Functions of Language - Volume 2, Issue 2, 1995

With some verbs of attribution, a typical usage can be identified which indicates a particular evaluation. This typical usage can be exploited to implicate evaluation in non-typical cases, a phenomenon which is analogous to that of semantic prosody. ACKNOWLEDGE and INSIST are examples of verbs of this type. With other verbs, there is no consistently typical usage but under specifiable discourse conditions the verb does typically carry a particular evaluation. This more restricted typicality may also be exploited. CLAIM and ARGUE are examples of verbs of this type.

The occurrence of inflectional middle voice in Modern Greek texts is motivated by diverse pragmatic pressures which are related to particular components of its semantic structure. The prototypical value of the semantic category instantiated by middle inflection comprises various internally complex components such as HIGH AFFECT and LOW VOLITION of a nonagentive subject, and LOW INDIVIDUATION of an agent-like source. The semantic component of HIGH AFFECT is shown to be analogous to the expressive function of Subject Enhancement, whereas the components of LOW VOLITION and LOW INDIVIDUATION are related to the textual strategy of Agent Defocusing. Both the semantic components and the pragmatic functions of middle voice are encompassed by more general speaker based strategies of foregrounding and/or backgrounding some element of a conceived situation; these strategies are shaped by subsystems of encyclopedic knowledge that are utilized in particular communicative contexts.

In this paper the linking particle {nal-ng} in Tagalog is interpreted from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics. It is suggested that Tagalog's deployment of this particle to depend one unit on another across a range of grammatical environments argues for a grammatical theory in which constituency and interdependency are seen as complementary structuring principles, reflecting the experiential and logical subcomponents of Halliday's ideational meta-function. In addition, the challenge posed by Tagalog's apparently interpersonal deployments of the linking particle is addressed.