From December 17 to 19, 2021, Martin Centre for Applied Linguistics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University hosted the International Conference on Appliable Linguistics and Appraisal Studies. The conference was held to mark the 20^th anniversary of the first introduction of the APPRAISAL Systems, with the theme of appraisal theories and related appliable linguistic research. The conference was held online, and included plenary speeches, keynote speeches, parallel sessions, and a book launch. More than 100 experts, scholars, teachers, and students from domestic and international academia participated in the conference.

   

 

The conference started at 8:30 a.m. on the 17th. The opening speeches were delivered by Prof. Hui Chang(Executive Vice President of the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Prof. Zhuanglin Hu (Peking University) and Prof. Yuming Li (Beijing Language and Culture University). The opening ceremony was chaired by Prof. Zhenhua Wang (Director of Martin Centre).

 

 

In the morning of the 17th, Prof. Zhuanglin Hu (Peking University) and Prof. Yuming Li (Beijing Language and Culture University) gave plenary speeches; Prof. Chengyu Liu (Southwest University), Prof. Zhanzi Li (National University of Defense Technology) and Associate Prof. Michele Zappavigna (University of New South Wales, Australia) gave keynote speeches.

 

Prof. Zhuanglin Hu’s speech, entitled "The Complementarity of Positive Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis", was chaired by Prof. Yuming Li. The speech first reviewed the basic ideas of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and positive discourse analysis (PDA), and explained the complementarity between them in terms of reality and virtuality, deconstruction and construction, conceptual and interpersonal meanings, as well as bad news and good news. Prof. Hu pointed out that language is a major force affecting people's emotions, judgments and interpersonal relationships, and that discourse analysis and the selection of materials should attend to the criteria of right and wrong.

 

 

Prof. Yuming Li gave a speech on the topic of "Emphasis on the Study of Language Law", chaired by Prof. Meichun Liu. Prof. Li introduced the status quo of language use and legislation in China, and compared the language legislation in an international scope and the language situation of different countries around the world. The speech pointed out the significance of language law in world governance, national governance, and people's lives, as well as its research value in the era of multilingualism, convergence media, language intelligence, and digital economy.

 

 

Prof. Chengyu Liu’s speech was entitled "Evaluative Resources in Courtroom Discourse and Their Roles in Constructing the Lay Person’s Identity and Legal Rights Protection", and was chaired by Dr. Pin Wang. Prof. Liu explored the functions of evaluative resources used by the courtroom parties when constructing their identities as non-legal persons and protecting their legal rights. The study highlighted the social accountability and appliability of APPRAISAL systems in the analysis of courtroom discourse.

 

 

Prof. Zhanzi Li’s  speech on "Application and Expansion of APPRAISAL Theory in the Context of International Communication" was chaired by Associate Prof. Changpeng Huan. The speech focused on the application and development of APPRAISAL studies in the new context of international communication. She proposed to draw on the concept of semantic gravity to develop evaluative gravity and make the evaluative features of discourse prominent, and put forward a research approach of analysing international communication discourse based on APPRAISAL theory.

 

 

Associate Prof. Michele Zappavigna's speech was entitled "Ambient Affiliation in Comments on YouTube Videos: Communing Around Values About ASMR", and was chaired by Ms. Dongyan Wang. Her research investigated the ambient affiliation in YouTube comments of the "autonomous sensory meridian response" (ASMR)" community, focusing on the linguistic resources of ATTITUDE and IDEATION coupling, and proposed a value-sharing framework consisting of three systems of meaning: convoking, finessing, and promoting.

 

 

In the afternoon of the 17th, Honorary Associate Prof. Susan Hood (University of Sydney) gave a plenary speech; Prof. Chenguang Chang (Sun Yat-sen University), Prof. Meichun Liu (City University of Hong Kong) and Prof. Wei He (Beijing Foreign Studies University) gave keynote speeches.

