Based on the examples above, the way of delivering information using spoken and written are different although both of those texts have the same
purpose and meaning. 3
Interpersonal meanings Interpersonal meanings are language systems which allow people to give and
demand information, ideas, and things. Gerot and Wignell 1994:13 state, “Interpersonal meanings are meanings which express a speaker‟s attitude and
judgments.” They 1994:13 add, “Meanings are realized in wordings through what is called Mood and Modality.”
Gerot and Wignell 1994:22 state that interpersonal meanings are realized in the lexicogrammar through selections from the system of Mood.
2.2.4 Speech RoleSpeech Function
Halliday and M atthiessen 2004:107 state, “The most fundamental types of
speech role, which lie behind all the more specific types that we may eventually be able to recognize, are just two: i giving and ii demanding.” Mood system
includes speech role and commodity. Speech role consists of giving statement and offer or demanding question and command. Meanwhile, Eggins 1994:150
states, “These four basic move types of statement, offer, question, and command are what Halliday refers to as speech functions.”
Table 2.1 Speech Roles and Commodities in Interaction
COMMODITY EXCHANGED SPEECH ROLE
Information Goods and Services
Giving statement
offer Demanding
question command
Halliday in Eggins 1994:150 Eggins 1994:150 states, “The choice of responding moves is
constrained by the initiating move that has just been made.” Each speech function has pair of initiation and response. Response approaches after the initiation.
Response may be supporting or confronting, for example, the first person in a dialogue offers something then the second person will give acceptance response
for supporting initiation or rejection acceptance for confronting.
Table 2.2 Speech Function Pairs Initiations and Responses
Initiating Speech Function
Responding Speech Function
Supporting Confronting
Offer acceptance
may be non-verbal rejection
Command compliance
may be non-verbal refusal
Statement acknowledgement
contradiction Question
answer disclaimer
Halliday in Eggins 1994:151
Eggins 1994:152 adds that there is also a correlation between the different structure of an initiating move and the structure of a responding move.
There is also a rule that each speech function has typical Mood in clause such as statement which is usually presented in declarative Mood and question which is
usually presented in interrogative Mood.
Table 2.3 Speech Functions and Typical Mood of Clause
Speech Function Typical Mood in Clause
Statement declarative Mood
Question interrogative Mood
Command imperative Mood
Offer modulated interrogative Mood
Answer elliptical declarative Mood
Acknowledgement elliptical declarative Mood
Accept minor clause
Compliance minor clause
Eggins 1994:154 In a dialogue or conversation sometimes people do not use structure
above. Question which is usually presented by interrogative Mood can also be presented with modulated declaratives. Eggins 1994:154 gives example:
Interrogatives : “Is „The Bostonians‟ by Henry James?”
Modulated declarative : “I was wondering whether „The Bostonians‟ might be by
Henry James.
Table 2.4 Summary of Dialogue
Speech Function Typical Clause Mood
Non-typical Clause Mood
Command imperative
modulated interrogative declarative
Offer modulated interrogative
imperative declarative Statement
declarative tagged declarative
Question interrogative
modulated declarative Eggins 1994:153
2.2.5 Conversation
