The aim of this chapter is to describe and assess systematically the ways in which the English language organises discourse to represent the speakers' or writers' attitudes to what they are stating.(1) Is the text presenting facts or opinions? How exhaustive, reliable and convincing are the information and data provided? How does the language reveal all this? Pragmatic functions (i.e. the speakers' communicative aims) will be mapped against the options offered by English syntax.

In Halliday's analysis of modes, a speaker's first option is between an imperative and an indicative mode; the latter can have a declarative or an interrogative form; on its turn a declarative can be an assertion or an exclamation.

Each option is a different way in which the speaker can relate to the reader. Further distinctions are possible in each case; we shall begin with assertions.

We shall start with a description of kernel patterns, the seven basic syntactic combinations of subject (S), verb (V), object (O), complement (C)(2) and adverbial (A):

Pattern 1: S V

where S stands for N-sv (nominal, subject of verb) and V is normally a V-in (verb, intransitive):

Three remarks are necessary before we proceed:

a) Nominal stands for a noun phrase (3) of any kind (including proper names, pronouns, or nouns with their determiners, pre- and post-modifiers);

b) N-sv, the subject, is an essential component in all patterns, and no further mention will be made of it;

c) in this pattern, the presence of A-M/P/T: adverbials of manner, place, time is possible but not obligatory for the kernel (i.e. minimum) form. Adverbials are either adverbs or prepositional phrases having the same function.

The M/P/T order is fixed when there are two or three adverbials in the same sentence: (4)

Pattern 2: S V O

V stands for V-tr (verb, transitive) and O is a nominal, object of verb (N-ov), that is a noun phrase functioning as the object of the transitive verb:

Pattern 3: S V C

A double dichotomy leads to four sub-patterns:

• V can be either be (V-be) or another linking verb (V-L = verb, linking);
• C can consist of a noun phrase (N-sc = nominal, subject complement) or of an adjectival (Aj-sc = adjectival, subject complement). (5) The four cases are:

Pattern 4: S V A

The difference with pattern no. 1 is that here the presence of an adverbial is obligatory:

If more adverbials follow the verb, the one required by the kernel pattern comes first, followed by any others. In particular, a verb of motion is immediately followed by an adverbial of place:

Pattern 5: S V O O

V is a double transitive verb followed by two noun phrases: N-io (nominal, indirect object) and N-ov (nominal, object of verb); the latter is the direct object that was found in pattern no. 2. The two noun phrases have different referents, the first being usually [+ animate] and the second [- animate].

It is normally possible to transform these patterns into SVO-type sentences followed by a prepositional phrase corresponding to the indirect object (for the SVOA pattern, see below):

In this case, however, the recipient of the action receives a salience that is usually absent from a SVOO pattern: this means that to me in 5a' becomes much more salient than me in 5a (the same is true with her daughter and for her daughter in 5b e 5b').

Pattern 6: S V O C

The pattern can be subdivided according to whether the object complement (oc) is a nominal or an adjectival:

Unlike pattern no. 5, here the object of verb and the object complement have the same referent: in 6a, Mr Lambe and the chairman are the same person.

In a few cases, C is a subject complement (N-sc):

meaning "She was a good wife for him".

Pattern 7: S V O A

V is a three-place V-tr, that is, a transitive verb that must have three obligatory elements around it: a subject, an object and an adverbial. The sentence

is not complete, whereas in

all the slots have been filled.

More complex sentences can be broken down into the kernel patterns they include. For example:

is globally a SVC pattern:

and the subject clause, replaced by X above, derives from a SVO pattern: