ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 focuses on evaluation. It argues that evaluation – ubiquitous, multi-functional and genre-specific – is a prime driver of text construction. To this end, Section 2.2 sketches the nature of evaluation by introducing several important definitions to illustrate its special characteristics. Section 2.3 considers the importance of evaluation in the text by first discussing its three main functions: expressing opinion, establishing and maintaining writer-reader relations and organizing the discourse. It also considers the additional and unique function of constructing values in hard news, editorials and feature articles. Section 2.4 talks about how explicit evaluation can be marked not just grammatically and lexically but also phraseologically. It stresses that while evaluative meaning is primarily expressed lexically, its phraseological marking also deserves our attention. Chapter 2 ends by noting that evaluation varies across genres and performs a wide array of specific discourse functions in newspaper discourse, which will be the subject of Chapters 4–7.
