SPECIFICS OF EVALUATION IN ENGLISH MEDIA TEXTS (by the example of “opinion”, “analysis” and “editorial” sections)

Abstract

The study investigates the representation of the vaccine against COVID-19 in “editorial”, “opinion” and “analysis” articles. The study draws on the appraisal model as a linguistic tool to analyze the attitudinal language of the articles, the differences in which have the potential to be the ground for differentiating “opinion”, “editorial”, and “analysis” texts. The selected 30 articles belong to the period from March 2020 to January 2021, when the importance of the vaccine was unprecedented and all political and economic factors moved to the background. The findings indicate no significant differences in the types of evaluations used, though demonstrate some tendencies that constitute grounds for further research in the field: 1) “analysis” texts draw on less evaluative elements than “editorial” and “opinion”; 2) “opinion” texts demonstrate a balance of appreciation and judgment; 3) there is a dominance of judgment in “editorial” texts. The paper demonstrates that all texts judge the vaccines as effective tools and avoid emotional or negative evaluations.