Topic 10 (session A) - Prose analysis > Bilgewater: Lexis > Task C

Bilgewater: Lexis

Task C - Description vs evaluation

One obvious thing we can ask about the lexis of a piece of writing is whether it is merely descriptive, or whether it is also evaluative lexically (and if so, what kinds of value are involved). Go through the passage, noting down which words are straightforwardly evaluative (e.g. 'good', 'bad', and which words have an evaluative aspect as well as a descriptive one (e.g. 'graceful', 'untidy', 'warm', 'dirty'). Within each of these two categories, subdivide the groups of words into 'positive' and 'negative'.

Hint: You might find it useful to use a table like this one:

Our answer

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