Appraisal: Meaning Beyond The Clause

Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 16):

In terms of meaning beyond the clause APPRAISAL allows us, for example, to evaluate indefinitely long phases of discourse. The extended connexion example we used as (25) earlier does more than elaborate a proposition; it also positions viewers to bond attitudinally in a specific way around a recurring parking lot event.

(25')

Oh another thing that has been really annoying this summer is –

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you know when you go to a parking lot and it’s a busy place. You get in your car and you don’t necessarily want to leave immediately. Like you might want to – I might want to have Henry test his blood sugar, give the kids snacks. Or if we were at the pool, like change or look at my phone or send a text message or whatever. It drives me crazy when a car is like sitting there following you and then they just wait for you to leave.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, for Halliday (2008: 179), ATTITUDE is a grammatical system realised by the selection of lexical items, so any meaning 'beyond the clause' is realised textually through lexical cohesion.

[2] To be clear, APPRAISAL is enacted in the unfolding of discourse, the creation of text, logogenesis.

[3] To be clear, this instance is not the elaboration of a proposition. Ideationally, it is the elaboration of a Value by a Token, where, textually, the Value is the point of departure for the Token. Interpersonally, the clause realises a single proposition, with several clauses embedded in the Complement realising several propositions.