Evaluation in English Tourism Texts on Chinese, British and American Websites

Informed by the APPRAISAL Theory, this book analyses the construction of evaluative meanings in web-based English tourism texts (ETTs). It investigates the semantic potentiality of evaluative meaning in English tourism texts on Chinese, British and American websites, as well as the similarities and differences in constructing evaluation among the three varieties of ETTs. It is aimed to discover the characteristic preferences for particular appraisal resources in constructing evaluation in native ETTs, and to find out the deficiencies in using evaluation in ETTs on Chinese websites. Two analytical procedures are adopted: first, based on large corpus files, it discusses the semantic potentiality for evaluative meaning in the three types of ETTs; then, various evaluation features are explored in detail concerning resources of ATTITUDE, ENGAGEMENT and GRADUATION under the APPRAISAL framework. All discussions are conducted by combining quantitative statistics with qualitative analyses. Theoretically, the study modifies and extends some aspects of the APPRAISAL Theory so as to facilitate the analysis of evaluation in tourism discourse. The study is also instructive for Chinese ESL/EFL writers in writing English tourist texts or translating Chinese tourism texts into English.