Prosodic ‘structure’: grammar for negotiation

Abstract

This paper, written from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics, responds to a request from Schegloff for a grammar of action. In particular, it reviews Halliday’s work on the association between types of meaning and types of structure, developing especially his notion of prosodic realisation patterns for interpersonal meaning. Prosodic structuring principles from phonology and discourse are considered, but the focus is on grammar and the marginalisation of interpersonal meaning by constituency analysis. Alternative forms of representation are considered for action-oriented grammar in English and Tagalog.