Extraposition in English and Swedish 237
proposition from the content it evaluates, it both makes the expression of attitu-
dinal meaning explicit and increases the potential for a more detailed description.
The attitudinal meanings expressed by the matrix predicate of extrapositions can
be roughly divided into four chief semantic categories, epistemic modality (e.g. It
is true / Det är sant; It is likely / Det är troligt), deontic modality (e.g. It is necessary/
Det är nödvändigt; It is your duty / Det är din plikt; It is my wish / Det är min öns-
kan), dynamic modality (e.g. It is easy / Det är lätt; It is impossible, Det är omöjligt)
and value judgments, such as its favourability, appropriateness, or significance,
etc. (e.g. It is good / Det är bra; It is odd / Det är konstigt; It is important / Det är
viktigt) (Herriman 2000a).
Secondly, the matrix predicate represents the speaker’s attitude in the form
of a finite clause, thereby grounding the proposition in terms of time or modality
(ibid. 2004: 115). Its interpersonal function is thus to make the speaker’s attitudi-
nal meaning negotiable in various ways, for example by means of questions, as in
(8a), negation, as in (8b), and tag questions, as in (8c), which invite the addressee
to agree or disagree with the speaker’s opinion.
(8) a. Is it strange that he told her?
b. It isn’t strange that he told her.
c. It’s strange that he told her, isn’t it?
The construction also makes it possible to intensify the force of the attitude by
making it into an exclamation, as in (9a), or to increase its prominence by making
it the marked focus of a cleft construction such as (9b).
(9) a. How strange it is that he told her!
b. What is strange is that he told her.
The subject of the finite verb is the participant who is assigned modal responsibil-
ity for the activity represented by the verb (ibid. 2004: 117). As the subjects of the
matrix predicate in extraposition are the non-personal pronouns it and det, it gives
the attitudinal meaning an appearance of objectivity and generality by assigning
modal responsibility to an impersonal element and not to the animate being who
is its source.
Finally, the textual function of extraposition is to maintain the principle of
endweight by placing a short, light element in the Theme and postponing heavy
information to the Rheme. The position of the matrix predicate before the subject
clause also makes the attitudinal meaning the point of departure from which the
informational content of the subject clause is interpreted, thereby presenting it
as a shared attitude which is difficult to dispute (Hunston & Thompson 2000: 9).
As heavy items tend to have newsworthy information value, postponement by