Analysis of interpersonal metafunction in text messages a case study of group text messages among teachers of english at viet anh school

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY TRUONG THI THUY TRINH ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION IN TEXT MESSAGES: A CASE STUDY OF GROUP TEXT MESSAGES AMONG

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

TRUONG THI THUY TRINH

ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION IN TEXT MESSAGES: A CASE STUDY OF GROUP TEXT MESSAGES AMONG TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AT

VIET ANH SCHOOL

MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8 22 02 01

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2021

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

TRUONG THI THUY TRINH

ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION IN TEXT MESSAGES: A CASE STUDY OF GROUP TEXT MESSAGES AMONG TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AT

VIET ANH SCHOOL

MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8 22 02 01

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SUPERVISED BY NGUYEN VU PHUONG, PhD

BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2021

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen

Vu Phuong, who has given expertise support for the development and completion

of my thesis His support has facilitated my professional growth as a researcher, and he offered me his guidance and thorough critique with expertise I also owe him gratitude for his patience and encouragement throughout the process of the study

I wish to express my deep gratitude to 15 teachers of English at Viet Anh School who kindly agreed to participate in this study The data collection would not have been completed without their support I give my sincere thanks to these participants for their willingness and arranging time in their heavy schedules to participate in this study

I also would like to thank the management of Viet Anh School for their support on my completion of the thesis

My gratitude is due to the postgraduate administrative office personnel at Thu Dau Mot University for providing the necessary support during my study period I highly appreciate their care and service

Special thanks are due to my grandma, parents, brother and sister for their support, love, and encouragement that promoted my strength and passion to achieve

a master’s degree

in order to show attitude and intention in the performance their role in the society Moreover, the frequent use of personal pronouns ‘I’, ‘We’ and ‘You’ indicates about the close relationship among the teachers of English when they interact to

each other in order to show their position in the process of exchanging of information Textism benefits because teachers of English can give more expressions on their information conveyed through the pragmatic use of non-standard form in text messages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vi

LIST OF APPENDICIES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Rationale of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Objectives and research questions of the study 4

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Organization of the study 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Text messaging and its role in communication and its challenge 7

2.1.1 Text messaging 7

2.1.2 Role of text messaging in communication 10

2.1.3 Challenges of using text messages 11

2.2 Theoretical and Practical Studies on Text Messaging 12

2.3 Textism: Pragmatics of Word Form in Text Messages 14

2.3.1 Textism 14

2.3.2 Pragmatics of word form in text messages 16

2.4 Theoretical background: Systemic Functional Grammar 17

2.4.1 An overview of Systemic Functional Grammar 17

2.4.2 Context 18

2.4.3 Metafunction 19

2.4.4 Interpersonal metafunction and the clause 21

2.4.4.1 Speech functions 22

2.4.4.2 Mood 27

2.4.4.3 Polarity and modality 34

2.4.4.4 Personal pronoun 37

2.4.5 Previous research findings 38

2.5 Summary and research gap 40

2.5.1 Summary 40

2.5.2 Research gap 42

2.6 The framework of the study 43

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 47

3.1 Research Design 47

3.2 Sampling 47

3.3 Data Collection 49

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 55

4.1 Mood 55

4.1.1 Mood types and speech functions 55

4.1.1.1 Declaratives 56

4.1.1.2 Interrogatives 58

4.1.1.3 Imperatives 59

4.1.1.4 Minor clause 60

4.1.1.5 Exclamatives 61

4.1.2 Speech function and responses 62

4.2 Modality 66

4.2.1 Inclination/ futurity 69

4.2.2 Probability 70

4.2.3 Obligation 71

4.2.4 Usuality 72

4.3 Personal pronouns 73

4.4 Textism 76

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 81

5.1 Summary of findings 81

5.2 Implications 82

5.3 Recommendations for future studies 83

5.4 Concluding remarks 84

REFERENCES 85 APPENDICIES ９３

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Categories of textism and examples 14

Table 2.2 Speech roles and commodities in interaction 23

Table 2.3 Speech function and responses 23

Table 2.4: Example of Mood element structure 27

Table 2.5: Finite Verbal Operator 28

Table 2.6: Example of Structure of declarative mood 30

Table 2.7: Example of Structure of Yes/No interrogative 30

Table 2.8 Example of Interrogative Clause 31

Table 2.9: Example of Imperative Mood 32

Table 2.10: Example of Exclamative mood 33

Table 2.11: The Degree of modalisation realisations in English 35

Table 2.12: The Degree of modulation realisations in English 36

Table 2.13: Personal pronouns in English 37

Table 3.1 The participants of the study 48

Table 3.2: Data Analysis Sheet 51

Table 4.1: Mood types and speech functions 55

Table 4.2: Speech functions and their responses 62

Table 4.3: Semantic realisation of modality 66

Table 4.4 Number and percentage of types of modality 68

Table 4.5: Use of personal pronouns 73

Table 4.6: Textisms in the text messages 76

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The framework of the study 44

Figure 2: The steps in analysing the data 53

LIST OF APPENDICIES

Appendix A: Samples of data analysis ９３Appendix B: Emailed request for participation ９６Appendix C: Consent form for participants at Viet Anh School ９７

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The rapid development of the technology (e.g., modern devices such as mobile phones) appears to meet the needs for the communication and entertainment The development of modern telecommunication has brought people closer in order to open all aspects of life Among effective tools for conveying information, text messaging is becoming more popular when it responds to various purposes by its written language

It is the most effective, convenient and common technological tool for communication because it is time-saving and economical (Mampa & Kwema, 2005) According to DeVito (2001), communication is one of the key mediators in today’s world Communication occurred firstly in oral forms which were then transferred into written ones Thus, oral and written communications have become part of human life and have been hard to separate (Soffer, 2010)

Text messaging has brought benefits for communication to users as regards speed, security, and connection which are evaluated highly in the world Besides that, the evolution of language was mainly influenced by the speed of texting messages, because

it is important for the users of texting messaging to have a timely reply rather than a grammatically correct one Soffer (2010) stated that interpersonal communication through texting messages is not as effective as traditional face-to-face interaction since the expressions in text messages are lack emotions on face, gestures, voice and sight However, he regarded these are as the key components for creating personal and professional relationships

Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) expressed that language functions build and maintain social relationship between writers and readers The way the texters apply their language in texting indicates their behaviors and attitudes in receiving the information from messages Also, people interact with one another and share all kinds

of information such as expressing their status, social and individual attitudes by sending

text messages Matthiessen (1995) pointed out that interpersonal meaning refers to the form of action for making meaning in order to show how people establish their language through forms of action such as asking information, offering services and expressing their thought (Lock, 1996) Halliday and Hasan (1989) stated in an interpersonal metafunction analysis that sentences in the text are viewed as an interaction among the interlocutors The interpersonal metafunction also expresses the way the sender and the receiver interact with each other Their language is used to establish and maintain relationships, express our own view point on things in the world In addition, text messaging can be examined from a variety of perspectives

1.2 Rationale of the study

Halliday’s theory on systemic functional grammar is expanded to the analysis of various types of text such as speeches, movies, and stories (Nurhidayah, 2013; Martanto, 2014; Fauzi, 2013; Ilham, 2019; and Prasetyo, 2013) The current study tends to focus

on analysing the language in text messaging which can match the studies of El-Falaky (2016), El Kholy (2019), and Nepomuceno (2005) on the analysis on text messages within the Hallidayan framework Two of them conducted by El Kholy (2019) and El-Falaky (2016) on analysing interpersonal metafunction via advertisements in text messages and Nepomuceno (2005) investigated the students’ conversation in texting messaging to explore the influence of their culture and language on interpersonal metafunction According to Halliday and Matthiensen (2014), meaning is created from language, so text is a process of making meaning in context They state that:

“Thus recipes, weather forecasts, stock market reports, rental agreements, e-mail

messages, inaugural speeches, service encounters in the local deli, news bulletins, media

interviews, tutorial sessions, walking tours in a guide book, gossip during a tea-break,

advertisements, bedtime stories, and all the other innumerable text types we meet in life

are all ways of using language in different contexts.” (Halliday & Matthiensen, 2014, p

27)

Through the interpersonal metafunction, the speakers/writers and listeners/readers can

show their social status in their interpersonal relationships which is presented with clauses as exchange (Halliday, 1985) Thus, the study of interpersonal metafunction offers people an understanding of the mechanism by which interpersonal meanings are created as regards their social positions, attitudes and judgement (Nurhidayah, 2013) With chatting features in text messaging, the speech function, mood, modality and personal pronouns in interpersonal meaning are exploited in order to discover the functions expected from their language use as well as to identify their behavior in social interaction In addition, there are a number of non-standard forms in English occurred

in text messages when they create a situation for analysing textism related to abbreviations, single letters or symbols Textism produces a variety of pragmatic meanings in order to indicate the texters’ intention and implication which cannot be present in standard forms Because of the necessity of the comprehension of information conveyed for obtaining an effective communication, the users of textism needs exploring and comprehending clearly so as to avoiding causing any confusion to the receivers

In short, language needs exploiting through different contexts The current study focuses on the exploration of social relationship in interpersonal metafunction among the colleagues through text messaging which connects to the tradition of the analysis of metafunction in the context of workplace This particular context should be investigated

to comprehended how the interaction among colleagues impacts to their social relation Therefore, the rationale of this study is to connect the feature of interpersonal metafunction and textism to the language of text messaging in that it matches with the tradition of text messaging for meeting the communication need and maintain social relations Understanding the function of interpersonal metafunction may help to discover language “as a means of communicating information” (Halliday, 1975, p 21)

1.3 Scope of the study

This study focused on interpersonal metafunction of the text messages which were

mainly analysed in terms of the speech functions, mood, modality and personal pronouns and features of textism The study used Systemic Functional Grammar as the theoretical framework to examine the components of interpersonal metafunction in the text messages of teachers of English at Viet Anh school In addition, textism is regarded

as the main feature of text messaging which will be analysed in term of three main categories including linguistic textism, typing error and contextual textism Thus, the analysis of interpersonal metafunction and textism between the sender and receiver aimed to discover how the social relationship maintained and developed through the use of text messaging

1.4 Objectives and research questions of the study

As mentioned above, the study was conducted to analyse interpersonal metafunction including mood types, speech functions, modality, personal pronouns and features of textism in order to interpret the interpersonal meaning of text messages in communication Therefore, the objectives of this study are:

1 To find out the way the interpersonal metafunction is being served in text messages

This study has both theoretical and practical significance Theoretically, this study provides an extra resource in the analysis of interpersonal metafunction in text messages manifested by teachers of English The structures performed in text messages emerged not only the lexicogrammar, but also the semantic and by the frequent application of interpersonal metafunction to convey information, a variety of functions for interacting among participants contribute to the development of functional language

It is suggested that interpersonal metafunction expresses the function of lexicogrammar and semantic which are not only in oral communication but in written language Through the analysis of interpersonal metafunction of text messages, language is discovered in a variety of aspects of the clauses including complex clauses From the understanding of the exchange of information of clauses in the text messages, clause complexes are analysed in terms of interpersonal metafunction which includes the aspects of speech function, mood, modality and personal pronouns Therefore, the study’s theoretical contribution is that through such analysis, the mechanism of how speech function, mood, modality and personal pronouns are structured to establish social relationship A part of interpersonal metafunction, the pragmatic meaning is conveyed through the analysis of textism in text messages which supports the comprehension about more shortened words or abbreviations

From practical aspect, teachers of English (foreign and Vietnamese teachers) can understand and evaluate the language verbalized in text messages so that they can interact with each other appropriately Each person produces different mood types with various speech functions, so the findings of the study provide teachers of English with insights into their written language so that they are aware of and able to create appropriate messages with relevant communication purposes for their context

To English Department, the analysis of interpersonal metafunction and textism gives a valuable insight into the attitudes of foreign teachers in performing their language so that managers can have an opportunity to understand firmly language use

in written language of teachers of English In addition, this study helps to evaluate the way foreigners use language in communication as well as in teaching students Since

texting is used frequently among foreign teachers, the way they use English in texting messages influence partly to their teaching including spoken and written language