 

Prof. Susan Hood's speech was entitled "The Appliable Linguistics of GRADUATION: Theory and Application Interacting in Building System Networks and Expanding Explanatory Power”, and was chaired by Prof. Meichun Liu. Prof. Hood applied GRADUATION system as the interpersonal discourse semantic system to explore academic research writing, focusing on the role of the options of "FOCUS" subsystem in invoking attitudes. She discussed the instantiations and prosodies of "FOCUS" resources in a corpus, summarized the patterns of realizing attitudinal meaning in terms of ‘specificity’ and ‘fulfilment’, and further developed a paralinguistic GRADUATION system.

 

 

Prof. Chenguang Chang gave a speech entitled "Packing a Powerful Punch: Idioms and Evaluative Force", which was chaired by Prof. Chengyu Liu. Prof. Chang compared and analyzed the evaluative force of Chinese idioms and English idioms and discussed the interpersonal effects amplified by different strategies categorized in APPRAISAL Systems.

 

 

Prof. Meichun Liu gave a speech entitled "How to Decipher and Evaluate Discourse Relations in Natural Texts: can linguistics help?", chaired by Dr. Xiran Yang. The speech focused on the topic of discourse relations, which is a common concern in studies of linguistics and natural language processing. Based on the framework of Systematic Functional Grammar, the study identified four types of discourse relations: contingency, comparison, temporal, and interpretation. The identification and evaluation of implicit discourse relations made by linguistic features and their contribution to machine learning were also discussed.

 

 

Prof. Wei He’s speech was titled "APPRAISAL Systems in the Perspective of Ecolinguistics", and was chaired by Prof. Hui Yu. Based on the eco-philosophical view of ecological discourse analysis, Prof. He developed APPRAISAL Systems by supplementing three features to the ATTITUDE system(origin of AFFECT, criteria of JUDGEMENT and object of APPRECIATION), three features to the ENGAGEMENT system(orientation, source, and content), and also reference features to the GRADUATION system.

 

 

In the morning of the 18th, Prof. Keyi Zhu  (Fudan University) and Prof. Mei Fang (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) gave plenary speeches; Prof. Xinzhang Yang  (Xiamen University), Dr. Jing Hao (Catholic University of Chile), Prof. Hui Yu (Beijing Normal University), Associate Prof. Dezheng Feng (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), and Prof. Susan Hunston (University of Birmingham) delivered keynote speeches.

 

Prof. Keyi Zhu gave a speech with the title "Dialogical Relations in the Discourse of 'Statement' and 'Evaluation'", which was chaired by Prof. Xinzhang Yang. Prof. Zhu compared the dialogical relations from multiple theoretical perspectives, and examined the dialogical relations in the writing paradigms of literary criticism, journalistic criticism, and research review of academic papers. She also demonstrated the intertextual structure between the core style of "statement" and the extended style of "evaluation", and further concluded the universal dialogical patterns of human speech communication.

 

 

Prof. Mei Fang’s  speech was entitled "Semantic Transparency and Evaluation Interpretation in Dialogue", and was chaired by Prof. Keyi Zhu. Prof. Fang pointed out that different linguistic devices of expressing evaluation differ in semantic transparency. The language resources ranked from high to low by the degree of evaluative transparency in terms of the degree of conventionalization are evaluative vocabulary, emotionally biased vocabulary, evaluative constructions, and evaluative interpretations dependent on conversational sequences. The study also explored the essential elements for interpreting evaluation in spontaneous conversations.

 

 

Prof. Xinzhang Yang gave a speech entitled "Martin and Appliable Linguistics: Theory and Practice", which was chaired by Associate Prof. Liangtao Lai. Prof. Yang discussed Martin's appliable linguistics research in terms of genre, APPRAISAL Systems, literacy, and register, and pointed out the significance of appliable linguistics research for foreign language teaching and research, from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

 

 

Dr. Jing Hao presented the speech "Cultivating Values: the Values of Democracy in an Australian Junior Secondary Classroom", and the session was chaired by Dr. Dongbing Zhang. The talk focused on the construction of knowledge in Australian junior secondary history education, and explored classroom interactions and the language resources used in the teaching materials aligning the students with the shared values of democracy.

