the interpersonal metafunction (beiras, herran, nacini, olivares, recarte)

English Grammar IIAlumnas: Berias, Ximena; Herrán, Joana; Nacini, Gisela; Olivares, Belén; Recarte, Jorgelina.

INTERACTING: THE INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION

One of the main purposes of communicating is to interact with other people.

Communication is inherited two- way, that is, there are at least two interactants.

There must be aspects of the grammar that can be identified as enabling us to

interact through language.

In communication we can exchange two kind of meanings: the experiential

meaning (the content) and the interpersonal one (the interaction).

The most fundamental purposes in any exchange between the addresser

and the audience are giving (or taking) or demanding (or being given) a

commodity. This commodity can be information, in which language has a

constitutive function, that is, it does all or most, of the work in the exchanged; or

goods-and-services, meaning that language has a more ancillary function, and it

“helps” the success of exchange. The usual labels for these functions are

statements; question; offer; and command, which are associated with particular

grammatical structures: statements are most naturally express by declarative

clauses; questions by interrogative clauses; and commands by imperative clauses.

These are the three main choices in the mood system of the clause.

Independent clauses normally have a choice of mood that is they express

speech roles.

Mood

Mood is a system through which interpersonal meanings are realized within

a conversation. It consists in two elements; one is the subject (nominal group) and

the other is traditionally called an auxiliary verb, the finite (verbal group). We also

use “mood” to refer to the choice of clause types and to express tense and

modality.

Residue

Although much of the interactive work of the clause is performed by the

subject and finite, it is useful to look at what else appears in the clause. The 1


general term for the part of the clause that is not the Mood is the Residue; in

interpersonal terms the residue is merely what is “left over” once the mood has

been establish. There are three kinds of functional elements in the residue: the

predicator, complements, and adjuncts.

The predicator is expressed by the rest of the verbal group apart from the

Finite. There can be only one predicator in any clause and there must be a

predicator in any mayor clause. Since the Finite is not part of it, the predicator itself

is non-finite. It obviously expresses the process -the action, happening, state- in

which the Subject is involved. In addition, it may perform three functions. The first

is to specify a “secondary tense”. The second function is to specify aspects of the

process, such as starting, trying, achieving, or continuing the process. And the third

function specifies the voice: active or passive.

The clause may include one or two complements. A complement is typically

realized by a nominal group which could have been chosen as Subject, but was

not. There is, however, one kind of Complement which cannot become Subject: the

attribute in a relational process.

The clause may also contain one or more adjunct, whose function is

typically performed by an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase.

Modality and Polarity

Any finite is inherently positive or negative in polarity, that is to say, polarity

is absolute. It may be expressed through Mood Adjuncts such as “never” or

“hardly”. The expression of polarity is not restricted even to the Mood. For

example: “He has said nothing to me about that”. The finite “has” is positive, and

there is no Mood Adjunct: it is the Complement “nothing” that expresses negative

polarity.

Modality expresses the speaker’s attitude towards what he/she is saying. It

can be expressed through modal verbal operators or Mood Adjuncts.

When we talk about modality, we can identify different types: If the

commodity being exchanged is information, the modality relates to how valid the

information is being presented as in terms of probability or usuality. If the 2


commodity is good-and-services, the modality relates to how confident the speaker

can appear to be in the eventual success of the exchange. In commands, this

concerns the degree of obligation; in offers, the degree of willingness or

inclination of the speaker to fulfil the offer.

In order to distinguish these two basic types of modality, the first is called

modalization, whereas the second is referred to as modulation.

There are three basic values or points on the “modality scale”: high, median

and low. They are useful labels in investigations the question of the speaker’s

commitment, the degree to which the speaker commits himself/herself to the

validity of what he/she is saying.

Modality also allows the speaker to express his/her point of view in a way

that makes it clear that this is his/her subjective point of the view; or he/she may do

it in a way that “objectivizes” the point of view by making it appear to be a quality of

the event itself.

Apart from subjectivity and objectivity, modality can be implicit, when it is

used in the same clause as the main proposition, or explicit when it is expressed

in a separate clause.

Appraisal

Appraisal is means of evaluation, that is, the indication of whether the

speaker thinks that something is good or bad (in the simplest degrees of values).

There are different scales of appraisal, and in order to identify them, objectivity is

the main feature to take into account. It can be divided into three major categories:

• Affect: the way of talking about how we feel about something, our

emotional responses. It can be sub-categorized in terms whether the emotional

response is “realis” (to do with the here-and-now) or “irrealis” (to do with possible

future states).

• Judgement: focuses on the qualities of the appraisal itself, when it is a

person, analysing in terms of social esteem (social behaviour) and social sanction

(moral qualities).

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• Appreciation: focuses on the qualities of the appraisal when it is a thing,

an action, an event, etc., analysing reaction (how it struck me) and composition

(how it was made up).

Appraisal can be expressed in two ways:

• inscribed, that is, it is explicit and usually easy to recognize.

• evoked, when the speaker tells something which is not directly evaluative

but is intended to evoke an attitude.

Appraisal is clearly related to modality. They both refer to the speaker’s

attitude.

Interaction and negotiation

The idea of the clause as exchange implies a minimum of two components.

One way of analysing this is through the speech roles and the responses that the

speaker expects. Of course, the other person is not bound by the speaker’s

expectations and is free to choose the “discretionary alternative”. If the person

opts for the discretionary alternative, it will delay or cancel the success of the

exchange.

Initiation Expected responseDiscretionary

alternative

Give goods-and-services Offer Acceptance Rejection

Demand goods-and-services Command Undertaking (action) Refusal

Give information StatementAcknowledgment (non-

intervention)Contradiction

Demand information Question Answer Challenge

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the interpersonal metafunction (beiras, herran, nacini, olivares, recarte)

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