Evaluative Meanings and Disciplinary Values - eTheses Repository ...

it seems that researchers in business studies -of-
assumptions that are so common in (some branches of) applied linguistics and the social
sciences more generally. It may be the case that they prefer to see individual companies (or
even small groups of companies) as case studies rather than as representative samples of the
population of businesses in any given economy in general.
8.3.2. Wisdom
We now turn to the other group of appreciation meanings, the WISDOM group. As discussed
earlier, this group indicates how knowledgeable, smart or sophisticated someone is
concerning something. In particular, this group is expressed by the adjective knowledgeable in
A DJ about N, namely the LSP knowledgeable about N. Interestingly, this group occurs only
in BC (i.e. 0 in ALC; 11 in BC). The qualitative finding for this group is that business studies
is likely to use this phraseology to particularize the specific ability of a person or group of
people.
To illustrate this, consider the following expanded concordance lines from the BC
data:
Wang and Dewhirst (1992) found that outside directors are very committed to representing various
stakeholders, beyond just the stockholders. As a result they tend to be sensitive to environmental issues,
women and minorities, and employees. They are also more likely to be knowledgeable about issues
facing the firm and comply with legal requirements in order to avoid penalties and negative public
relations (BC: Strategy2005_3)
96 percent of corporate tax directors ... stated their CEO was not very knowledgeable about [tax]
issues reflected in the corporate tax return (BC: Management2004_5)
However, a firm may be able to minimize these costs by placing a subsidiary manager who is: (1)
knowledgeable about corporate quality expectations (BC: Management2005_3)
Customers who have banked with CCB for less than one year are more knowledgeable about loans
than those who have been with the bank for more than one year. (BC: Marketing2004_7)
It's a studied, thoughtful book by an author who is equally knowledgeable about both past and present
trends in business. (BC: Strategy2002_32)
As can be seen, this LSP evaluates the capability and knowledge of executives such as CEOs,
directors or managers in most cases. However, it is also used to identify the characteristics of
customers and to offer positive evaluations of the knowledge of the authors of particular
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