Misconstruing Ascriptions Of Emotion As Appraisals By Reference To Emotion

Martin & Rose (2007: 65-6):

(6) Finally we can group emotions into three major sets having to do with un/happiness, in/security and dis/satisfaction. For example:

in/security             the boy was anxious/confident

dis/satisfaction      the boy was fed up/absorbed

un/happiness         the boy was sad/happy

Blogger Comments:

This again confuses the construal of emotions with appraisal by reference to emotions (affect).  None of the three propositions exemplifies affect, since none enacts an appraisal by reference to emotion.  Neither the boy nor the author is making an appraisal.  The author is merely attributing qualities of emotion to the boy.  Genuine examples would be:

in/security                 the boy was anxious/confident about the result
dis/satisfaction          the boy was fed up with/absorbed in the computer game
un/happiness             the boy was sad/happy that his teacher had died