9.2 Structure of evaluative statements

Evaluation statement - a statement that establishes the absolute or comparative value of any object.

All evaluative statements are divided into absolute and comparative. The first are formulated using the terms “good”, “bad”, “(estimated) indifferently” or their analogues, secondly the terms “better”, “worse”, “equivalent” or their substitutes are used.

Examples of absolute assessments: “It’s good that a person keeps his promises,” “It’s bad when someone is constantly late,” “It doesn’t matter what you call your dog.”

Examples of comparative assessments, also called preferences: “It’s better not to come at all than to be late”, “Tobacco smuggling is worse than liquor smuggling”, “To give impracticable promises is equivalent to not promising anything at all”.

The ways of expressing marks in a language are extremely diverse. Estimates often use not only the indicated evaluative concepts, but also the concepts of “positively valuable”, “negatively valuable”, “good”, “evil”, “preferable”, “should be”, etc. (“The judge must be critical,” “An experienced attorney is preferable to an inexperienced,” etc.).

The evaluation statement includes the following parts:

• The subject of the assessment is the person (or group of persons) who assesses the value to some object;

• the subject of evaluation is the object to which value is attributed, or objects whose values ​​are compared;

• the nature of the assessment - an indication of whether the assessment is absolute or comparative and how exactly the object in question is assessed (positive, negative, etc.);

• assessment basis - the position from the point of view of which the assessment is made.

Not all of these parts are explicitly expressed in the evaluative statement, but this does not mean that they are not obligatory. Without any of them, there is a pet of evaluation and, therefore, a pet of its evaluative statement.

For example, in the statement of the agronomist: “It's good that in June there is warm weather with rains, so you can count on a good harvest” the subject of the assessment is the agronomist, its subject is June weather, the character is the word “good” used in absolute estimates, and basis - views on the next harvest. In the assessment of the businessman:

“Honesty is the best policy in economic affairs” the subject of evaluation is a businessman, its subject is honesty, opposed to using dishonest methods in business, the nature of comparative evaluation is expressed by the word “best” (“everyone prefers”), the basis is belief in economic success.