An analysis of APPRAISAL in childbirth narratives with special consideration of gender and storytelling style*

This study uses the APPRAISAL framework developed by Martin (1996, 2000) to analyze the evaluation offered by women and men when narrating experiences about childbirth. The textual patterns constructed by the speakers’ use of attitudinal appraisal are considered in relation to gender in two ways. First, findings suggest that the women and men in this study have subtly differing story-telling styles as indicated by the relative proportion of AFFECT and APPRECIATION found in their narratives. The women’s narratives are seen as more personalized and exhibiting a higher degree of potential interpersonal involvement than the men’s—features which are understood as connected with the patterns of social interaction between speakers. Second, gender is also important in understanding the speakers’ selfcharacterization as expressed through JUDGMENT. Through the comparators (Labov 1972) used here, the speakers depict a particular identity for the prospective father as one who may be peripheral and ineffective—a world view that is mirrored in the representation of the father as a social actor (van Leeuwen 1996) in current childbirth advice literature. The analysis of APPRAISAL in these narratives supports recent trends in the study of language and gender that suggest there is no universal mapping between gender and linguistic form. Rather, like the evaluation used here, gender itself is seen as culturally constructed and related to contextual issues in a complex and multiple manner.