 

 

Prof. Hui Yu gave a speech on "Exploring the Heteroglossic System in Chinese Academic Discourse", which was chaired by Associate Prof. Liangtao Lai. Her study explored the realization of heteroglossic resources in academic discourse, refined the types of resources in the heterogloss system, and constructed a framework for analysing heteroglossic resources in Chinese academic discourse.

 

 

Associate Prof. Dezheng Feng gave a speech with the title of "Critical Attitudes in China's Digital Diplomacy: An Analysis of Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokespersons’ Twitter Posts on the COVID-19 Pandemic", chaired by Dr. Tao Qu. The study drew on Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons' Twitter posts as data,  and analyzed the spokespersons' discourse strategies with ATTITUDE system as the analytical framework. It is found that the spokespersons used effective evaluative devices, rhetorical patterns, cognitive contrasts, and factual reasoning to forcefully counter the United States’ false statements.

 

 

Prof. Susan Hunston’s speech "Appraisal in Discourse and Corpus" was chaired by Ms. Dongyan Wang. The study elaborated on the dialogic expansion and contraction in academic discourse and explored how pattern-based evaluative constructions help elucidate JUDGEMENT subsystems from a corpus-based perspective. The study pointed out that different perspectives on APPRAISAL research should be taken as complementary rather than competing and highlighted the theoretical orientation of APPRAISAL research in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework.

 

 

In the afternoon of the 18th, Dr. Peter White (University of New South Wales) gave a presentation entitled "Engagement-oriented Analyses and the Modelling of Persuasiveness", chaired by Prof. Susan Hood. Dr. White introduced his focus on research of "persuasiveness" in texts from a linguistic perspective and specified that the "persuasiveness" of a text has persuasive potential when the readers share the same world view, and specific versions of events may also be persuasive to varying degrees according to the value position, beliefs, understandings, and attitudes.

 

 

In the first two days of the conference, five afternoon parallel sessions were conducted respectively. Scholars from domestic and international universities such as Peking University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Xi'an University of Foreign Studies, Southwest University, Northeastern Forestry University, East Forsyth County University, Sarmiento State University, and National University of Law and Politics of Thailand gave excellent speeches and engaged in lively discussions.

 

In the morning of December 19, Prof. Min Yang (Renmin University of China), Prof. Yuchen Xu (Xi'an University of Foreign Studies), Dr. Eszter Szenes (Norwich University), Ms.  Georgia Carr (University of Sydney), Dr. Thu Ngo (Australian Catholic University), and Dr. Dongbing Zhang  (University of International Business and Economics) gave keynote speeches, and Prof. J.R. Martin (University of Sydney) gave a plenary speech.

 

Prof. Min Yang presented the speech "Discursive Strategies for Identity Construction in Courtroom Narratives of Medical Malpractice Cases", and Prof. Yuchen Xu chaired the session. The speech focused on the strategies adopted for identity construction in courtroom narratives of medical malpractice cases and constructed an analytical model. The study found that different identity construction models reflect the differences in making medical malpractice judgment, self-positioning, and power relations between doctors and patients.

 

 

Prof. Yuchen Xu’s presentation was entitled "A Corpus-based Comparative Study of Attitudinal Resources in English-Chinese SRAs", and was chaired by Prof. Min Yang. Based on the comprehensive mode and typological mode, and the two distribution dimensions of “structure” and “evenness”, the study conducted quantitative analysis and analyzed the attitudinal resources used in English and Chinese scientific research articles (SRAs) and revealed the similarities and differences between them.

