A corpus-pragmatics approach to evaluation in professor reviews

IF 0.1 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Concentric-Studies in Linguistics Pub Date : 2022-05-02 DOI:10.1075/consl.21010.ho

Mei-ching Ho

{"title":"A corpus-pragmatics approach to evaluation in professor reviews","authors":"Mei-ching Ho","doi":"10.1075/consl.21010.ho","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n This study takes a corpus pragmatics approach to investigate the use of evaluative language in professor reviews,\n focusing on how review writers express evaluation through recurrent four-word sequences and the pragmatic functions of these\n sequences in positive and negative reviews on the website, RateMyProfessors.com. Based on an analysis of a 2.9-million-word corpus of free text comments, the findings indicate\n that positive reviews used more 4-grams, and more varied types, than negative ones. The 4-word sequences were found to carry out\n four pragmatic functions: attitudinal evaluation, reader engagement, referential expression, and discourse organization. While a\n similar distribution of the main functional categories was observed among the top 100 4-grams in both review types, with\n evaluative clusters being most predominant, distinctive intra-genre variations were found in the ways review writers employed\n different functional sub-categories. For example, positive reviews relied heavily on hedged suggestion 4-grams to engage readers,\n whereas negative reviews used directive 4-grams for the same purpose. These findings suggest the important role of multi-word\n sequences in the understanding of evaluative resources in professor reviews of different valence types.","PeriodicalId":41887,"journal":{"name":"Concentric-Studies in Linguistics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Concentric-Studies in Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.21010.ho","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study takes a corpus pragmatics approach to investigate the use of evaluative language in professor reviews, focusing on how review writers express evaluation through recurrent four-word sequences and the pragmatic functions of these sequences in positive and negative reviews on the website, RateMyProfessors.com. Based on an analysis of a 2.9-million-word corpus of free text comments, the findings indicate that positive reviews used more 4-grams, and more varied types, than negative ones. The 4-word sequences were found to carry out four pragmatic functions: attitudinal evaluation, reader engagement, referential expression, and discourse organization. While a similar distribution of the main functional categories was observed among the top 100 4-grams in both review types, with evaluative clusters being most predominant, distinctive intra-genre variations were found in the ways review writers employed different functional sub-categories. For example, positive reviews relied heavily on hedged suggestion 4-grams to engage readers, whereas negative reviews used directive 4-grams for the same purpose. These findings suggest the important role of multi-word sequences in the understanding of evaluative resources in professor reviews of different valence types.

查看原文本刊更多论文

用语料库-语用学方法评价教授评论

本研究采用语料库语用学的方法来研究评价语言在教授评论中的使用，重点关注评论作者如何通过反复出现的四字序列来表达评价，以及这些序列在RateMyProfessors.com网站上的正面和负面评论中的语用功能。基于对290万字的自由文本评论语料库的分析，研究结果表明，正面评论比负面评论使用了更多的4-g，类型也更多样化。四词序列具有四种语用功能:态度评价、读者参与、指称表达和语篇组织。虽然在两种评论类型的前100个4-g中观察到类似的主要功能类别分布，但评估簇是最主要的，在评论作者使用不同功能子类别的方式中发现了独特的类型内变化。例如，正面评论主要依赖于含糊其辞的建议(4克)来吸引读者，而负面评论则使用指导性的4克(4克)来达到同样的目的。这些发现提示了多词序列在理解不同价型教授评论中的评价资源方面的重要作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Concentric-Studies in Linguistics LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS-

CiteScore

0.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Concentric: Studies in Linguistics is a refereed, biannual journal, publishing research articles on all aspects of linguistic studies on the languages in the Asia-Pacific region. Review articles and book reviews with solid argumentation are also considered. The journal is indexed in Scopus, Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Modern Language Association (MLA) Directory of Periodicals, MLA International Bibliography, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA), EBSCOhost, Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC), Airiti Library (AL), Taiwan Citation Index-Humanities and Social Sciences, and Taiwan Humanities Citation Index(THCI)-Level 1. First published in 1964 under the title,The Concentric, the journal aimed to promote academic research in the fields of linguistics and English literature, and to provide an avenue for researchers to share results of their investigations with other researchers and practitioners. Later in 1976, the journal was renamed as Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, and in 2001 was further renamed as Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics. As the quantity of research in the fields of theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics, and English literature has increased greatly in recent years, the journal has evolved into two publications. Beginning in 2004, these two journals have been published under the titles Concentric: Studies in Linguistics and Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies respectively.