ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the concept of evaluation with reference to different linguistic approaches and perspectives: appraisal, evaluation and stance. It explains how the divergence in terminology can be traced back to differences in how evaluation is conceptualized. It provides distinguishing characteristics of evaluation and revisits its definition while pointing to common ground shared by the qualitative and quantitative traditions. The chapter includes an overview of legal linguistics research into evaluative language in judicial argumentation. It explicates how evaluative language, judicial discourse and legal argumentation are interrelated. It introduces judicial discourse as an area of language use that is particularly amenable to the study of evaluation, and it explains how the analysis of evaluative language can help reveal the rhetorical strategies adopted in judicial opinions, both in common law and in civil law traditions. The chapter advocates integrating the study of evaluative language into the argumentative reality of legal justification.