1.6 Organization of the study

The structure of this study includes five chapters Chapter one introduces the topic and its main features to provide an overview of the other chapters Chapter two reviews the literature including the theories related to the topic and previous studies which have been done by scholars and researchers worldwide Chapter three covers the methodology which were used to conduct the study Chapter four presents the analysis

of the data and the discussion of the findings Finally, chapter five presents the summary

of the findings, implications, recommendations for further research and concluding remarks

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

As introduced in Chapter 1, this chapter describes text messaging, its role in communication, and theoretical and practical studies related to an analysis of text messages The discussion of relevant theories of using Systemic Functional Linguistics can provide insights into the application of interpersonal metafunction to review interpersonal meaning in communication In addition, some forms of textism are discussed because they appear in text messages and carry pragmatic and personal meanings for those involved The review then discusses the application of Systemic Functional Grammar as a framework for analysing text messages focusing on Interpersonal metafunction in terms of mood, speech function, modality and personal pronouns

2.1 Text messaging and its role in communication and its challenge

2.1.1 Text messaging

Since the late 1990s, when there was a translation from analogue to digital mobile phones, the use of text messaging has reached phenomenal growth It is a term that has been focused in numerous studies, so there were a variety of definitions of text messaging The term ‘text messaging’ (texting) is a kind of messages which the users apply for sending information via their phones such as mobile phones, cell phones, smartphones or web browsers (Thurlow & Brown, 2003) Tayebinik and Puteh (2012) claimed that text messaging relates to the employment of shortened forms and other kinds of typing to compose SMS or instant messages There have been two types of texting: synchronous and asynchronous In synchronous texting, the users are online at the same time, while in asynchronous texting the participants are not simultaneously online Thurlow and Brown (2003) claimed that text messaging referred to the asynchronous text which relied on technological mediated discourse and often expressed through simple sentences for communication and may create unpredictable,

unrestricted new ways for communication (Chiad, 2008; Ong'onda, Matu, & Oloo, 2011)

Text messaging has been used widely, especially towards the teenagers, by the popularity of modern technology such as mobile phones accessing the Internet In the recent survey, around 8 trillion texts are sent every year to reach a dramatic rate at 99 percent, and they are often responded within three minutes (Cardacci, 2018) 33 percent

of Americans like texting messages rather than other tools for communication; therefore,

it becomes the most used means of communication for Americans aged under 50 (Smith, 2011) According to Wood, Kemp and Waldron (2012), the adults were found to make significantly less capitalisation and punctuation errors, and to use unconventional punctuation more frequently than the children, when the length of their messages was taken into account In addition, some experimental studies of exposure to misspelled words has suggested that young adults’ spelling performance is more likely to be disrupted by exposure to misspelled forms than that of children (Dixon & Kaminska, 2007) The study shows the popularity of text messages for timely communication in the world Therefore, texting is regarded as one of the most common tools of communication at present if the users use it via mobile phones or other means such as Whatapp or Viber This shows the importance of text messaging which has become an accessible medium that has changed the way of interpersonal interactions

Language has always been a common tool that is obviously used for framing ideas and sending messages in social interaction It is also applied in multifunctional speech events Since English is an international language, English is associated with the educational systems of English speaking all over the world and become the language used in writing (Geertsema, Hyman, & Deventer, 2011) English used in text messaging does not obey standard rules It is a form of abbreviated written or actually typed language The small size and its limited character space (160 characters) and the small key pad appear to be the challenge that has stimulated the use of more abbreviated language than emerged in chat groups in virtual world (Crystal, 2008) The newer phones are able to link up 12 text messages that the length can reach 1800 characters

Plester, Wood, and Joshi (2009) found out that texting was a form of phonic abbreviation, and a certain degree of phonological and/or orthographical consciousness was required to create and read such abbreviations These characteristics included the omission of words such as abbreviations, letters/ number homophones, and emoticons Areni, Wahyuni, Indrabayu, and Anugrahyani (2017) indicated that the users could send and receive information in the form of short messages and they tried to find a way

to communicate effectively so that the receivers could understand the text messages they interact Therefore, texting changes standard rule of writing and speaking There exists inconsistency and non-standard forms of grammar and syntax (Chiad, 2008) There were investigations on the non-standard rules of text messaging (Ong’onda, Matu, & Oloo, 2011; Ahmed & Al- Kadi, 2016; Lee, 2002; Tayebinik & Puteh, 2012) Ahmed and Al-kadi (2016) indicated that “laudable features that distinguish SMS texting from standard varieties of English, such as using shortened forms of language which are orthographically, morphologically, syntactically and phonologically deviant

of the formal discourse” (p.131) In orthography, the texters applied single letters, numeral and typographic symbols to describe words, parts of words or even noises (e.g.,

b means ‘be’; 2 means ‘to’) Morphologically, that was the common use of shortened words among the participants (Ahmed & Al-kadi, 2016) Ahmed and Al-kadi (2016) found out that the speaker used “JK” to state that the participant was “just kidding” about his previous statement (p 138) Phonologically, Ahmed and Al-kadi (2016) showed that “interlocutors tend not only to use more shortened forms but less attention

to pronunciation marks” (p 139) For example, they tended to use ‘plz’ instead of

‘please’ because ‘please’ was pronounced with a ‘z’ sound (p 139) Special

characteristics were widely used in text messaging For instance, “the short forms of words, lack of capitalization, omission of vowels, incorrect spellings, replacement of numbers for words, simplified contractions, initials, subject drop, typing letters for homophone words and miscellaneous” (Tayebinik & Puteh, 2012, p 98) This led the formation of new abbreviations with non-standard orthographic forms and phonic

substitution (Jose & Raj, 2014; Tayebinik & Puteh, 2012; Ong’onda, Matu, & Oketch, 2010a; Chiad, 2008)

Syntactic structures in texting have changed as large sentences are reduced into

smaller units without changing the meaning (Ehrlich, 1987) The texters often use abbreviations, non-standard spellings, shortening of sentences and incorrect punctuation in text messages written in English Tayebinik and Puteh (2012) agreed that the formal writing, speaking, grammatical skills and spelling aptitudes had been affected by the textism Thus, texting has an adverse effect on the structure of formal language

