Friday 29 January 2016

Misconstruing Metaphors Of Mood

Martin (1992: 413):

Table 6.19. Congruent and metaphorical realisations of interpersonal meanings [3]
mood



proposition:



congruent
statement
declarative
He’s here

question
interrogative
Is he here?




metaphorical
statement
probability
It may be that…

question
usuality
It is usual that…





statement
projection
I reckon…

question
projection
Don’t you think…


Blogger Comments:

[1] Interpersonal metaphors of mood involve
  • a speech function (semantics) being realised by a projecting clause (grammar), as in I urge you to… or 
  • a speech function (semantics) being realised by an incongruent mood choice (grammar), as when a command is realised by indicative instead of imperative mood; see Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 626-35).
[2] Interpersonal metaphors involving probability and usuality are metaphors of modality, not metaphors of mood.

[3] This instance of modality combines the congruent grammatical realisation (implicit subjective may) with the metaphorical (explicit objective it's x that).

[4] This is a metaphorical grammatical realisation of modality (modalisation: usuality; explicit objective orientation).

[5] This is a metaphorical grammatical realisation of modality (modalisation: probability; explicit subjective orientation).