MOOD The mood system belongs to the interpersonal metafunction of language. Here, we are interested in the clause as exchange; specifically, we are interested in the grammatical resource that realises different interactional moves in a discourse. Although there may be some connection, Halliday's mood system has very little to do with your emotional state right now, normal or otherwise.
Basic stuf Right from the start, it would be a good idea to separate the tradi traditio tional nal notion notion of mood fr mood from om the the tech techni nica call se sens nse e in whic which h Halliday uses it. Traditionally, mood refers to the verb forms that express a fact or action a.!.a. indicative " indicative " declarative, interrogative#, interrogative#, co comm mman and d (imperative), (imperative), or doubt (subjunctive). (subjunctive). $ot ote e, thou ough gh,, that that sub% sub%u unctiv ctive es are are not discu iscuss sse ed in the Hallidayan framewor!. &n the Hallidayan framewor!, mood , unless otherwise specified, refe refers rs tech techni nica call lly y to the the mood mood block , which ich compr ompris ise es the following components
(ub%ect (#
)inite element )#
*odal ad%unct +To +To disambiguate the terms, we shall use clausal mood to refer to the tradit tradition ional al notion notion of mood mood decla declarat rative ive,, interr interroga ogativ tive, e, etc.# tc.#,, and and moo mood d to refe referr simpl imply y to how it is use used in the the Hallidayan framewor!.*oving on. The (, ), and modal ad%uncts all come under the mood bloc!. All other elements come under residue, residue, except the the following which are to be omitted from your analysis
on%unctions and con%unctive ad%uncts
/ocatives and expletives 0ou may wonder, 1uite rightly, why vocatives and expletives are to be omitted since they are clearly interpersonal in function. 2ell, the answer is that they are peripheral +incidental, if you li!e- to the act of giving and receiving of information or goods3services. (o for mood analysis, you can leave them out. (o far so good4 $ow the next big thing you need to do is to chop up the clause into the mood and residue bloc!s. 5efore that, however, please refresh your memory about (/6A that you learned in your first7year grammar course (when dinosaurs once roamed the earth). ... refreshing, refreshing, refreshing, ... 8one4 6!ay ... you'll ad%ustments, as follows
SVOCA ( / 6 A
now
need
to
ma!e
some
slight
Halliday $o change hange to ) finite#, 9 predicator# hange to complement# Retain as complement# hange to AR or A*
2hat's the difference between complement and ad%unct4 Halliday : *atthiessen <<= >7>=# say A complement is an element within the Residue that has the potential of being (ub%ect but is not ... &t is typically reali?ed by a nominal group. An Ad%unct is an element that has not got the potential of being (ub%ect ... An Ad%unct is typically reali?ed by an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase rather than by a nominal group#. (o that's 1uite clear, isn't it4 $ow comes the easy bit. 2hen you analyse the clause using Halliday's ()9A, it becomes a bree?e to locate the mood bloc! 77 group the ( and ) under *668, and the 9 and under R@(&8@.
2hat about ad%uncts then4 Aha ... you need to be a little careful here. There are two types of ad%uncts you need to worry about 77 modal ad%uncts and the residue ad%uncts. )or ease of reference, let's refer to the latter as ARs short for residue ad%uncts#. ARs provide circumstantial information things to do with time, place, manner, etc.#, including the by agents of passive clauses, such as the ca!e was eaten by him. All ARs form part of the residue. *odal ad%uncts let's call them A*#, on the other hand, form part of the mood bloc!. They provide additional information on li!elihood, usuality, etc. mood ad%uncts#, or the spea!er's opinion, comment, etc. comment ad%uncts#. 9lease note that A*s include both mood and comment ad%uncts. To give you a feel of what is involved in mood and comment ad%uncts, have a loo! at the table below. 9lease note that the table is merely for your reference; you do not need to memorise the wretched thing. )rom the table, hopefully, you should get a sense of what an A* is, and how you can identify it Type Mood Probability adjuncts Usuality Obligation
Examples probably, possibly, certainly, perhaps, maybe always, ever, seldom, rarely, usually definitely, absolutely, at all costs, by all means
Obviousness obviously, positively, of course, surely, clearly Intensity Polarity
just, simply, even, merely, really, actually, in fact, quite, almost, nearly, scarcely not, n't (as in didn't, etc.)
Comment Admissive frankly, to be honest, to tell you the truth adjuncts Desiderative (un)fortunately, to my delight, luckily, regrettably, hopefully Entreaty
please, kindly
Evaluative
understandably, by mistake, curiously enough, mistakenly, unwisely
Opinion
in my opinion, from my point of view, personally, to my mind
Persuasive
honestly, really, seriously
Predictive
to my surprise, surprisingly, as expected, amaingly, by chance
Presumption evidently, apparently, no doubt, presumably
Here are a few examples of mood and comment ad%uncts Mood adjuncts
*aybe the durian fell on $ewton's head. (probability)
$ewton seldom thin!s straight these days. (usuality)
$ewton could hardly wal! after the incident. (degree) Comment adjuncts
)ran!ly, $ewton should have ta!en shelter under an apple tree. (opinion) He, regrettably, did not. (desiderative) $ewton has, no doubt, developed a disli!e for the fruit since then. (presumption) &n summary, then
(, ), A* mood
9, , AR residue eam me up! "cottie#
So what about S & F? 0ou might have guessed by now that ( and ) are pretty important components of the mood bloc!. 2hat's so special about them4 Bet's begin with the ) element. 2hat the ) element does is that it enables something to be argued about. Halliday : *atthiessen <<= >>C# note that a good way to ma!e something arguable is to give it a point of reference in the here and now; and this is what the )inite does. (omething may be made arguable by being presented in terms of time ohn belched ; past time#, modality ohn might have belched ; probability#, or polarity ohn did belch; positive polarity#. (ee below for the modality in finite verbs.# The ( element, on the other hand, enables a proposition to be affirmed or denied. The sub%ect is that element that is
responsible for the functioning of the clause as an interactive event. The se1uential arrangement of ( and ) also realises different clausal moods. The typical patterns are as follows
8eclarative 77 The tutorials made him hypertensive. 2h7interrogative wh7word 2hat made him hypertensive4
(D)
"
(#
2h7interrogative others# 2hen did he become hypertensive4 9olar interrogative 8id the tutorials ma!e him hypertensive4 &mperative exclusive# omplete the tutorial wor!sheetE &mperative inclusive# Bet's complete the tutorial wor!sheet.
