GRADUATION The APRAISAL Theory : its Origin and Development

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2.12.3 GRADUATION

Under GRADUATION as the last sub-system of APPRAISAL , or sometimes referred to as the semantics of scaling, it is argued that. …concerned with values which act to provide grading or scaling, either in terms of the interpersonal force which the speaker attaches to an utterance or in terms of the preciseness or sharpness of focus with which an item exemplifies a valuer relationship. These two dimensions are variously labeled ‘FORCE’ variable scaling of intensity, and ‘FOCUS’ sharpening or bluring of category boundaries APPRAISAL Homepage, 2001. Therefore, it can be inferred that GRADUATION divides itself into two sub- categories, 1 FORCE and 2 FOCUS. The following figure will clarify. Force gradables Focus non-graded Graduation Sharpen scaled up Soften scaled down a true friend kindv, sortv, as good as Implicit Explicit adore versus love versus like slightly, somewhat, really etc Adopted from White 1998:110 Figure 2-30 GRADUATION To further elaborate, I discuss FORCE and FOCUS under separate headings. 116

2.12.3.1 FORCE

The aim of giving ‘force’ is to intensify the meaning of an utterance with gradable attitudal values, such as found in the following Javanese phrases. 1 gandeng renteng reruntungan arm in arm together 2 kentar-kentar bagus pasuryane more and more handsome his face 3 Temanten putri dedege sedheng ora duwur ora cendhek The bride’s posture appropriate not tall not short The phrases printed in bold represent ‘gradable force’ which may be considered ‘exaggerating’ but they are very common in describing a wedding reception. White 1998 enlists possible gradable forces, such as by using the following linguistic features: • colour: a bloody awful day • repetition: he laughed and laughed; it was horrible, horrible • metaphor: prices skyrocketed; they thrashed out a compromise; staff have been axed; mired in controversy; civil war has erupted amongst Scottish Tories; rain bucketed the state • quality: the car veered off the road, prices plunged, they ousted the president, he gulped the drink, the film star was whisked away. • evaluatory: desperate bid, damning indictment, key figure, formidable opponent • universalise, The talks went on endlessly, Everyone wants to be rich and famous, The Opposition is always complaining, He thinks of food all day long. • Measure plus: minuscule, tiny, huge, gargantuan White 1998:111

2.12.3.2 FOCUS

Unlike FORCE which gives gradable force to an entity, FOCUS gives non- gradable force to an entity, such as shown in the following phrases. 117 1 katresnan jati love true true love 2 tuhu satria pinunjul definitely knight distinguished definitely distinguished knight 3 saestu dereng emah-emah really not yet married really not yet married The words printed in bold represent non-gradable values. According to White 1998 non-gradable values can be of 1 low intensity and 2 high intensity such as exemplified below. Table 2.10 Intensification Low INTENSITY High INTENSITY Probability Perhaps he’s a post-modernist He’s definitely a post-modernist Appearance He seems to be a post-modernist It’s obvious he’s a post- modernist Proclaim I’d say he’s a post-modernist I declare he’s a post-modernist Extra-vocalise She say’s he’s a post-modernist She insists he’s a post modernist Affect He likes post-modernists He adores post-modernists Judgement He’s a satisfactory post- modernist He’s a brilliant post-modernist Appreciation An attractive post-modernist work. A minor post-modern work An exquisite post-modernist work. A major post-modern work Focus It’s a post-modern work, kind of It’s genuinely post-modern It should be noted, however, that ‘appraisal theory is very much an on-going project, many problems are still to be solved and many lexicogrammatical and semantic 118 issues have not yet been addressed The Appraisal Homepage 2001. Therefore, the theoretical framework presented above may later be modified in accordance with the data found in the field. Continuous checking with the up-dated references is conducted to fully describe the data the Javanese used by a Pranatacara. 119

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter presents the research method of the study. First of all, I describe the research design to give an overview of how the study was conducted. Then, I describe the unit of analysis by which each step of analysis was bound. Described next are the setting and procedures of data collection, followed by triangulation. Finally I describe the procedures for data analysis

3.1 Research Design

The study was socio-pragmatically designed with the aim of investigating the interpersonal meanings of the Javanese language used by Pranatacara in a wedding reception. It is therefore descriptive, qualitative and interpretative in nature. It documented the phenomena of interest, and then it describes the observed phenomena in the form of words rather than numbers. The significant behaviours, i.e. especially the interpersonal language metafunction of the Pranatacara on duty, with regards to his spoken discourse were identified and analyzed. The study employs the design of observational case study. It focuses on one case, namely the interpersonal meanings of the oral performance of the Pranatacara in a wedding reception. The site selected was one of the wedding events in which the subject was on duty. Observation was the primary way to collect the data. It was therefore a passive