International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 3, No. 4; 2013 ISSN 1923-869X E-ISSN 1923-8703 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 15 The Formation of the Image of Top-Ranked Hotels through Real Online Customer Reviews: A Corpus-Based Study of Evaluative Adjectives as Image-Formers/Providers Nuria Edo Marzá 1 1 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of English Studies, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain Correspondence: Nuria Edo Marzá, Universitat Jaume I, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of English Studies, Avda. Sos Baynat s/n, 12071, Castellón, Spain. Tel: 34-964-72-96-12. E-mail: nedo@ang.uji.es Received: April 17, 2013 Accepted: May 20, 2013 Online Published: July 17, 2013 doi:10.5539/ijel.v3n4p15 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v3n4p15 This research has been carried out within the framework and support of a research project awarded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (former Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), with reference FFI2011-2472, and entitled “Análisis léxico y discursivo de corpus paralelos y comparables (español, inglés y francés) de páginas electrónicas de promoción turística”. 2011-2014. Abstract This study is grounded on a corpus-based analysis of evaluative adjectives as hotel image-formers/providers conducted from a multifaceted yet complementary perspective which departs from the notion of destination image formation (Gartner, 1993; Baloglu & McCleary, 1999, Gylling, 2004 among others) focused on a specific aspect, that of the hotel of destination, and to a specific genre, the online (hotel) customer review. The corpus of study, which contains more than 250 000 words, is made up of more than 1200 online reviews of top-ranked hotels retrieved from the popular website Tripadvisor.com. WordSmith Tools 5.0 was used to analyse and categorise the evaluative adjectives in the corpus from three perspectives: firstly, adjectives were initially classified according to frequency and/or saliency criteria; secondly, in terms of their implicit degree of positivity/negativity; and thirdly, according to the kind of evaluation provided. Subsequently, the main features evaluated in any hotel online customer review (value, rooms, location, cleanliness, and service) and their frequently associated adjectival evaluative acts were analysed to determine their collocational behavior and thus the way such appraisal patterns contribute to “destination image formation”, that is, to form an impression on specific aspects of top-ranked hotels. The paper is aimed at showing that evaluative adjectives in online customer reviews are critical in the interpretation of subjective expected values, and that a correct understanding of the kind of image they transmit in the tourist-to tourist digital interaction through reviews provides an opportunity for destination marketers, in this case hoteliers, to enhance the psychological and symbolic values as well as the benefits of the destination according to improved communication strategies and language usage. Keywords: evaluative adjective, corpus, online review, collocational behavior, frequency, saliency, evaluation, WordSmith Tools 1. Theoretical Framework and Aims of the Study 1.1 The Notion of “Destination Image Formation” This study is primarily framed within current research on destination image formation processes (Gartner, 1993; Baloglu & McCleary, 1999, Gylling, 2004, among others). Due to the enormous scope of the “destination image formation” concept and to the specific aims of this study, a concrete aspect of such notion has been chosen for further analysis, that of accommodation, and more specifically that of top-ranked hotel image. Therefore, the theoretical approach to this study has departed from and been constructed on the basis of three main standpoints – (1) the study of “destination image formation (2) through evaluative adjectives (EAs) (3) in a specific digital genre, the online customer review (OCR) –, with the final aim of showing how a correct understanding of the way image is portrayed and transmitted in tourist-to-tourist online interactions through reviews may provide an