Systematic Review
Tracing the Development of Research on Appraisal Theory within Systemic Functional Linguistics (2003-2025): A Bibliometric Analysis
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This study aims to map the main research trends in Appraisal Theory within Systemic Functional Linguistics through a bibliometric analysis. We analyze papers retrieved from Scopus for the period of 2003–2025. Using VOSviewer, 231 articles meeting the inclusion criteria were examined. We analyze citation and co-citation metrics, bibliographic coupling, and keyword co-occurrence to illuminate fluctuations in publication volume, evolving research themes, impacted journals, and prominent authors in Appraisal Theory research. Findings indicate a steady yearly increase in publications. Four overarching trends emerge:(i) Exploring the interpersonal meaning of discourse through Appraisal Theory; (ii) Employing Critical Discourse Analysis via integration of corpus linguistics and Appraisal Theory; (iii) Examining evaluations of language users across specific contexts; (iv) Investigating targeted sub-aspects of Appraisal Theory. Citation analysis identifies Martin & White (2005) and White (2012) as the most cited works and pivotal authors in the field. Together, these insights enhance understanding of the scholarly landscape of Appraisal Theory and highlight promising directions for future research.
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Keywords
Appraisal Theory; SFL; Interpersonal Meaning; Bibliometrics
Author(s) Information
Publisher’s Note
The claims, arguments, and counter-arguments made in this article are exclusively those of the contributing authors. Hence, they do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the authors’ affiliated institutions, or EUROKD as the publisher, the editors and the reviewers of the article.
Acknowledgements
Not Applicable.
Funding
The authors received no fund for this project.
CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement
Ly Tuan Phan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal Analysis, Resources, Writing - Original Draft, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Writing - Review & Editing
Generative AI Use Disclosure Statement
The author declares that no generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used in the preparation, analysis, writing, editing, or visualization processes of this manuscript. All parts of this work, including the conceptualization, data analysis, writing, and revisions, were completed solely by the author without the assistance of any AI-based content generation tools.
Ethics Declarations
World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki–Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants
The author declares that the study involving human participants was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki.
Competing Interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Data Availability
No data are available for this study.