2.1.2 Role of text messaging in communication

Text messaging has become an important tool for communication all over the world (Geertsema et al., 2011) It is increasing at a noticeable rate with an estimated eight trillion text messages to be set each year Most of users apply text messaging for coordinating activities, maintaining social relationship, filling dead time and sharing information with others in their social network (Ling, 2005) In addition, Jose and Raj (2014) pointed out that text messaging was “a very popular voiceless communication technique that offers the possibility of exchanging written messages between mobile phones” (p.57) It is “a simple and global form of communication, facilitated by the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones” (Chen & Kan, 2013, p 299) Thus, text messages provide a variety of benefits in communication which assist users communicate with the others in the most convenient way

Texting is as a way to produce new form of texting lingo which connects to vocabulary, language and spellings altogether and affects all levels of linguistics that

is from phonology to pragmatics (Kahari, Mutonga, & Ndlovu, 2013) Crystal (2008) added to this statement that texting had supplemented a new dimension to language use and also influenced language and linguistic variations Similarly, Nai, Jia, Chih, Shan, and Yu (2017) concluded that input methods used through text messaging gave condition to reduce hand writing messaging longer and time-consuming They stated

that “text messages and notes such as emails and instant messages replaced handwriting letters and notes in communication due to the popularity and availability

of mobile devices and personal computers” (p.1) That is the way to use “abbreviations and other techniques to compose SMS and instant messages” (Tayebinik & Puteh,

2012, p 97) For the convenience of text messages on mobile phones, the users tend

to apply more shortened words for some reasons Tayebinik and Puteh (2012) found out that there were four reasons for applying textism: fast communication and time saving, simplicity, credit saving and low cost, and youngsters’ trend Similarly, Ong'onda et al (2011) added that SMS communication allowed for an appropriate use

of syntactic and lexical abbreviated forms, which saved character space, or touches of the handset keys, as compared with using the full forms of words

Communication involves the exchange of information and build several types of discourse that reflects our cultural world, power relations and ideological background (El-Falaky, 2016) The characteristic of a good communication includes anything that makes sure that people can communicate each other either face-to-face or phone calls Therefore, there are two types of communication including oral and written forms In oral communication, spoken words are used in face-to-face conversation or through media such as telephonic conversation, video, radio, television, voice over internet (Dona-Ezenne & Levi, 2016) Whereas, written communication maybe hand-written

or printed and can be transmitted via email, letter, report, or hand to hand delivery methods The messages in the written language can be affected by the vocabulary and

grammar used, writing style, precision and clarity of the language used

2.1.3 Challenges of using text messages

Although there are a variety of positive aspects in using text messaging, there are some negative impacts It has been some usability issues, especially in the message input First of all, text messages are awkward to type, and even the ideas of texting on the best phrase to put in the messages must be clear with the aim to align with the acceptable numbers of words so as not to overreach the maximum characters (Barasa,

2010) It is difficult to compose the text of a short message on a small device (Schneider-Hufschmidt, 2005)

Another common downside of text message is that only literate people can access

to it This is a reality in many villages that the children cannot communicate with their parents via text messages because the parents are illiterate (Barasa, 2010) Therefore, the best way to contact with each other is using expensive voice calls

Texting has negative impacts on language structures in English through the contracted use of grammar and incorrect forms, resulting in non-standard words in English Not all users use complete sentences when using text messaging Omission may be applied to many parts of words or sentences This can produce confusion to texting receivers In addition, Tayebinik and Puteh (2012) pointed out different negative aspects affecting language structures: limited social presence, anonymity, reduced/ delayed message feedback, depersonalized communication, extensive application of texting For example, instant messages distort youth literacy because they promote undesirable patterns in reading and writing, and such informal language use endangers the students’ mastery of formal and standard literacy skill (Craig, 2003) As a result, a deterioration in formal writing, speaking skill are “also affected, causing damages to the grammatical skills, confusion in vocabulary spelling” (Tayebinik & Puteh, 2012, p 102) Thus, the negative aspects create a series of new words and symbols, resulting in the need for developing dictionaries for SMS

2.2 Theoretical and Practical Studies on Text Messaging

Since text messaging is used for various purposes, a number of researchers (such

as Tayebinik & Puteh, 2012; Chaka, 2015; Albasheer & Alfaki, 2016; Ling, 2005) conducted studies in analysing linguistic aspects in text messaging Based on the use of lexicogrammatical structures in text messaging, the texters can show their function in constructing social relations and maintaining the relationship with the receivers The interpersonal relations among the interlocutors found out in El-Falaky (2016) and

Nepomuceno (2005) studies indicated that they were manifested through the analysis

of interpersonal metafunction in terms of mood, tenses and pronouns Through the use

of interpersonal metafunction the link of social relationship is maintained and improved and it increases the effectiveness of communication as well The application of text messaging in communication is for maintaining social relationship, sharing information and it helps to save space or times to type messages instead of writing complete words, phrases or sentences (Kemp, Wood & Waldrone, 2014; Ling, 2005; Jose & Raj, 2014; Ong’onda, Matu, & Oloo, 2011)

Besides the advantages, texting messaging produces some negative effects on language proficiency Previous studies such as Tayebinik and Puteh (2012), Yousaf and Ahmed (2013), and Ahmed and Al-kadi (2016) showed that, unlike adults that had ability to use language properly in different context to reduce the listeners/readers’ confusion as much as possible, teenagers were negatively influenced by using text messaging For instance, textism has an impact on formal writing assignment when students apply too many non-standard forms in English writing (Tayebinik & Puteh, 2012) With the frequent use of textism, the grammatical skill is affected through the use of omission and incomplete sentence structures It could be seen from Tayebinik and Puteh (2012), Yousaf and Ahmed (2013) and Ahmed and Al-kadi (2016) that the participants omitted a number of parts and even made spelling mistakes due to their text messaging using habit; therefore, it can affect to grammatical structure in formal standard in English Moreover, according to Ong'onda et al (2011), the way of using text messaging influenced directly to the syntax of English and can create the new linguistic variation of language beyond the syntax of English Alias (2016) added to this statement that the senior generations had problems understanding messages from those from the younger generation when they were not able to respond to most of the abbreviations in the list, which contained short forms and abbreviations frequently used

by those teenagers Thus, the use of text messaging has been popular and has appeared

to be a new challenge in communication (Albasheer & Alfaki, 2016)

