This research explored the attitudinal meaning, subsumed under the notion ofappreciation by means of appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005) used in the arts andcultural news discourse which retrieved from the Jakarta Post online site. This researchemployed qualitative descriptive method. The data of this research was obtained from thewhole appreciation items found in the five arts and cultural news discourse. Theobjectives of this research were twofold: (a) to identify the lexical strategies conveyed bythe news writer, and (b) to examine how appraising items reflect the news writer’sattitude towards the news discourse. The results revealed that the writer used bothpositive and negative evaluation items. The data conveyed that the writer predominantlyused positive appraising items with account for 80.89 % in which valuation constituted of47%, followed by reaction (23.47%) and composition (10.43%). Meanwhile, the writerused negative appraising items with account for 19.11% in which valuation constituted of12.17%, followed by reaction (5.21%) and composition (1.73%). The predominantappraising items applied in the arts and cultural news, conveyed that the writer tend to usepositive evaluation items to appreciate arts and cultural news as newsworthy phenomenonwhich has aesthetical value for the readers to read.Keywords: Appreciation, Appraisal Theory, Arts and Cultural News.

This study aimed at evaluating the students’ attitude toward online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic within the written discourse by using the Appraisal Theory arranged by Martin & White, under the region of appreciation. Appreciation dealt with the evaluation of semiotic and natural phenomena. The realization of appraising item was adjectival that might have either positive or negative meaning. The data were obtained from the essays written by 25 students who joined the conversation subject through the online classroom. This study engaged with the qualitative descriptive method. The objectives of this study were three extents: (a) to find out the most predominant appreciation items the students tried to convey, (b) to find out the students’ value position, and (c) to give the pedagogical suggestion on the online learning. The result of the analysis showed that within 137 appraising items found, the positive appraising item exceeded the account of 52,5%. It reflected that the students had positive attitude toward online learning activities. Moreover, the students presented their value position as agreeing with the activity of online learning. Therefore, constructive pedagogical suggestions were given to the lecturers, the students, and the institution stakeholders.

The objective of this study is to find out the use of semantic relation in analyzing the lexical meaning in article “Gemstone Fever Hits Jakarta”. There are some semantic relations found frequently in the article namely, the use of synonymy, polysemy, homonymy, and hyponymy. This study was conducted by using qualitative research. The data suorce of this study was obtained from the words existed in the article of “Gemstone Fever Hits Jakarta.” The total number of words occurred in the article is 546 words. After being analyzed, it was found that the article contained of 34 synonymies; 10 homonymies; 10 Polysemies and 12 Hyponymies, therefore the total number of words which have semantic relation is 68. It is obviously identified that the article of “Gemstone Fever Hits Jakarta” contained mostly of synonym words, which means most of the lexical meaning of the words had the same meaning in the context.