77
77
77
(D)
)D(
)D(
77
none
77
(
eam me up! "cottie#
Bothersome stuf 1. Marrying and divorcing F and P &n a finite clause, if the /F consists of only one verb, ) is conflated with 9 77 you therefore label the verb as )39. 6f course, if the clause is $), there is no ) element to worry about.# Hence >. The durian
fell )39#
on $ewton's head, didn't it4
The easiest way to pic! out the ) element is to insert a mood tag, which pic!s out the ) and ( elements of the main clause. &n >#, the mood tag 77 didn!t it 77 raises a pu??le since the main clause doesn't contain the verb did . @ggins >GG= >C# clarifies 2here does the did in the tag come from4 2hat happens is that with verbs in the simple present or simple past declarative, the )inite element gets fused with another element, !nown as
9redicator. &n earlier forms of @nglish, and still in emphatic forms of contemporary @nglish, the did used to be present in the main part of the clause as well as in the tag +...- " did learn the #nglish language from the guy, didn!t "$ +...- &n unemphatic modern @nglish, the did )inite has become fused in with the content part of the verb. 5ut technically it is still there in the clause, as we see when we add the tag. *oving on, if the /F in a finite clause consists of more than one verb, it is always the first verb that gets labelled ). @verything else in the /F is 9 . $ewton
won't ), A*#
be eating 9#
durians for a while.
2hat about multi7word verbs such as phrasal or prepositional verbs#4 *ainstream systemicists would treat them as comprising a fused element of finite3predicator followed by an ad%unct 77 for example, switch )39# on A#. & feel, however, that it would be a lot neater to simply regard the particles in such multi7word verbs as an extension of the verb and, therefore, part of the predicator. Hence I. The boy
switched )397#
on 79#
the radio.
2. Wa!"s !e deal wi! modality in #ini!e verbs$ )inite verbs are verbs that are mar!ed for tense and3or modality. *odality here refers to degrees of indeterminacy. &t does not refer only to modal verbs such as can3could, may3might, shall3should, will3would, must, or marginal modals such as used to, had to, etc. &ndeed, the notion of modality can be extended to any lexical verb, not %ust modal verbs. &n the case of verbs, modality is manifested in two ways
Modalisation 77 concerning probability including certainty# or usuality. He may have put on my briefs by mista!e. (probability) He sings in the shower every )riday evening. (usuality) Modulation 77 concerning obligation including permission# or inclination. 0ou ought to !eep awa!e during the grammar lecture. (obligation)
He can sleep all he wantsE (obligation) He desperately tried to stay awa!e. (inclination) 8o note that the labels above are for verbs only, not for A*s. The AM labels are more complex 77 as you must have realised by now unless you scrolled down this page too 1uic!ly.# 2hen analysing verbs, it might be helpful to consider how they are used from this modality angle ... might here is an example of modalisationprobability#. At an introductory level, you should perhaps !eep it simple by restricting your choices to %ust modalisation probability, usuality# and modulation obligation, inclination#. 8o we need to analyse every single finite verb for modality4 2ell, nope. 0ou should thin! of modality only in terms of modalisation and modulation. There is no modality, for instance, in the finite verbs below 77 at least, the pea in my head can't detect any =. Alvin realised, to his horror, that he had put on someone else's briefs by mista!e. %. Sci&o'renic S &n @nglish, there are constructions where the anticipatory it is used. &n such constructions a.!.a.extraposed%subject constructions#, the content of the anticipatory sub%ect is placed at the end C. &t is a shame to see a bruise on $ewton's & 'o see a bruise on ewton!s head is a shame.#
head.
2hat happens in such a situation is that ( is regarded as being discontinuous, as in J. &t
is
a shame to see a bruise on $ewton's head.
(ub7 )39
7%ect
2hich now leads me to the next point. (. Mus! !e mood bloc) always be a single bloc)$
$o 77 a clause li!e $ewton !ic!ed the durian, unfortunately should give you some idea of the discontinuity that the mood bloc! tolerates. *. +s !e im'era!ive always moodless$ The answer is no. The exclusive imperative is typically moodless, but this need not be the case for all imperatives. The following imperatives, for example, have a mood bloc!
0ou
come
hereE
(
9
AR
*668
R@(&8@
K.
Bet's
go
homeE
(
9
AR
*668
R@(&8@
.
G.
8o
n't
go
homeE
)
A*
9
AR
*668
R@(&8@
