A filial son or a loving mother? Evaluation as recontextualisation devices in property transaction reports

Many of the utterances that we speak are evaluative. Although there have been increasingly systematic attempts at classifying evaluative lexes, such constructs have not been applied in real contexts. One of the problems is the implicit realisations of evaluation, which is not 'simply there' to be pinned down. The second problem is how evaluation is related to the intertextual positioning of the readers. This paper argues that the system underlying evaluation should best be situated in the practice of recontextualisation through which different frames or activities can be invoked. Drawing on data from property transaction reports, it is shown that the genre is intertextually constructed as a news report and an advertisement in a subtle manner, which is made possible by the use of evaluation as the recontextualisation of the two different activities involved. (1) An American-Chinese bought a flat at Metro City for his/her mum An American-Chinese bought a flat at Metro City for his/her mum. Many buyers presented properties to their beloved relatives and friends at Christmas. Chan Kwok Yiu, Branch Manager of Centraline disclosed that an America-Chinese bought a three-roomed flat at Metro City for his/her mum, So his/her sister who is living in the same district can take care of her. The flat is 732 sq. ft. and sold for $2.268 million or $3,098/sq. ft. on average. Elsewhere, a loving mother bought a middle-floored flat H of Block 3 of the Merton for her children at $1.87 million. The flat is 401 sq. ft. and sold for $4,663/sq. ft. This is 5% lower than the market price. (2) A flat at Sunningdale Garden sold for $1.15 million Lai Zhuo Chi, from Centraline, indicated that a filial son just spent $1.575 million to buy in a high-floored flat B of Block 2 of Sheung Shui Sunningdale Garden for his parents. The flat is 596 sq. ft and sold for $2,643/sq. ft. It was reported that the original owner bought the property at $1.15 million in October last year. This resale made a profit of $425,000. [Copyright 2007 Elsevier B.V.]