An Exploration of Strategies to Convey Evaluation in the “Notebook” Texts
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AN EXPLORATION OF STRATEGIES TO CONVEY EVALUATION IN THE “NOTEBOOK” TEXTS By PAULA M. JULLIAN A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English School of Humanities The University of Birmingham December 2008 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis presents an analytical study of the expression of evaluation in a highly opinionated type of discourse. This exploration, chiefly motivated by a concern with pedagogical issues, sought to identify and describe some of the strategies used by writers to convey explicit and implicit interpersonal meanings in order to help non-native learners read more critically. In particular, the study attempted to account for some resources of indirect evaluation which have been little described so far. The analysis is on the one hand based on some aspects of the Appraisal Theory, especially on White‟s (2004, 2005/6) notions of naturalisation and unarguability, and on the other on evaluation conveyed through attributed material. It is argued that such resources indirectly position readers in a stance similar to the writer‟s own, which places him/her in control of the material and thus, ultimately, of the readers‟ views. The study concluded that none of the individual strategies was significantly powerful by itself, but that they all interact and reinforce each other‟s meanings, adding to the cumulative attitudinal effect of the text. It is suggested that the strategies identified in this particular type of text are likely to occur in other text types as well. Acknowledgements The achievement of this thesis has not been easy; it has been a long and windy process in which many people have been involved in many different ways, providing their help, time, support and affection. Now, I would like to make this gratefulness explicit to all these people, also those unnamed here, among whom is my family in the very first place. But also I would like to thank in a very especial way the following persons: Professor Susan Hunston for her guidance, demand and encouragement that helped me get this thesis done in less than two years; to Dr. Murray Knowles and Dr. Rosamund Moon for their help and guidance in my first steps towards this thesis. At a more personal level, I would like to express my gratitude to Judy Didsbury for her unconditional availability and warm welcome to Birmingham whenever it was necessary; to the AlBan program, for the grant and financial support of that made this PhD. Possible. Very especially, I would like to thank the Facultad de Letras de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile for their financial support and the grant of my study leave. Among the people I would like to make especial reference of the Dean, Don Jose Luis Samaniego, for his encouragement and unconditional trust. Likewise, my thankfulness also goes to my friends at work for taking over my duties during my absence, in a very particular way to Paula Ross, who believed in me and my project more than myself. Finally also to my friends from Coniston Hall in Manchester, from whom I learnt so much, for their patience, affection and constant support. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... - 1 - 1.1 Rationale .............................................................................................................................. - 1 - 1.2 Theoretical Background ....................................................................................................... - 3 - 1.3 Field of the Thesis ............................................................................................................... - 5 - 1.4 Objectives and Research Question ...................................................................................... - 6 - 1.5 Methodology ........................................................................................................................ - 8 - 1.6 Structure of the Thesis ......................................................................................................... - 9 - 2. CORPUS DESCRIPTION: THE GENRE OF THE NOTEBOOK TEXTS ...................... - 11 - 2.1 The Corpus ......................................................................................................................... - 11 - 2.2 Reasons for the Choice of the Corpus ............................................................................... - 12 - 2.3 Genre.................................................................................................................................. - 13 - 2.3.1 Different Genre Traditions................................................................................................. - 14 - 2.3.1.1 Academic Discourse Tradition .......................................................................................... - 15 - 2.3.1.2 The Australian Tradition .................................................................................................... - 16 - 2.3.1.3 The Corpus-based Description ........................................................................................... - 16 - 2.3.1.4 Other .................................................................................................................................. - 17 - 2.3.2 The Flexibility of the Notion of Genre .............................................................................. - 17 - 2.4 Journalistic Genres ............................................................................................................. - 19 - 2.4.1 Opinion Columns ............................................................................................................... - 20 - 2.4.2 The News Report ............................................................................................................... - 21 - 2.5 Ideology in the News ......................................................................................................... - 24 - 2.5.1 The Issue of Selection ........................................................................................................ - 25 - 2.5.2 Claim of Objectivity .......................................................................................................... - 26 - 2.5.3 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) ................................................................................... - 28 - 2.5.4 Appraisal Theory ............................................................................................................... - 29 - 2.6 The NOTEBOOK Texts .................................................................................................... - 30 - 2.6.1 A Genre of their own ......................................................................................................... - 30 - 2.6.2 External and Internal Features of the NOTEBOOK texts.................................................. - 32 - 2.6.3 External Features ............................................................................................................... - 33 - 2.6.4 Internal Features ................................................................................................................ - 34 - 2.7 Specific Features of the “NOTEBOOK” Texts ................................................................. - 38 - 3. LITERATURE REVIEW OF ATTITUDINAL MEANING............................................. - 49 - 3.1 The Attitudinal Aspect of Language .................................................................................. - 49 - 3.2 Defining Attitude ............................................................................................................... - 51 - 3.3 Different Approaches to Attitude ...................................................................................... - 55 - 3.3.1 Appraisal ............................................................................................................................ - 56 - 3.3.2 Evaluation .......................................................................................................................... - 59 - 3.3.3 Stance ................................................................................................................................. - 62 - 3.3.4 Other .................................................................................................................................. - 64 - 3.4 The Expression of Attitude in Discourse ........................................................................... - 65 - 3.4.1 The Explicit Marking of Attitude ...................................................................................... - 66 - 3.4.2 Implicit Indication of Evaluation ....................................................................................... - 70 - 3.4.3 Summary ...........................................................................................................................