The role of “Focus” in Appraisal Language Regarding Appearance in Vietnamese

Abstract

Appraisal language, which  conveys a speakrer’s or writer’s  attitudes, personal emotions and judgments, plays  an important role in evaluating a recipient’s activities, phenomena and attributes.This  study investigates appraisal language related to appearance in Vietnamese from the perspective of Appraisal Theory within Systemic-Functional Linguistics. Specifically, it studies the subsystem of “Focus”, an important component in the Graduation sub-system of Appraisal framework (Martin and White, 2005), as it applies to appearance-related appraisal in Vietnamese.