Interpersonal or evaluative meaning has been described in systemic functional linguistics with the help of appraisal theory (Martin & White 2005), which distinguishes between different types of evaluation. One sub-system of APPRAISAL is ATTITUDE, which is further divided into APPRECIATION, JUDGEMENT and AFFECT. This paper uses corpus-linguistic evidence to investigate how far linguistic patterns support this classification, and whether they can be used as a ‘diagnostic’ for distinguishing types of ATTITUDE (as has been proposed in appraisal theory). It argues that two different aspects of APPRAISAL need to be considered: the kinds of attitudinal lexis (in terms of evaluative standards which are inscribed in this lexis) and the kinds of attitudinal targets or types of attitudinal assessment , and that this distinction has not been sufficiently considered in appraisal theory so far. A preliminary classification of attitudinal lexis is also suggested, and a new sub-category of ATTITUDE proposed (COVERT AFFECT).
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Monika Bednarek (2009) studied this question.