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Interpersonal Meaning: Systemic Functional Linguistics perspectives
Edited by J.R. Martin
[Functions of Language 25:1] 2018
► pp. 135–163

Negotiating interpersonal meanings

Reasoning about mood

 | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
The aim of this paper is to explore reasoning in SFL lexicogrammatical descriptions by focusing on interpersonal clause types organised in the system of mood. To begin, system-structure relations embodied by the theoretical dimension of axis are introduced in relation to the description of imperative, declarative and interrogative clauses in English. The paper then moves to a three-fold perspective on mood distinctions, captured in SFL by the ‘trinocular principle’: interpersonal clause types are first looked at in terms of their contribution to the dialogic negotiation ‘from above’; they are then approached in terms of the paradigmatic environment they define ‘from around’ in close relation to the structural patterns motivating paradigmatic choices ‘from below’. English mood is reconsidered along these lines, and then a different language is used as an illustrative example for the reasoning explored: Spanish. Finally, the paper addresses the implications of the exploration proposed for the description of interpersonal lexicogrammar in Spanish and, more generally, for SFL descriptive work across languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Reasoning in systemic functional descriptive work
  • 2. mood in English: A system-structure perspective
    • 2.1Languages in their own terms: A trinocular view of mood
    • 2.2Back to English mood: Discourse-semantic motivations
      • 2.2.1Speech functions and mood
      • 2.2.2Speech event, arguability and meanings ‘at risk’
  • 3.Interpreting mood in another language: Spanish
    • 3.1Spanish interpersonal grammar ‘from above’
    • 3.2Spanish interpersonal grammar ‘from around’ and ‘from below’
    • 3.3Implications for an SFL description of Spanish
  • 4.Reasoning in SFL descriptions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.17013.qui
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