Upscaling and downscaling

Graduation of evaluative meanings

Overt or Covert

REVISION

• Evaluation

revision

• We are looking at evaluative language, which gives the subjective point of view or stance of the speakeer/writer.

• We have seen how evaluation is an important part of communication.

• In texts it can be seen at lexical, grammatical and discourse levels.

Covert Evaluation

evaluation can be implicit or ‘conceptual’, with no obvious linguistic clues, exploiting the audience’s ability to recognize a good – or bad – thing when they see it.

No linguistic clues

Goal orientated

Based on what we recognize to be desirable

Overt Evaluation

• Lexical

• Grammatical

• Discourse /Textual

Evaluation

• Lexical– Adjectives: splendid, terrible, surprising…– Adverbs: happily, unfortunately, plainly…– Nouns: success, failure, tragedy…– Verbs: succeed, fail, win, lose…

Evaluation

• Grammatical e.g.– Superlatives: the best, the worst…Comparatives:

better, worse …– Choice of tense:

•“Skinner (1957) argued that language was learned through a process of stimulus-response, with large amounts o f controlled repetition. Chomsky (1959) argues that language could never be learned in this way, and that we are all endowed at birth with a language acquisition device”

(From Batstone, 1994)

– the thematised it structure (it is frightening to think that…)

Evaluation

Discourse / Textual

John argued with SueSue argued with JohnJohn and Sue argued

The words in red are themes

Evaluation

• Discourse / Textual

In newspaper editorials the most important

evaluation is placed at the end.

Textual Evaluation To complain that there's too much swearing on TV isn't prissy or

prudish but a recognition that standards could be higher.

Parents increasingly feel under siege as children are able to watch

shows with bad language in bedrooms or on the internet.

This is why the culture spokesmen of the three main political parties

added their voices to the Daily Mirror's call to clean up TV.

Swearing in the proper context at the right time will always be part

of broadcasting.

But producers must ask themselves if it is really necessary instead

of just nodding through expletives.

(Mirror)

Textual Evaluation Guardian

In itself, the fact that a majority of the country either

opposes or is sceptical towards his policy on Iraq is not

necessarily a reason for Tony Blair to change course If a

particular policy is right, then a minister is entitled to stick

with it in the face of opposition, to trust to his own judgment

and to take the consequences….

But Mr Blair's view of the crisis - and of the role he is playing

- remains dangerously double-edged. Mr Blair's whole

approach on Iraq may be put to its ultimate test very soon, ...

US approach towards the Iraqi regime.</FP>

Textual cohesion

• In retrospect, the solemnity – and to modern eyes and ears, pomposity – of the politics and media of the past may be seen as in part a reflection of the current or very recent reasons to be be serious: the daily expectation of invasion or death.

• Similarly, the frivolity and triviality of much modern discourse … is the product of a decade in which nothing seems to matter very much … (Guardian)

Graduation of evaluative meaning

Upscaling and downscaling of the intensity attitudinal or evaluative

meaning

gradability

• Attitudes and subjective meanings can be expressed with more or less positivity or negativity reflecting the degree of investment in the utterance

• There are various ways of doing this• You can grade by intensity or by amount

(force)• And you can grade by preciseness of category

boundaries or prototypicality (focus)

Focus

• Prototypicality and the preciseness by which category boundaries are drawn

• The degree to which some core or exemplary instance of a semantic category are matched

• It is possible to up-scale or ‘sharpen’ the specification

• E.g. a real father, a true friend

Focus

• Or you can down-scale or ‘soften’ the specification characterising an instance as having a more marginal membership of the category

• E.g they sort of play jazz, she is kind of crazy,

Sharpening and softening

• Sharpening involves maximal investment by the authorial voice in the value position

• Softening of positive values occurs when positive assessement might be problematic for the writer/reader relationship

• Softening of negative values indicates a lessening of the speaker/writer’s value position

Hedges and boosters

• Softening values is often called hedging

• Sharpening values is often called boosting

See Cambridge Grammar of English Sections: 146,423,539 on hedges and boosters

in academic texts

Focus

• You can increase focus by using intensifiers• True, real, genuine• Really, very, genuinely

• You can lessen focus by hedging:• Kind of, sort of, a bit, -ish

Force

• Force = degree of intensity which can be up-scaled or down-scaled

• Slightly, somewhat, a bit, rather,• Are all downtoners and lessen intensity

• Greatly, very, absolutely• Are intensifiers which increase

isolating

• Some items can realise the up or downscaling on their own to establish the intensity, applying it either to qualities (adjectives and adverbs) or to verbal processes e.g the items a bit, rather, somewhat, quite

• A bit miserable, rather/very miserable• Slightly abruptly, quite abruptly, very abruptly• This rather annoyed me

maximisers

• These increase force to the highest possible intensity:

• Utterly, totally, thoroughly, absolutely, completely, perfectly

• These are considered to be grammatical intensifiers since they belong to a closed set and have relatively little referential meaning

Hyperbole

• Hyperbole uses maximisers

• I’m always thinking about food.• This gate is in constant use• I never make mistakes

lexicalisation

• Some intensification can be done by lexical means, either figurative or with attitudinal overtones:

• Ice cold• Crystal clear• Deliriously happy• Ridiculously easy

Scales of intensity

• Sometimes the intensity is not conveyed by a separate lexical item but is infused in the meaning of items in a lexical set

• Warm – hot- scalding• Contented – happy – joyous• Trickle – flow – flood• Glance – look - scrutinise

repetition

• You can also intensify by repeating the same lexical item (reiteration):

• It’s hot, hot, hot• A tiny, tiny,little baby• (see Robert Fisk article)• Or by semantic repetition via synonyms• He’s, dumb, stupid, idiotic, cretinous and

totally brainless

metaphor

• You can also use metaphor to convey intensified meanings:

• Prices have sky-rocketed• Mountainous seas

Persona

• The way a person uses up and down scaling can be part of their personality.

• It can be used by authors to construct character

• It can be used by journalists to construct their persona with their public

• It is an important part of the expression of opinions and of certainty and uncertainty

Attribution vs averral

another sort of ‘embedding’ of evaluation is possible in texts: where the author attributes

evaluations to other voices. It can often be important to determine who is

projected by an author as performing an evaluation, in other words, who is projected as

the ‘principal’ (Goffman 1981) or the ‘responsible’ or ‘motivator’ (Levinson 1988) of the evaluation, that is, the supposed evaluator.

Attribution

• We will be looking later on at this resource, the way other voices are brought into the discourse to support or rebut an argument.

Evaluation and conflict

• Evaluation is often a key element of conflict. Often conflicts are a result of opposing value systems, what one group thinks is good, the other thinks is bad – the words they choose to talk about the conflict will often signal their investment through intensification or hedging.

• In turn the words used can intensify a conflict

remember

• the persuader uses evaluative language to convince his or her audience that their own opinions are good and that their proposals are worthy and logical, those of their opponents illogical or dangerous, that they are trustworthy and honest and maybe that others who disagree with them are not.

• There are many ways to do this. (lexical, grammatical, covert, overt etc, use of metaphor, graduation)

• Look at the text.• Can you identify and label examples of

upscaling or downscaling?

NB• The first part of the course deals with

attribution and evaluation in the press• 24 Feb – 17 March• There will be a written prova in itinere on 18th

of March for those who have been studying during the course

• The second part of the course deals with the language of television news (evaluation and attribution) and runs from 19th March – 9th April