ABSTRACT
This chapter uses appraisal theory to investigate linguistic features that present an area of life in a positive or a negative light. When the same appraisal pattern appears every day in countless texts that are repeated across a society then this is evidence of a cultural evaluation, a pervasive way that something is thought of within a society. The key cultural evaluation that is examined in this chapter is economic growth is good, which is a problematic pattern since economic growth does not necessarily lead to a more even distribution of resources in society and is associated with ecological destruction. Also analysed are ways that the weather is evaluated in English weather forecasts and traditional Japanese nature poetry. Ecolinguistics can play a role in analysing common appraisal patterns in texts, revealing the evaluations that underlie them, and asking whether there are alterative evaluations which can better promote the goals of the ecosophy.
