within the text that they
produce.

Language of
de Intersubjective
evaluation, attitu
and emotion. positions

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 Book extract
“Appraisal theory is concerned with the linguistic
resources for by which texts/speakers come to
express, negotiate and naturalise particular
inter-subjective and ultimately ideological positions.
Within this broad scope, the theory is concerned more
particularly with the language of evaluation, attitude
and emotion, and with a set of resources which
explicitly position a text’s proposals and propositions
interpersonally.” (Appraisal Outline, 2001)

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Developed during the 1990s by:

Peter White
Jim Martin

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 Brief history

Appraisal theory is, of course, located within the

framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics.
The model was initially created in the context of the
educational linguistics and literacy intervention work of
the Sydney School, as part of the New South Wales
Disadvantaged Schools Programme led by Jim Martin in
the 1980s and 1990s.

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According to Martin and White (2005), appraisal is concerned
with the interpersonal meaning in language, with the
subjective presence of writers/speakers in texts as they
adopt stances towards both the material they present and
those with whom they communicate. […]

It is concerned with the construction by texts of communities

of shared feelings and values, and with the linguistic
mechanisms for the sharing of emotions, tastes and
normative assessments.

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Appraisal Subsystems
Attitude Engagement
Graduation

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Attitude

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Attitude ➡ resources by which speakers convey or activate
positive or negative viewpoints – positive/negative feelings,
judgements of behaviour and evaluation of things. It
captures the emotional, ethical and aesthetic aspects of
evaluation.
For example: It’s a beautiful girl.

These resources enable us to evaluate things, people´s

character and their feelings

Affect
These meaning are called Judgement
Appreciation

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Affect
 Affect
It is concerned with emotional response and disposition and
is typically realised through mental processes of reaction
(This pleases me, I hate chocolate, etc) and through
attributive relationals of AFFECT (I'm sad, I'm happy, she's
proud of her achievements, he's frightened of spiders, etc).
Through ideational metaphor, they may, of course, be
realised as nouns: His fear was obvious to all.
These values occur as positive or negative categories:

All my friends envied me ➡ negative

I loved him so much ➡ positive

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 Affect

We can express feelings such as happiness, sadness, fear,

security, etc.

For example:

I am disappointed and ashamed that two of our most

admired and respected sportsmen could behave in such a
manner.

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 Affect
Affectual positioning can be expressed through:

adjectives of emotion: happy/sad, worried/confident,

angry/pleased, keen/interested.
verbs of behavior that manifest emotion: cried, laugh, yell,
murmur.
verbs of emotion: love/hate, frighten/reassure, interest/bore.
adverbs (typically circumstances of manner): happily/sadly,
furiously/happily.
nominalisation: joy/despair, confidence/insecurity.

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Judgement

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 Judgement
It is deployed to express moral evaluations of behaviour. It
also has a positive and a negative dimension, corresponding
to positive and negative judgments about people's behaviour
or, in other words, to expressions of social esteem or social
sanction.

He was a sharply intelligent man ➡ personal/direct

Our leaders are faceless ➡ moral/direct

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 Judgement
A person will be judged and held by the community in
lower or higher esteem

or the judgment can involve

assessments by reference to systems of legality/illegality,
morality/immorality or politeness/impoliteness,

that is, according to rules of behaviour, more or less explicitly

codified in the culture.

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 Judgement
Values can be realised as:

1. adverbials – justly, fairly, virtuously, honestly, pluckily,

indefatigably, cleverly, stupidly, eccentrically
2. attributes and epithets – a corrupt politician, that was
dishonest, don’t be cruel, she’s very brave, he’s indefatigable, a
skilful performer, truly eccentric behaviour
3. nominals – a brutal tyrant, a cheat and a liar, a hero, a genius,
a maverick
4. verbs – to cheat, to deceive, to sin, to lust after, to chicken out,
to triumph

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Appreciation
 Appreciation
It is the system by which evaluations are made of products and
processes.It encompasses values which fall under the general
heading of aesthetics, as well as a non-aesthetic category of
‘social valuation’ which includes meanings such as significant
and harmful. While judgement evaluates human behaviours,
appreciation typically evaluates natural objects, manufactured
objects, texts as well as more abstract constructs such as plans
and policies.

A beautiful relationship ➡ positive

My unsuccessful marriage ➡ negative

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 Appreciation
The values of appreciation are concerned with:

Composition (structure or form): how well the parts of the entity

under evaluation fit together, with terms as harmonious,
well-formed, balanced, unified, discordant.
Reaction: the type of reaction the assessed item activates -
beautiful, lovely, splendid, ugly, depressing, boring, captivating
Valuation or the social value or significance: a key figure, a
healthy environment.

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Sample table for the analysis of attitude
Affect: un/happiness

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Affect: in/security

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Affect: dis/satisfaction

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Judgement: social esteem

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Judgement: social esteem

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Appreciation

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Appreciation

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Graduation

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 Graduation
Values by which speakers graduate (raise or lower) the
interpersonal impact, force or volume of their utterances,
and by which they graduate (blur or sharpen) the focus of
their semantic categorisations.

How much we grade upwards or downwards the intensity of

the attitude we express encodes our own subjective
evaluation.

Extremely intelligent. Sharply intelligent ➡ high grading

Fairly intelligent. Somewhat intelligent. ➡ low grading

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 Graduation
The resources that allow us to turn up (amplify) or to turn
down (downtone) our expressions of attitude and of
engagement is systematized in graduation, the second
subsystem of appraisal semantics.

