Interacting:
the interpersonal metafunction
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Introduction
“The speaker uses specific language structures as the means of social communication to involve the speech event: the expressions of his comments, his attitudes, his evaluations, and also the relationship he sets up between himself and the listener, which are decided by different communication roles he adopts, like informing, questioning, persuading”. (Halliday, 2000:69)
• The Finite makes it possible to argue about the validity of the proposition. Through Finite, the speaker signals three basic kinds of claims (tense, polarity and modality)about the validity of the proposition
• The Finite is realised by the first of the verbal group t o e x p r e s s t e n s e a n d modality (The rest of the verbal group is the Predicator, which forms part of the Residue.)
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The usual labels for these functions are: statement; question; offer; and command
• three of these basic functions are closely associated with particular grammatical structures: statements ------ declarative clauses questions ------ interrogative clauses commands ------ imperative clauses
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Roles of addresห้องสมุดไป่ตู้ers and audience
• The most fundamental purposes in any exchange are giving (and taking) or demanding (and being given) a commodity of some kind.
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Meanings of Subject and Finite
• The Subject is the entity that the speaker wants to make responsible for the validity of the proposition being advanced in the clause. That is, the claim that the speaker is making is valid for the entity.
• commodity: information goods-and-services
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four basic speech roles
• giving information • demanding information • giving goods-and-services • demanding goods-and-services
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Mood
• The Mood carries 1） the interpersonal functions of the clause 2） consists of Subject + Finite.
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• The Subject is realised by a nominal group that the speaker gives responsibility to for the validity of the clause.
• A clause thus consists of Mood+Residue.
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Identifying Subject and Finite
• it is usually relatively easy to identify the Subject, but in cases of doubt we can establish exactly what the Subject and Finite of any clause are by adding a tag question
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the most important sociological use of language is the interpersonal function, by which people establish and maintain their status in a society. In the framework of the function grammar, this function is concerned with interaction between the addresser and addressee in the discourse situation and the addressee's attitude toward what he speaks or writes about.