2.3 Textism: Pragmatics of Word Form in Text Messages

2.3.1 Textism

Textism is defined as “a change in a word’s orthographic form as compared to traditional writing” (Bernicot, Volckaert-Legrier, Goumi, & Bert-Erboul, 2012, p 2) Also, textism is the new language of texting which often concerns the usage of shortened words or phrases (Thurlow & Brown, 2003) In other words, textism is some forms of phonetic abbreviation at the word level (spelling) rather than at the sentence Plester et al (2009) argued that producing and reading such abbreviations required, in the text, a level of phonological awareness and orthographic awareness These abbreviations are categorized into “shortenings, contractions, G clippings, other clippings, acronyms, initialisms, letter/number homophones, misspellings, non-conventional spellings and accent stylizations” (Thurlow & Brown, 2003, p 6) These categories are grouped into three main types of textism: linguistic textisms, typing errors and contextual textism (Table 2.1)

Table 2.1 Categories of textism and examples (Chaka, 2015, p 75)

Apostrophe omissions hes (he is); its (it is); thats

(that is); shes (she is)

Clippings/aphaeresis cause (because); coz

(because)

Letter/number

homophones

4sm1 (for someone); 4 (for);

4rend (friend); 2 (to) Phonological/phonetic

approximations

u (you); gudnyt/gud nyte (good night);

n (and); u (you); hu (who); sy (say);

skul (school); ur (your); nyc (nice); r (are)

Accent

stylisation/respellings

iz (is); dat (that); evn (even);

smtimz (sometimes); duz (does)

looser (loser); HI (he);

ADVIS (advice); idore (adore); suts (suits); voce (voice); special (special);

peaple (people); ignore (ignore); attension (attention)

All upper/all lower

cases and other

keyboard characters

A ROLE MODEL IS A PERSON …; MY ROLE MODEL IS …; a role model

is a

Under linguistic textisms, there are nine categories namely, shortenings, alphabetisms/consonant writing/vowel omissions, apostrophe omissions, clippings/aphaeresis, initialisms/acronyms, letter/number homophones, phonological/phonetic approximations, accent stylisation/respellings and word combinations (Chaka, 2015) This category is used widely by texters when they would like to have a quick type or saving time by reducing the letters in words or replace them

by numbers The typing errors are also classified into misspelling words such as

“hungary” for “hungry” and typographical errors such as “knwo” for “know” (Albasheer & Alfaki, 2016, p 24)

The contextual textism is also divided into a variety of categories which

indicate pragmatic meaning

“Within the pragmatic device category, we classified use of words to express emotion,

such as representing laughter (e.g., hahaha) or repeating vowels to mirror pragmatic

lengthening (e.g., whaaat to represent a drawn-out expression of surprise) as emotion

words We classifified use of acronyms to express emotion (e.g., lol) as emotion

acronyms We classified use of upper case to represent emotion (e.g., WHAT to

represent surprise) as upper case and extraneous use of punctuation for emphasis

[e.g., !!!!!) or as emoticons (e.g., 8-)] as emotion punctuation.” (Varnhagen et al., 2010,

p 725)

2.3.2 Pragmatics of word form in text messages

Pragmatics is the study to look at the hidden meaning or how we can realise its meaning when it is not said or written (Yule, 1996) In other words, pragmatics is the study of language based on its contexts In order to understand the pragmatics in these contexts, the speakers or writers need to depend on a lot of shared assumptions or expectation whey they try to communicate In this case, people can manipulate language to achieve certain purposes, so the way they apply pragmatics in their text messages allows them to achieve their intention on showing ideas

In texting messages, “texters are forced to express and understand emotion without the voice prosody one is afforded in a voice phone call, or the prosody and body language of face-to-face communication” (Tully, 2013, p 3) Therefore, they create rules for comprehending emotion as well as for conveying ideas in text messaging Therefore, texters have developed rules for understanding emotion and expressing their ideas in text messaging through the use of pragmatics of word forms According to Abraham (2016) pragmatics had been defined as the general study of signs and symbols There are a number of text messages filled with pragmatics They are non-standard spellings which often convey pragmatics meaning and cannot be found in standard

word forms (Baldwin & Chai, 2011) The users often employ non-standard forms in English to display extra pragmatic information that is not easy to show otherwise

From the pragmatic perspective, the employment of textisms conveys a pragmatic meaning which texters’ intention can be emerged in writing language For instance, to deliver pragmatic meaning of the speaker, the participants in Varnhagen et al (2010) study applied upper cases for expressing shocks or a given emotional state Pragmatics allows us to discover the way the “meaning beyond the words” (Awwad, 2017, p 252) and it can be understood without ambiguity Besides that, based on the extra meaning,

we can share certain contextual knowledge with the writer or speaker of the text In addition, a strong expression or emphasis is realised through the use of pragmatics to show additional information Especially, contextual textisms are used to convey

pragmatic meaning For instance, instead of using the standard form of “Yes” for an agreement, the texters apply non-standard form like “Yesssss” for strong agreement

with the information asked before Hence, pragmatics “seeks to explain aspects of meaning which cannot be found in the plain sense of words or structures, as explained

by semantics” (Awwad, 2017, p 251)

2.4 Theoretical background: Systemic Functional Grammar

2.4.1 An overview of Systemic Functional Grammar

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), is often called Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), was introduced by Halliday in the 1960s and adapted by other researchers such as Ruqaiya Hasan and Christain Matthiessen SFG is a framework for examining language based on its function In addition, the study of language focuses

on both systemic and functional features According to Halliday (1994), it is called systemic since SFG’s theory is used to explain the language mainly on the meaning by which a language or any other semiotic system is interpreted as networks of interlocking options SFG is also functional as its scheme is to discover the way people use language

