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Article published In: Functions of Language
Vol. 29:2 (2022) ► pp.199–225

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Redefining attitude for studying explicit and indirect evaluations of human behaviour

ORCiD logo with link | University of East Anglia | University of Reading
Published online: 4 March 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.21022.vil
Abstract
This article considers the application of the Attitude framework (Martin, J. R. & Peter R. R. White. 2005. The language of evaluation. Appraisal in English. New York, NY: Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to study the evaluation of human behaviour. The distinction between inscribed (explicit) and invoked (indirect) attitude is re-examined and systematised to better operationalise the analysis of the evaluation of behaviour. General linguistic evaluation triggers are identified for inscribed and invoked evaluations, and the annotation scheme is applied in a corpus of texts from different registers (a psychiatric manual, educational guidelines and informal online exchanges) concerned with ADHD. Indirect evaluations of behaviour are described as attitudinal inferences derived from (i) the behaviours of the individuals, (ii) the behavioural outcomes, (iii) the impact that the behaviour or its outcomes have on third parties and the actions that the latter may perform as a result. It is proposed that indirect evaluations of people’s behaviour are metonymically inferred through an effect→cause relation drawn across the different parts of an action scenario. The conceptual metonymy explains the directionality observed in attitude analyses (Appreciation attitude type may stand as tokens of Judgment), and it shows the impossibility of evaluating performances without indirectly appraising the human behaver.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.ADHD
  • 3.Data and methodological considerations
  • 4.Evaluation in language
    • 4.1Appraisal
    • 4.2Difficulties in operationalising attitude
      • 4.2.1Appreciation, Judgement and Russian Dolls
      • 4.2.2Systematising the analysis of attitude inscription
  • 5.Redefining attitude for a study of human behaviour
    • 5.1Inscribed evaluations of behaviour
    • 5.2Invoked evaluations of behaviour
  • 6.Invoked evaluations of behaviour as metonymic-based attitudinal inferences
  • 7.Attitudes associated to ADHD
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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