Exploring Patterns of Evaluation in the Rhetorical Construction of Economics Blurbs: A Lexico-grammatical Analysis

This study examined blurbs in the discipline of economics to investigate how evaluative lexico-grammatical resources are employed in the logogenetic constructions of these blurbs. The study was informed by the appraisal framework proposed by Martin and White (2005), which describes the language of our attitudes, viewpoints, and personal judgments toward people, objects, and things. All three categories of the appraisal framework, including attitude, engagement, and graduation, were thoroughly explored. Findings demonstrated that economics blurbs are densely packed with appreciation. Graduation was also found to be realized both as intensification and quantification. The study showed that blurbs can be dialogically or monologically constructed based on the presence or absence of external voices as well as engagement resources and locutions. Meanwhile, lexico-grammatical realizations were found  not to be restricted to one type of grammatical structures. Various forms  including adjectival qualities, nominalized qualities, and processes are employed for encoding evaluative resources. The findings of the study provide those interested in this genre insights into the practical details of blurbs’ advertising discourse and keep them informed of the curricular rules and regularities dominating promotional discourse