Graduation has two subsystems:

Force and Focus.

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Force
 Force
It includes values which have elsewhere been labelled,
intensifiers, down-tones, boosters, emphasizers, emphatics,
etc. Perhaps this category’s most obvious mode of
expression is through the adverbs of intensification –
slightly, a bit, somewhat, rather, really, very, completely, etc.
This principle of scaling also applies to those values which
act to measure quantity, extent, and proximity in time and
space – small, large; a few, many; near, far, etc.

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 Force

A: It's terrible, dreadful, disgraceful that poor little sister

has never received a single gentleman caller!

A: Preparations! Why didn't you phone me at once, as soon

as you asked him, the minute that he accepted?

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 Force

Force can be expressed by an independent lexical element

that expresses the intensification as in:

phone me at once, as soon as you asked me; a single

gentleman caller

or it can be realized infused in the lexeme itself:

it's disgraceful! expresses a high degree of shame, it´s a
pity!, expresses a lower degree.

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 Force
We can turn the volume of evaluations up or down by:

Intensifying via

lexical markers: slightly, very, so, utterly, just.

infusion (isolating): delirious; elated; frightened, scrutinized,
glance, look over.
lexical metaphor: ice cold, crystal clear, (sleeping like a) log.
repetition: she cried and cried and cried.
adding vigor: flowed slowly; held firmly; watched intently;
observed carefully.
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 Force
Quantifying:
- number: a few cyclists, a horde of mosquitoes, a
crowd (lexicalized or infused).
- mass: a huge surprise, a tiny problem.
- extent (proximity and distribution) in time or in place:
for so long, since the 60's, from the east to the west coast,
far away, right around the corner, just 2 minutes ago.

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Focus

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 Focus
Focus covers those meanings which are elsewhere typically
analysed under the headings of ‘hedging’ and ‘vague
language’. Typical values are, he kind've admitted
it; he effectively admitted it, he as good as admitted etc; a
whale is a fish, sort've.
Under appraisal theory, values which sharpen rather than
blur the focus are also included – for example a true friend,
pure folly.

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 Focus
It expresses the degree to which certain phenomena are
prototypical exemplars of a particular semantic category.
This can be done with respect to authenticity (a real friend)
or specificity (exactly what I mean).

For example:
They apologized, sort of.
I'd call it kind of crazy, if you ask me.
They are really fooling around.
Precisely! They just need to make up their minds!
That's the spirit! Nice to know you feel that way!
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Engagement

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 Engagement
It explores how and to what rhetorical ends writers position
themselves respect to prior speakers, alternative
viewpoints and potential respondents (including those
being addressed).

Engagement is concerned with the resources by which

writers acknowledge themselves with other speakers, by
which they acknowledge, make space for or head off
alternative viewpoints, and by which they project values,
beliefs and expectations onto those being addressed.
[White 2008 class notes]

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 Engagement
Engagement is concerned with how apparently monologic
written texts are in fact dialogic in that they present their
authors as referencing, endorsing, questioning or rejecting
the prior statements of other speakers/writers, as in
alignment or misalignment with others out there in the
community, and as anticipating agreement, puzzlement,
doubt, resistance or rejection on the part of those to whom
they direct their words.
[White 2008, class notes]

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 Engagement
Textual voice

engages with

Prior speakers Propositions Potential respondents

made in the with alternative
text viewpoints

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 Engagement
If our text is dialogic, we can choose the degree to which we
would like to open up space for other voices.

more dialogic less dialogic

expansive contractive
entertain proclaim
attribute disclaim

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 Engagement
Proclaim: it represents the proposition as highly
warrantable (valid, well-founded, generally agreed).
In this way other alternative positions are resisted or
suppressed:

Concur: naturally…, of course…, obviously…, admittedly… not

surprisingly, a rhetorical or leading question.
Pronounce: I contend…, the truth of the matter is…, there
can be no doubt that …you can only conclude that.
Endorse: X has demonstrated that …; X has compellingly
argued.
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 Engagement
Let’s look at the following examples:

Naturally, I understand the eagerness of all of you to

get started.
I will, of course, call you as soon as I know what
happened. (Concur)

This evidence clearly demonstrates the privileged

status of those with English as a first language and the
resulting marginalisation of those without. (Endorse)

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 Engagement
most contractive

Of course, The Matrix is the best movie of all time.

The facts of the matter are that The Matrix is the best
movie of all time.
The Matrix is, undoubtedly, the best movie of all time.
In my view, The Matrix is the best movie of all time.
The Matrix is probably the best movie of all time.
The Matrix could be the considered by some as
least contractive
best movie of all time.
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 Engagement
Disclaim: deny refers to meanings by which some dialogic
alternative is invoked so as to be directly rejected, replaced
or held to unsustainable.

For example:

You just don´t know. We can't have a gentleman caller in a

pigsty!
I can't bend forward and I can't like turn sideways.

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 Engagement
Disclaim (counter) It includes formulations which represent the
current proposition as replacing or countering a proposition
which would have been expected in its place.
Examples:

I´d like to but I just don´t have the time.

Even though he had tried hard to exercise his leg, it never got
altogether better again.

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 Resources
● Prof. G. Bittar’s notes and class presentations.
● Class notes (2019)

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