• This paper presents findings of an Appraisal analysis of a set of wine reviews composed by Robert Parker, one of the most influential critics of the industry. A set of texts was co-analysed by both researchers and the findings reviewed using reference to Parker’s own glossary of wine terms. The results provide new support for our recognition that semantic categories of Attitude are Field dependent. In order to accommodate the proliferation of semantic fields attracting evaluation in the texts, new sub-categories of Appreciation needed to be proposed, and these extensions to the present system will be the focus of the presentation.The Appraisal framework (see for example Martin & White 2005) categorises instances of evaluative language in authentic texts under three main areas: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. In this paper we focus on Attitude: Appreciation, and the evaluation of the products of human or natural creation. Sub- categories of Appreciation highlight semantic boundaries between terms that refer to either ‘social value’, ‘composition’, or ‘reaction’.Each sub-category of Appreciation has been extended in the light of our analysis, and we suggest that the Appraisal framework needs to be viewed as a semantic template capable of accounting for variation in meaning-making practices via such extensions based on analysis of field-specific corpora.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)