A New Architecture for Functional Grammar (Functional Grammar Series)

268 Jean-Christophe Verstraete

epistemic and subjective deontic modality. Table 4 below provides a sche-
matic representation of how the analysis of subjective modality proposed in
this study can be dealt with in terms of the modular architecture proposed
by Hengeveld (this volume).
In sum, we can say that the descriptive problems discussed in the first
part of this chapter can generally be accommodated more easily in a modu-
lar architecture with top-down orientation between interpersonal and
representational components than in the traditional FG model. Because the
modular approach separates the interpersonal status of an operator from
possibly divergent representational associations, it also removes the most
important obstacle to the inclusion of deontic modality in the subjective
category: association with different layers at the representational level does
not necessarily have implications for the interpersonal status of epistemic
versus deontic modals. On the other hand, the top-down orientation still al-
lows one to incorporate the link between the epistemic-deontic distinction
at the interpersonal level and the tensed-tenseless distinction at the repre-
sentational level, in the sense that this representational choice is steered by
a choice at the interpersonal level.

Table 4. Modularity and top-down organization for subjective modality in Eng-
lish

Interpersonal module

Meaning Speaker’s commitment

Echo-effect in conditionals

Form

Interlocutor-transfer in interrogatives

Subjective status of

the modal

Epistemic (truth) and deontic (desirability)

Representational module

Meaning ‘Located’ propositions ‘Virtual’ actions

Domain

Of the modal

Form + Tense - Tense