Evaluative Meanings and Disciplinary Values - eTheses Repository ...

[Applied Linguistics]
[Business Studies]
Most of the patterns in the concordance lines above are followed by an ing clause: this
shows that actions rather than entities are being evaluated in both disciplines. However, there
are differences between two disciplines in the things observed (viz. internal versus external
phenomenon), and also in the degree of specificity involved in the evaluation (i.e.
generalizing in applied linguistics and particularizing in business studies, as discussed
earlier). The target observed in ALC is, in most cases, not an individual one but a certain
number of samples representative of the parent population. That is, applied linguists may be
less likely to use this particular evaluative pattern to comment on one or a couple of persons
as its research target. Rather, they are more likely to investigate (or be fundamentally
concerned with) groups of people. Such groups (e.g. L2 learners) are still samples of the
parent population and selected for research purposes. On the other hand, business studies is
much more likely to focus on specific instances of competition among rivals, and tends to
keep a strong focus on the particularities of specific institutions and problems. In other words,
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