A text can be categorized based on the meanings it conveys rather than just the structure

of every single word Therefore, SFG is designed for examining the language in an aspect of function rather than grammatical structure

When someone speaks or write, he or she produces text (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) The term ‘text’ itself refers to “any instance of language, in any medium, that makes sense to someone who knows the language” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976, cited in Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.3) Halliday and Hasan (1985) also argued that a text was a piece of language in use or a text was “language that is functional” (p 10) These definitions suggest that SFL views ‘text’ not in a traditional perspective of language which views ‘text’ as a written text Halliday and Matthiensen (2014) concluded, in the process of analysing a text, we often showed the functional organization of its structure and what meaningful choices have been conducted, each choice seen in the context which could bring its meaning Therefore, SFL views ‘text’ as any forms which carry meanings with certain purposes

2.4.2 Context

Context plays an important role in determining the functions of a language Halliday and Matthiensen (2014) stated that language operated in context Eggins (2004) also emphasized the importance of context by arguing that language and context were interrelated The relevance exists because the language choice is affected by the context

in which the language is used (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, and Fallop, 2003) Thus, a text considered appropriate when “a text is a harmonious collection of meanings appropriate to its context” (Butt et al., 2003, p 3) Meanings impact strongly to context,

so “by making a collection of meanings appropriate to its context, it is expected that the language produced will reflect the expected function” (Prasetyo, 2013, p 10)

In SFL, a text is produced based on two contexts: context of culture and context of situation Halliday (1978) claimed that the context of culture refers to what can be interpreted and conveyed in cultural terms by the members of a community Butt et al (2003) indicated that context of culture was sometimes described “as the sum of all the

meanings which can be understood in that particular culture” (p 3) Speakers and writers use language in many more specific contexts or situations within the context of culture Beside context of culture, “context of situation is a useful term to cover the things going on in the world outside the text that make the text what it is” (Butt et al.,

2003, p 4) Both language and gesture operate in the same context, and they are complementary with each other: verbal communication is accompanied by non-verbal communication such as gesturing (Halliday & Matthiensen, 2014) Arguably, Systemic Functional Linguists divide the context situations into three parameters based on three main functions of language: tenor, field and mode Each function describes the different aspects of the discussed topic Of these functions, field indicates the topic being talked and written about, the goals of the text Tenor discusses the relationship between the speaker and listener, and mode explains the kind of text that is being made (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) Only one of three parameters needs to be different to produce a substantially different text (Butt et al., 2003) (Butt et al., 2003) gave an example:

“Imagine the differences between a job application letter and a letter to a friend about

your hopes of getting the job, and then compare the letter to a friend with a conversation

with the same friend on the same topic All three texts are about a job application (field)

and two of them are made in the form of a letter (mode) What particularly makes the

two letters different is the difference in the relationships between writer and reader

(tenor).” (Butt et al., 2003, p 5)

2.4.3 Metafunction

The function of language is concerned with experiential meaning and to establish interlocutors’ social relationship (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) These functions are called metafunction The term ‘metafunction’ is applied not to cause confusion to the concept of the popular term ‘function’ As Halliday claims:

“We could have called them [i.e the functions] simply ‘functions’; however there is a

means purpose or way of using la nguage, and has no significance for the analysis of language

term ‘metafunction’ was adopted to suggest that function was an integral component within the

overall theory ” (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, pp 30-31)

Therefore, the function of metafunction solves the problem of basic function of language offered by Halliday (1994, cited in Zudianto, 2015) to comprehend about the context in which people communicate with one another There are three broad metafunctions in Halliday‘s (1994) theoretical framework: ideational, interpersonal and textual metafuntion Three metafunction separately focuses on various aspects of the world and concerned with a different mode of meanings of clauses Butt et al (2003) concluded that different metafunctions mapped different meanings onto a clause; therefore, it is not surprising that we apply different metalanguage in analysing and describing the metafunctions

In ideational metafunction, language explains experiential activities of human (Butt

et al., 2003; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) People reflect these experiences as the images about facts, activities, and situations in daily life practically Thompson (1996) had a similar example about ideational metafunction by indicating that people employed language to discuss the external world (things, events, qualities, etc.) and the internal world (thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc.) Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) classified the ideational metafunction into two categories: experiential and logical

According to Morley (2000), “the experiential function is the one whereby a speaker

expresses the prepositional content elements of his/her utterance, in other words communicates his/her ideas” (p 11) Whereas, logical function connects the propositional concept and constituent together based on the basis of equality and subordination Thus, it comprises relationships of coordination, subordination, apposition and modification (Morley, 2000)

Textual metafunction facilitates users of language to organize the text in the logical and cohesive in accordance with their experience and its context When our thought of language is realised from the textual metafunction, Thompson (2014) suggested that the messages were constructed in a way that made them fit and smooth into the open language event, for example, in a conversation or a newspaper article Moreover, based

on the textual meatafunction, people can construct a thematic structure to each

component of the clause content by emphasising the element in the initial position and giving it thematic prominence (Morley, 2000, p 14) There are three distinctions of theme: topical, interpersonal, and textual The topical theme focuses on the information conveyed in the discourse, while interpersonal theme represents someone’s attitude and textual theme shows the “links of clause to the rest of the discourse” (Nunan, 1993, p 46)

2.4.4 Interpersonal metafunction and the clause

The clause presents the development of an exchange between the speaker and the listener (Halliday, 1994) The clause complex is composed of clauses The notion of clause complex is suggested in the use for placing of the traditional notion of sentence when it refers to the logico-semantic unit above the clause in order to add the traditional study on written language In addition, Halliday (1994) viewed the clauses as the light

of systemic functional grammar as a grammatical resource for all three language metafunctions for constructing the world, enacting social roles, and presenting information A clause has meaning as an exchange in interpersonal metafunction Interpersonal metafunction is one of the main purposes of communication because that

is a way to maintain relationship between the speakers and the listeners According to Halliday (1994), it is through the interpersonal metafunction that “people establish, negotiate and assume their position in social relationship, and it is concerned with clauses as exchange” (p 68) The interpersonal metafunction reflects the tenor parameter and makes the social relationships maintain with other people we communicate with (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Morley, 2000) Thus, interpersonal metafunction is called ‘language of action’ since it is suggested that it is inherently two-way: interactive and personal (Halliday & Matthiensen, 2014; Thompson, 2014)

