ABSTRACT

This chapter shows how the interpersonal metafunction can be extended to bring out the ways in which the traces of the speaker, his feelings, and attitudes, can be seen to be present in the text. There have been a number of extensions of the systemic functional approach and one of the most important of these has come to be known as Appraisal Theory. Those who originally introduced this idea have pointed out that it is not a separate theory. Judgement can be seen in terms of social esteem and social sanction, each of which can subsequently be broken down into positive and negative. Engagement deals with the extent to which a speaker accepts the content of his message as his own, or presents it in relation to other possible points of view. Where a message is a bald statement put forward as the point of view of the speaker, it is said to be monoglossic.