50 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
a number of problems, Sperber and Wilson’s theory of relevance provides a
useful theoretical framework for the investigation of speech as a purposeful
cooperative happening. Finally the premise of existential values, i.e. speakers
exploit the here-and-now values of linguistic items, is evaluated.
3.1 Asking and Telling Increments
Brazil (1995: 41) argues that used language consists of two kinds of exchanges:
asking and telling. There is, he claims, no formal distinction between the
chains which function as asking and telling exchanges: any increment may
function either as an asking or telling one.^2 Meaning is not an inventory of
structure but rather arises out of the more abstract relations which exist
between the lexicogrammar, the physical situation, speaker purposes, the
social relations between speaker and hearer and the previous discourse.
Halliday and Matthiessen (1999: 328) remind us that a considerable amount of
language which ‘ranges from casual greetings and observations’, falls within
what Malinowski (1923) labelled phatic communication: the language of togeth-
erness. The same wording employed by a speaker carries a different meaning
if used in a different context. A meteorologist who says on television ‘It is a
cloudy day’ reports a fact. The same meteorologist who says the same words to
a friend while hiking may report a fact, signal a warning that it would be better
not to delay, or engage in phatic communication. The meaning of language
isolated from context is in many cases indeterminate. It is shared experience
which allows linguistic meaning to be unpacked and enables utterances to be
interpreted as reports, warnings, phatic communications, etc.
Grammatically there are three major kinds of sentence: statements, questions
and imperatives. However, there is no one-to-one relation between sentence
types and communicative functions such as assertions, requests for information
and commands. To illustrate, a speaker who wishes a hearer to close a window
can utter:
(1) It’s cold in here (Statement)
Could you close the window? (Question)
Close the window (Imperative)or a speaker who wishes to know a hearer’s name may utter:
(2) I want to know your name (Statement)
What is your name? (Question)
Tell me your name (Imperative)