DEPICTING APPRAISAL SYSTEMS ON DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS FROM THE 12TH GRADE OF THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

Abstract

This study explains the appraisal systems especially the attitude types. Appraisal theory is the development of Systemic Functional Linguistics theory in the realm of interpersonal meaning initiated by Martin and White. This study used qualitative research with discourse analysis (DA) techniques. The object of analysis in this study is descriptive text of the English textbooks for senior high school students published by Erlangga 2017. This study employed a document analysis as a technique for collecting data. The findings shows that there were 26 systems of attitude which consist of 2 positive affect, 2 positive judgment, 1 negative judgment, 20 positive appreciation, 1 negative appreciation. The finding indicates that the higher appreciation was useful to achieve the communicative purpose of the descriptive text itself. To entertain the reader, the author use more appreciation to involve evaluating objects, performance, and natural phenomena that are displayed in the events in the story. It helps the readers involved in the stories and it was important for the readers to understand what the writers express their ideas in the stories.

Keywords: Appraisal Theory, Attitude, Descriptive text