The Line Between Exclamations and Statements [New]

Martin (1992: 43-5):

This raises the question of how to draw the line between Exclamations and Statements. On the one hand, exclamatives have affirmative syntax (Subject^Finite) and so are definitely negotiable; at the same time, declarative clauses may encode reaction through attitudinal adjuncts (e.g. regrettably) or through group rank systems (e.g. can't stand and silly bugger). The strategy developed here will be to treat attitudinal minor clauses and exclamatives as Exclamations:

Exclamation [minor/exclamative]     What a fooI!/What a fool he's been!

Response to Exclamation                  — Quite so.

and to include other MOOD classes only where attitude is explicitly graded in a response:

Statement [declarative]      He's been such a fool.

Acknowledge Statement     — Oh, has he?

But:

Exclamation [declarative]     He's been such a fool.

Response to Exclamation     — Absolutely.

The relevant section of the MOOD network needs to be adjusted as follows, incorporating the feature [exclamative] and adding the feature [affirmative] to generalise across the Subject^Finite st[r]ucture in both exclamative and declarative clauses.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, exclamations and statements are speech functions at the level of semantics, whereas exclamatives and declaratives are mood types at the level of lexicogrammar. The "line between" exclamations and statements is semantic, not lexicogrammatical.

[2] To be clear, "encoding reaction through attitudinal adjuncts" is irrelevant here because it does not distinguish either speech functions or mood types. For example:

Exclamation [realised as exclamative]     What a fool he's been!

Acknowledgement                                       — Regrettably so.

Statement [realised as declarative]      He's been such a fool.

Acknowledgement                                   — Regrettably so

[3] On the one hand, this is a non-sequitur, since it is not entailed as a conclusion by the preceding propositions. On the other hand, the realisation of exclamations (semantics) as exclamative clauses or by minor clauses (lexicogrammar) is Halliday's model; see Halliday (1985: 84-5; 1994: 84, 95).

[4] To be clear, this is a statement, not an exclamation. The exclamatory response absolutely has no bearing on the speech function of this initiating clause, since it can be used to respond to either statements or exclamations, as well as questions (yes/no), commands and offers.

[5] To be clear, this MOOD network does not address the "line between exclamations and statements", the question raised at the beginning of this section, and does not address the realisation of exclamations as either exclamative or minor clauses, not least because it does not include minor clauses as an option.