Evaluative Language in Online Product Advertising Discourse

Abstract

Recently, there has been growing interest in the study of language used for evaluation. However, little is known about the language of evaluation in online product advertisements. The purpose of this study is to investigate such language. Data comprise 100 product descriptions of best-sellers in the computer and accessories department of www.amazon.com. Data were analysed using an adapted analytical framework based on Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal Framework for and Pounds' (2010) classification of evaluative meanings of online property advertisements. The results indicate that there are five categories of evaluative meanings used to describe products. These are: 1) emotive impact, 2) aestheticism, 3) quality, 4) convenience and 5) cost-effectiveness. The most salient type of evaluative meanings are quality and convenience, indicating that these two are the most important features of computers and accessories.