Evaluative Meanings and Disciplinary Values - eTheses Repository ...

N2 in this pattern, as in table 3.1 above, are identical to the evaluator and the thing evaluated
respectively, according to Hunston and Sinclair (2000). The investigation of nouns in the
pattern, that is, two evaluative entitiesevaluator and thing evaluatedis, thus, one of the
primary factors for ascertaining the disciplinary difference of evaluation. In addition, adverbs,
particularly ly adverbs at L1 position, modify the claim of adjectives or evaluation, revealing
the disciplinary difference from its manner in the context. This is largely because many stance
adverbs occur in academic texts (Biber et al., 1999).
However, there are also quite often cases where nouns in the pattern are not regarded
as evaluator or the thing evaluated. The pattern A DJ on N, for instance, expresses relations
between things rather than evaluations about things in academic discourse. For this reason, I
claim that the table 3.1 above is only applicable to limited prepositional types of the pattern
A DJ PR EP N; specifically, patterns featuring the prepositions about, for, in and against. This
selection will be discussed further in Chapter 8.
different disciplines use evaluation in different ways (Stotesbury,
2003, p. 331), I assume that collocating nouns, adverbs and even ing/wh-clauses are of
principal interest in identifying the manner of the pattern and the nature of the evaluation in a
particular disciplinary context. Specifically, I hypothesise that even if the same N1 (viz.
evaluator) is used in two disciplines, N2 (viz. the items being evaluated) or other collocates
may be quite different from one discipline to another because of the different subject matter in
each discipline. Furthermore, even if both evaluative entities are identical, further collocates
or their implied meaning and function would be clearly distinguishable in a cross-disciplinary
analysis, because applied linguistics and business studies represent different cultures and
subject matters respectively.
3.5.2. Disciplinary differences in evaluation
It is often the case that the same word or phrase has a very different meaning depending on
the context in which it occurs. Contexts vary according to such variables as genre, register and
discipline, leading to the differences in evaluation systems. For example, Becher (1987a,
1987b) investigated such evaluative terms of praise and blame among historians, sociologists,
and physicists in Britain and the United States, and discovered significant differences among
the three groups. Firstly, good work is described as scholarly or original in humanities, as
perceptive or rigorous in social sciences, and as elegant or economical in physics. Secondly,
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