A Combined Functional Approach to Emotive Communication: Drawing on Interpersonal Pragmatics and Appraisal Theory

Previous studies on emotive communication are mainly descriptive, focusing on the emotive language used in the communicative process. Analyses are then needed to account for the pragmatic effects and functional values of this communication type. Based on the analyses of the theoretical strengths of Interpersonal Pragmatics and Appraisal Theory, this paper argues that these two theories should be collaboratively employed in analyzing emotive communication, designing a theoretical model to explore how communicators construct interpersonal relations during the process.