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1.
Language of Appraisal in Book Reviews: A Case Study
Katja Časar, 2020, master's thesis

Abstract: This master’s thesis presents an analysis of appraisal in the case of ten book reviews. Their selection is based on several criteria that make them representative of this text type. The selected texts evaluate novels, novellas and short stories that were ranked top 300 according to the Open Syllabus Project 2.0 online data base. This means that they fall into the category of the most often assigned books in educational institutions. The authors of the selected texts are editors, journalists and writers, and there is an even number of male and female reviewers. The purpose of the study is the appraisal analysis of the contemporary English language; therefore, only the recently published texts were selected. The main methodology used in this master’s thesis is the appraisal theory developed by James Martin and Peter White (Martin and White). This theory evolved in the systemic functional linguistics, and it relies on the theoretical concepts of Michael Halliday (Halliday). The appraisal analysis was conducted with help of the analytical tool Catma 5.0, which enables annotation of texts, their analysis and the visualization of data. The results of the research show that the most frequently used attitudinal resources are the expressions of appreciation. Therefore, the evaluation of the story and everything associated with it is in the foreground of the book reviews. The analysis of the selected texts reveals that evaluation is mostly explicit, meaning that the reader is directly invited to engage with the book. The findings indicate that the attitudinal resources are graded more according to intensity and quantity and less according to prototypicality and marginality. This conclusion draws attention to the variety of lexical and grammatical structures in the selected texts that are assumed to be characteristic of this text type in general. The results also show that the reviewers do not include many external sources into the text, which consequently narrows down the dialogistic space and excludes alternative views and attitudes. The appraisal analysis points toward the text-structural and semantic characteristics of book reviews in general. The structure of the selected texts consists of the following elements: information about the author and the book, the plot summary and evaluation of these elements, which are often intertwined. Some reviews also include personal accounts, book details and/or numeric ratings. The most significant semantic characteristic of evaluation expressed in the selected book reviews is the critique of the Western oppressor. The reviewers judge crimes against humanity and question Western perspectives. They also imply the complicity of the readers because they are viewed as members of the Western identity. Additionally, the results of the analysis show that the book reviews are contextual and intertextual text types, which include various means for the realization of appraisal. A vast spectrum of lexical and grammatical structures makes book reviews an interesting research topic with many possibilities for further research.
Keywords: evaluative language, systemic functional linguistics, appraisal theory, appraisal analysis, book review.
Published in DKUM: 23.07.2020; Views: 1595; Downloads: 180
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