1. Attitude/Affect 1

Introduction

In the previous section, I set out a framework for exploring evaluative language which identified two primary modes of evaluative positioning - the attitudinal and the dialogistic. In this section will look in more detail at attitudinal positioning. The discussion will proceed under the following headings.

• The three different sub-types of attitudinal positioning - emotional, ethical and aesthetic.
• Attitudinal targets - the significance of who or what is singled out as the subject of attitudinal evaluation.
• Explicit versus implicit attitude - differences between utterances where an attitudinal assessment is directly and overtly indicated and those utterances in which the attitude is only indirectly or implicitly conveyed.
• Asserted versus presupposed attitude - the difference between utterances in which the attitudinal evaluation is asserted in a way in which it can be directly questioned or challenged and utterances in which it is presumed, presupposed or taken as given.

• Evaluative responsibility - determining who takes responsibility for the evaluation

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