| Keywords [eng] |
Aš, asmeninis įvardis, predikatyvūs komplementai, vertinimas, savęs vertinimo kalba, Vertinimo teorija, nuostatos raiškos žymikliai, Konceptuali metafora, poliarumas, identitetas, lytis, “I”, personal pronoun, predicative complements, evaluation, self-evaluative language, Appraisal, attitude markers, Conceptual Metaphor, concepts, polarity, identity, gender |
| Abstract [eng] |
In this Master's thesis, the research investigates the semantic structures of self-evaluative language within the context of self-identification discourse. The study presents the findings derived from the analysis of self-reported language data obtained from a sample of 300 English-speaking adults residing in the United States. The primary focus of the research revolves around the exploration of attitude markers, polarity amplitude, Source concepts, and metaphoric expressions employed in the process of self-evaluation. A combined framework, drawing upon the Appraisal theory proposed by Martin and White (2005) and the Conceptual Metaphor mapping system introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), is utilized to guide the analysis. The study delves into the examination of two distinct responses elicited by the query “Who am I? ”. The first response captures spontaneous and associative self-evaluations, while the second response represents calculated and rational self-assessments. This approach is adopted to acknowledge semantic variations within the contrasting realms of the first and second reaction evaluations. Furthermore, this research challenges assumptions about gender differences in self-evaluation and reveals that personal characteristics with gender-related information are central in self-identification. Results show a preference for positive self-evaluations among women and a more neutral stance among men, with infrequent negative evaluations in both groups. The linguistic findings contribute to interdisciplinary research on identity, sex, and gender definitions, while inspiring further exploration of self-evaluative language using diverse methodologies. |