 

 

Dr. Eszter Szenes presented on the topic "Extending Coupling Theory in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Towards a Typology of Recouplings", and the speech was chaired by Dr. Tao Qu. The presentation explored the linguistic resources that play a role in constructing business decision-making in undergraduate business reports at the level of instantiation, drawing on APPRAISAL and IDEATION in discourse semantic systems. By discussing the criteria of realizing different types of coupling and recoupling in nominal groups, clauses, clause complexes and across sentences, Dr. Szenes constructed a typological framework for analyzing recoupling at the level of discourse semantics.

 

 

Georgia Carr, a PhD candidate, presented on the topic of "Beyond Inscribed and Invoked: Technicalising and Iconising Attitudes in Sex Education", and the session was chaired by Dr. Jing Hao. Based on the meaning of attitudes across the inscribed and invoked continuum, Georgia Carr proposed "hyper-invoked" attitudes discharging interpersonal meaning and "hyper-inscribed" attitudes charging interpersonal meaning. The study brought together work on ‘technicality’ and bonding icons with an analysis of the attitudinal resources realizing interpersonal meaning used when pedagogising the two topics of "consent" and "respect" in sex education in Sydney.

 

 

Dr. Thu Ngo gave a speech entitled "Conceptualising Non-verbal Communication of Emotions in Animated Movies: Facial Expression and Voice Quality", which was chaired by Dr. Dongbing Zhang. Dr. Ngo discussed the interpersonal meaning potential of individual paralinguistic resources and explained the paralinguistic resources used by animators and voice actors to express the emotions and social relationships of the animated characters in Coraline. The multimodal analytical model developed in this study was designed to fill the gap in the current analysis of paralanguage in the fields of social semiotics, cinematography, and film studies.

 

 

Dr. Dongbing Zhang’s s talk  "Realising ENGAGEMENT: A cross-linguistic consideration" was chaired by Dr. Thu Ngo. The study compared the congruent realizations of ENGAGEMENT System in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Khorqin Mongolian, drawing on the lexico-grammatical systems of POLARITY, MODALITY, ASSESSMENT, and MOOD. Dr. Zhang pointed out that the ENGAGEMENT system can provide an effective analytical perspective for cross-linguistic comparative and typological studies.

 

 

Prof. J.R. Martin gave a speech entitled "Mapping Feeling: Attitudinal Relations", which was chaired by Dr. Wang Pin. In his speech, Prof. Martin discussed in depth the issues related to attitudinal descriptions mentioned in his and White's 2005 monograph The Language of Evaluation, including the stratification of discourse-semantics system, the instantiation in relation to multi-dimensional coding, inscribing/invoking continuum, technicalisation and iconisation, and the individuation of bonding and bondicons. He also emphasized that a comprehensive understanding of APPRAISAL systems must be based on the theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).

 

 

The closing session included the launch of a new book translated by Prof. Zhenhua Wang and his team members. Prof. Wang introduced the book Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a realist sociology of education, briefly described the main ideas of the author Karl Maton, introduced the members of the translation team, and shared his own experience of translation.

Closing remarks were given by Prof. Martin after all the speeches and presentations were successfully completed. Prof. Martin congratulated the conference on its great success, thanked the plenary and keynote speakers for their exploration of the frontiers of APPRAISAL studies, and shared the current academic progression made by his team in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. He also pointed out the multi-directional trends in evaluation research and that there is still large potential for exploring the theorization of lexical relations, the delicacy and typology of language description, and multimodal studies. Finally, he ardently anticipated more academic achievements to be made in Systemic Functional Linguistics by young scholars all over the world.

 

 

In this international conference, the invited experts and scholars from home and abroad presented a wonderful academic feast on appliable linguistics, appraisal systems, discourse semantics, cognitive appraisal studies, Chinese appraisal studies, and appliable appraisal studies in fields such as discourse analysis, translation, multimodality, and digitization. The conference is a milestone of great significance, not only witnessing the academic achievements and development of APPRAISAL studies in the past 20 years, but also promoting communication and sharing of research topics between Chinese and English research communities.