Evaluative Meanings and Disciplinary Values - eTheses Repository ...

Order ALC Freq. BC Freq.
1 good 21 good 10
2 successful 13 adept 8
3 effective 4 effective 6
4 skilled 2 successful 5
5 bad 2 skilled 3
6 adept 2 great 1
7 efficient 2 poor 1
8 unsuccessful 1 competent 1
9 excellent 1 bad 1
10 expert 1 expert 1
11 proficient 1 efficient 1
Total 50 38
Prop. 57% 43%
Table 8.15. The SKILFULNESS group in A DJ at N
As can be seen, adjectives in the SKILFULNESS group occur more frequently in ALC than in
BC. This may suggest that applied linguistics RAs as a disciplinary discourse is a bit more
likely than business studies RAs to show appreciation towards people and things.
Concordance analysis confirms this to be the case, and adds the further observation that
applied linguistics is likely to evaluate internal phenomena, whereas business studies tends to
evaluate external phenomena. Let us consider some examples of the LSP good at N/-ing:
[Applied Linguistics]
However, this does not mean that the students in this study were equally good at guessing. (ALC:
LL2006_15)
..both the NSs and the learners proved equally good at comprehending sentences involving
long-distance wh-dependencies; (ALC: SLA2005_3)
[Business Studies]
The need to handle customers from many cultures and to compete against companies which are
good at cross-cultural marketing has become commonplace in many industries. (BC:
Marketing2004_16)
The gains will mainly go to firms that were already good at forging close customer relationships.
(BC: Marketing2005_13)
The ALC patterns evaluate the human cognitive abilities such as guessing and comprehending,
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