Promoting a city's core values using evaluative language

Abstract

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government launched the Brand Hong Kong campaign in 2001 to promote Hong Kong as an Asia's world city. Among the various initiatives of the campaign is the promotion of the core values of the city through both the text and images on the Brand Hong Kong website. The present study analyzes specifically the textual components of the website by drawing upon appraisal theory as the analytical framework. The findings indicate that evaluative language has a substantial presence and a key role to play in the government's promotional effort. The types and functions of the evaluative resources used and the implications for the discipline of applied linguistics are discussed.