In addition to the function as means of communication, interpersonal metafunction describes our experiences in the communication In other words, “the function of interpersonal is the action performed by the language users in exchanging experiences linguistic unpresentable in function of experience” (Saragih, 2005, p 56) Interpersonal

function forms social relationships, consisting of the understanding of probability by

the speaker and the relevance of the message

Arguably, interpersonal metafunction has the function to examine the meaning of the text and regard the function of language as a tool that can be exchanged when a person interacts with others to communicate experience among them It serves as tool for communication which refers to the establishment and maintenance of social relations

2.4.4.1 Speech functions

Speech functions are done by action or performance and by language use such as asking, commanding or answering to the attention of the speakers and listeners (Ye, 2010) In order to establish an exchange, the speakers/writers or the interlocutors need

to take turns at speaking According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) there are four basic interpersonal roles in the process of using language They are giving information, demanding information, giving goods-and-services, demanding goods-and-services Through the exchange of these speech roles and commodities, the speech functions can then be found out through cross-classification of the two considerations as can be seen

in Table 2.2

Table 2.2 Speech roles and commodities in interaction (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004,

p 107)

Role in exchange Commodity exchanged

(a) Goods-&-services (b) information

Would you like this teapot

What is he giving her?

Butt et al (2003, p 86) stated that “there are two basic interactive distinctions concerning the kinds of commodity in the exchange” There is the difference between the use of language for exchanging information and exchanging goods and services Another distinction refers to the kind of interaction occurring That is also distinguished between demanding and giving Namely, we can demand information or provide it and

we can demand goods and services or provide them In addition, Table 2.2 shows four speech functions: statement, question, offer and command in the process of using language, the responses to which can be either of expected responses or discretionary responses as presented in Table 2.3:

Table 2.3 Speech function and responses (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 108)

Initiation Response

Expected Discretionary Give Goods-&-

services

Offer Shall I give you this teapot?

Acceptance Yes, please do!

Rejection

No, thanks

Demand Command

Give me that teapot!

Undertaking Here you are

Refusal

I won’t

Give Information Statement

He’s giving her the teapot

The statement is the speech function that denotes the giving of information Butt et

al (2003, p 94) claimed that “speakers and writers giving information most normally make statements” Its function is employed for creating a new complete proposition in

the initiating move It is realised by a declarative clause The selection of a statement is expected that the listeners/ readers who receive the information acquiring a certain state

of belief, a new knowledge to be acknowledged or contradicted The statement is different from the question, offer, and command because it does not require a response (Zudianto, 2015) Generally, statement is made when the speaker provides the listeners

a piece of information and the speaker inherently is inviting the listeners to receive that information The simplest way to provide information is to apply declarative clauses to build sentence, and the receivers can respond by acknowledging or contradicting the information (Butt et al., 2003) The characteristic expression of a statement is the declarative (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004)

 Question

The question is the speech function which combines the speech role of demanding with the exchange commodity of information (Zudianto, 2015) The question is often realised by the interrogative Butt et al (2003) pointed out “the most straightforward way to demand information is to use interrogative clauses to ask questions,” and to answer a question, the speakers can give or withhold information (p 102) Therefore, the question is a speech function in that the speakers required particular information from the listeners, this information may exist in the form of polarity or content

 Offer

The offer is the speech function that initiates or goes with the giving of services (Thompson, 2014) The speaker applies the offer so that the speaker himself can be the voluntary performer of conducting the services for the listeners The change

goods-and-of state is mostly on the speaker, although the decision is performed by the listeners The offer may be realised by most mood types such as the interrogative, the declarative and the imperative Thus, no markedness in mood realisation is demonstrated

 Command

“The command is the equivalent of the question in the exchange commodity of goods-and-services” (Zudianto, 2015, p 56) It is realised by the imperative mood It is different from the offer (encourage the speaker himself to give the goods- and-services)

because its work is to demand goods-and-services The command principally concerns

to the authoritativeness of the speaker who keeps the speech function to express power

or control (Zudianto, 2015) In addition, the command is also chosen in informal exchanges between close friends that may eliminate the authoritativeness accompanying the command

A command can be carried out in different ways In some cases, the use of a grammatical structure such as a declarative or interrogative can be extended to express commands (Thompson, 2014) A command expressed by a declarative has the force of

a command combined with information-giving (rather than directly demanding

goods-&-services) For interrogative, the ‘Yes/No interrogative’ clause understood as is metaphorically realised commands rather than as a congruently realised question The command is also known within its unmarked mood realisation, for example, the extra

word ‘Let’s’ implies the involvement of the speaker to do the goods-and-services, or the addition of ‘please’ which make softer the authoritative impression recognized from

the command (Zudianto, 2015, p 57)

 Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement indicates the expected response to a statement and is realised by the declarative mood In other words, the speaker provides information and inherently invites the listeners to support his statement It is chosen to convey agreement to the statement Halliday (1994) stated that acknowledgement only responded to a statement, while the expected responses to the offer and command were acceptance and

undertaking orderly The acknowledgement can consist of Mood Adjunct such as ‘Yes’,

‘Okay’ and ‘Sure’

 Answer

The answer is the expected response of the question which functions to give the information asked by the question Zudianto (2015) argued that this kind of information basically has the same function as the function conveyed by the statement, just one difference that the answer could be considered as being more significant and effective

because it provided information by the demand of the speaker The statement is used similarly when the answer is also realised by the declarative in the mood structure

The contradiction is the discretionary response of the statement which is opposed

to the acknowledgement According to Zudianto (2015), the contradiction provided an alternative response for the participants to disapproval of the speaker’s proposition Unlike the acknowledgement, contradiction tends to be selected explicitly The contradiction can substitute the rejection and refusal from the discretionary responses

to the offer and command The contradiction is also usually realised by the elliptical

declarative including mood adjunct, for example: ‘no’, ‘nope’, ‘neither’, and ‘not really’

