Median vs Outer Values Of Modality: Transferred Negative Polarity

Halliday (1994: 358-9):

Modality As Varying Degrees Of Polarity

Halliday (1994: 357):

Yes/No Substitution vs Ellipsis

Halliday (1994: 319):

Tones 1 & 2

Halliday (1994: 302):

Logical Notation: Tense, Polarity And Voice

Halliday (1994: 198-9):

Three Functions Of 'Yes' And 'No'

  Halliday (1994: 92, 93):

Modal Adjunct Of Polarity

 Halliday (1994: 90):

Modalisation And Modulation In Negative Clauses

Halliday (1994: 90):

Polarity

Halliday (1994: 88):

Imperatives: Person & Polarity

Halliday (1994: 87):

Finite Verbal Operators

Halliday (1994: 75-6):

Polarity

Halliday (1994: 75):

The Space Between Positive And Negative Polarity

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 526):

Languages differ considerably in their construction of this space, and in the extent to which they interpret it grammatically. In English, there are four distinct grammatical traverses between 'yes' and 'no', two deriving from the polarity of propositions ('it is/ it isn't') and two from the polarity of proposals ('do! / don't!').

Polarity And Modality

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 525-6):

The mood system constructs the clause as a move in an argument: either as a "proposition" (statement or question) or as a "proposal" (offer or command). The system provides scope for argument by incorporating an opposition of 'on' or 'off': each clause assigns either positive or negative polarity. Every proposal or proposition selects one or the other: either that was a snake or that wasn't a snake, either catch it! or don't catch it! But at the same time the interpersonal grammar goes much further, it rejects a simple polarity of 'yes' and 'no', opening up a broad semantic space in between. This is the area of "modality", where the interactants present different aspects of their own judgments and opinions, exploring the validity of what is being said and typically locating it somewhere between the positive and negative poles.

Key To 30 Of The 144 Categories Of Modality

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 695-6):

30 Of The 144 Categories Of Modality Exemplified

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 695, 697):

This generates a set of 4 × 4 × 3 × 3 = 144 categories of modality. Thirty of these are illustrated in Figure 10-8.

Outer Value Modality

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 693-4):

With the outer values, on the other hand, if the negative is transferred the value switches (either from high to low, or from low to high):

Median Value Modality

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 693):

The median value is clearly set apart from the two ‘outer’ values by the system of polarity: the median is that in which the negative is freely transferable between the proposition and the modality:

The System Of Modality

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 691):

The reason this area of the semantic system is so highly elaborated metaphorically is to be found in the nature of modality itself. … Modality refers to the area of meaning that lies between yes and no – the intermediate ground between positive and negative polarity. What this implies more specifically will depend on the underlying speech function of the clause. (1) If the clause is an ‘information’ clause (a proposition, congruently realised as indicative), this means either (i) ‘either yes or no’, i.e. ‘maybe’; or (ii) ‘both yes and no’, i.e. ‘sometimes’; in other words, some degree of probability or of usuality. (2) If the clause is a ‘goods-&-services’ clause (a proposal, which has no real congruent form in the grammar, but by default we can characterise it as imperative), it means either (i) ‘is wanted to’, related to a command, or (ii) ‘wants to’, related to an offer; in other words, some degree of obligation or of inclination. We refer to type (1) as MODALISATION and to type (2) as MODULATION; this gives a system as in Figure 10-5.

Paratactic Elaboration: Clarification

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 463-4):

In this case the secondary clause clarifies the thesis of the primary clause, backing it up with some form of explanation or explanatory comment. … The clarification often involves a shift in polarity … The clarification may be an evaluative comment. … 

Expressions such as in fact, actually, indeed, at least are common in this type; the nearest written abbreviation is again i.e., or sometimes viz. The conjunctives are cohesive rather structural markers of the paratactic relationship … 

Very often the two clauses are simply juxtaposed. This often makes it difficult to decide, in spoken language, whether they form a clause complex or not; but if the intonation pattern is repeated so that there is tone concord, and the semantic relationship of elaboration is clearly present, this can be taken as a criterion for treating them as forming a nexus. In written language the apposition may be signalled by a special punctuation mark, the colon; but this is a fairly recent innovation, never very consistently used, and the lack of any clear structure signal is no doubt the reason why the abbreviations i.e., e.g. and viz. were first introduced and why they continue to be used today.