6/15/2020

The Three Meta-functions

Experiential Interpersonal

Textual

Meta- Has to do with and is realized by

function
Experiential The way we represent the world as we The transitivity system
experience it And Lexis

Interpersonal Interaction between speaker and Mood and modality

hearer, and the speaker’s judgment of
the likelihood of an event happening or
the requirement of a course of action

Textual The way the message is organized in Theme-Rheme structure

relation to its context to achieve
coherence

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The three meanings (meta-functions)

encoded in a clause
He kicked the ball into the net.

Experiential [ACTOR] [Pr:DOING] [GOAL] [CIRCUMSTANCE]

Interpersonal MOOD RESIDUE

SUBJECT FINITE

Textual THEME RHEME

Experiential and Interpersonal Meanings

Consider the following sentences.
A. He [ACTOR] kicked [PR:DOING] the dog [GOAL].
B. Did he [ACTOR] kick [PR:DOING] the dog [GOAL]?
C. He [ACTOR] could have kicked [PR:DOING] the dog [GOAL].
D. He [ACTOR] should have kicked [PR:DOING] the dog [GOAL].
(i) All three sentences are identical in terms of their experiential meaning,
but A differs from B and C in terms of their interpersonal meanings.
(ii) In choosing the declarative mood in A, the speaker puts himself in the
role of the one who gives the information and the hearer in the role of the
receiver of the information. The choice of the interrogative mood in B
reverses the roles.
(iii) A differs from C and D in that it does not contain a modal element,
which expresses the speaker’s judgment of the likelihood of an event
happening (C) or the requirement of a course of action (D).

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Interpersonal Meaning

Interpersonal
meaning

Interaction Speaker’s
between judgment of
interlocutors

Likelihood of Requirement
MOOD
an event of an action

Interaction between Interlocutors

Speakers use language to interact with one another, i.e. they use
language to perform different speech acts such as requesting
and giving information.

Basically, English makes use of four moods to encode the four

basic speech acts.

Speech act Mood Example

Statement Declarative They put the books into the boxes
Question Interrogative Did they put the books into the boxes?
Where did they put the books?
Command Imperative Put the books into the boxes.
Exclamation Exclamative What a mess you’ve just made!

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MOOD STRUCTURE
• The two functions Subject and Finite are crucial to the
structural realization of mood in English.
MOOD STRUCTURE
Declarative Subject ^ Finite
Interrogative Finite ^ Subject
wh- ^ Finite ^ Subject
wh-Subject ^ Finite
Imperative Predicator (base form of verb)

Exclamative what-Object/Complement ^ Subject ^ Finite

how-Complement/Adjunct ^ Subject ^ Finite

Mood and Polarity

• The four mood structures can be combined with

positive or negative polarity.

• For negative polarity, the negative particle not (or n’t)

directly follows the Finite.

• Indirect speech acts: When there is a mismatch

between mood structure and the speech act
performed, it is said that the speaker is performing an
indirect speech act.