 Disclaimer

Since the disclaimer is the discretionary of the question, the participants in an exchange have an option not to give an expected response when he/she has some reasons for not having the ability or willingness to do In general, the disclaimer is originally the discretionary response to a question (Halliday, 1994); however, it can be also used for responding to an offer, a command, and even to a statement The

disclaimer can be realised by the declarative such as ‘I don’t know’, ‘I’m not sure’, and

‘I can’t tell you that’

 Salutary speech function

While aforementioned speech functions are called the negotiatory speech functions (O’Donnell, 1999), the salutary speech function does not express any propositions or proposals but works as a phatic function for conserving social interaction between the interlocutors This speech function consists of “greeting, leave-taking, thanking, or drawing one’s attention” and can be realised by a minor clause without any mood

elements which exampled as “Hi”, “Hello”, “Good morning”, “Bye”, and “Thanks”

et al (2010) stated that mood was known as the element that rubs an argument and carried the argument forwards It was less important in a proposal, but for an imperative mood, it might happen with no mood element

Mood elements

Mood element includes two constituents: Subject and Finite They have a clearly defined semantic function when “it carries the burden of the clause as an interactive event” and therefore “remains constant, as the nub of the proposition, unless some positive step is taken to change it” (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 150) The mood element structure is illustrated in these examples below:

Table 2.4: Example of Mood element structure (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 115)

Mood

 Subject

The subject controls the action and be able to be performed by any nominal groups named personal pronoun and noun clause In functional grammar, Subject is viewed from its function Matthiessen et al (2010) described the Subject as the component in the Mood element invested with modal responsibility for the validity of the proposition

or proposal which is realised by the clause For instance, the subject ‘He’ in the sentence

“He ate my apple” is responsible for the proposition of the clause in order to make function (Zudianto, 2015, p 63) Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) applied trinocular perspective in that subject works as a nominal group associated with finite operator to construct mood element in a clause It also takes the duty of modal which relates to the statement, the question, the command and the offer

 Finite

Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) claimed that Finite was a verbal group that functioned to make proposition finite They expressed meanings associated with tense, modality and modality (Thompson, 2014) Primary tense reveals the time when an event did happen Modality indicates the interlocutors’ judgement of the probabilities

in their statements Polarity represents the negative or positive meaning of a proposition Halliday (2000) argued that modality also played a significant role in conducting the interpersonal metafunction of clauses and indicating to what degree the proposition was valid These references of tense and modality could make the Finite to function as making the proposition arguable (Eggins, 2004) As Thompson (1996) commented on tense, modality and polarity, these showed the validity of the propositions that extended

to confirmation or rejection by the listeners Based on these aspects of the Finite, there were three features realised: temporal operators, modal operators, and polarity Table 2.5 indicates the relation between polarity and modality

Table 2.5: Finite Verbal Operator (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 116)

Temporal operators:

Past Present Future Positive Did, was, had, used Does, is, have Will, shall, would,

to should

Negative Didn’t, wasn’t,

hadn’t, didn’t + use

Won’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t,

(isn’t/wasn’t to)

Musn’t, oughtn’t to, can’t, couldn’t, (mayn’t, mightn’t, hasn’t/ hadn’t to)

The Finite element can be seen in following examples (Halliday & Matthiessen,

2004, pp 115-116)

(1) An old man was crossing the road

(2) You may not leave before the end

In the first example, ‘was’ is the Finite which is obviously independent from the

temporal operator indicating positive polarity in the past, while in the second example

‘may not’ is part of modal operator to indicate negative polarity

Mood types

Based on the position of the Subject and the Finite, there are two main types of mood construction: the indicative and the imperative This mood construction is realised when the commodity is exchanged respectively in the exchange of information and goods-and-services The indicative mood comprises declarative mood and interrogative mood Among them, interrogative mood includes two smaller kinds of Wh-interrogative and Yes/No interrogative (polar interrogative) The mood types are explained clearly in following parts:

 Declarative mood

Declarative mood is an indicative mood type which realises the speech function of statement As this mood type is realised a statement, declarative clause functions as giving information Declarative mood was characterized by the order of the Subject was before the Finite (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Martin, Matthiessen, & Painter, 1997)

The example above shows the structure of declarative mood with the Subject ‘the duck’ before the Finite ‘gave’

Table 2.6: Example of Structure of declarative mood

Yes/ No interrogatives

Yes/ No interrogative, together with Wh-interrogative, realised the speech function

of questions Matthiessen et al (2010) indicated that Yes-No interrogative demanded information about the polarity of the proposition realised by the clause The short

responses like ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or occasionally an added declarative consisting of only the

Subject and the Finite taken from the question combines with the negative form such

as ‘not’ or ‘n’t’ in order to make relevance (e.g., ‘Yes, it is’ or ‘No, it doesn’t’ (Lock,

1996) The construction of Yes/No question is basically initiated with the Finite before the Subject and can be seen in Table 2.7 where the Finite ‘do’ is put before the Subject

‘you’:

Table 2.7: Example of Structure of Yes/No interrogative

Mood

WH-interrogatives

According to Halliday (1994), Wh - interrogative has function to state the entity that the questioner wished to have supplies The Wh-interrogative is constructed by the position of the Finite following the Subject if the Wh-word is the Subject, or the Finite precede the Subject if the Wh-word is not the Subject According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p 160), “the Wh-element is a distinct element in the interpersonal structure of the clause Its function is to specify the entity that the questioner wishes to

have supplied” The Wh- elements include what, who, when, why, how… which are

used to identify the kind of information, participant or circumstance demanded (Matthiessen et al., 2010) This is performed in the Wh-element when there is a combination of one or another of three functions of subject, complement or adjunct If the Subject in the Wh-interrogative is ‘Who’, the structure is ordered by Subject ^ Finite

in that the Wh-element is the Subject If there is an appearance of complement or adjunct in the clause, the Wh-interrogative is ordered as Wh-element ^ Finite ^ Subject with the Wh-element in the component of Residue The examples of Wh-interrogatives are given in Table 2.8:

Table 2.8 Example of Interrogative Clause

Wh Element as the Subject

Wh Element as the Complement

Wh Element as the Adjunct

Mood Residue