Misrepresenting The Embodiment Of The Interpersonal Metafunction In The Verbal Group

 Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 172):

(ii) interpersonal: a verbal group enacts polarity & modality – the experiential process is assessed in relation to the interpersonally defined speaking time, the ‘now’. For example, in those birds are flying across the sky, the time of the process of flying is assessed as being located temporally in relation to the actual now of speaking, whereas in those birds may be flying across the sky, the actualisation of the process is assessed as being located modally on a scale of probability: it is possible rather than actual in relation to the actual now of speaking. Other interpersonal variants include: those birds may not be flying across the sky, those birds must be flying across the sky, those birds may be required to fly across the sky.

Blogger Comments:

The focus here is on interpersonal semantics of the verbal group rather than on how the interpersonal metafunction is embodied in the systems and structures of the verbal group. The confusion is again stratal (see previous post).