The Clause as Exchange in English and Arabic With Reference to Translation
Abstract
In his analysis of the clause, Halliday (1985, 1994) takes meaning as a threshold toward a functional role designated to the clause as a discoursal unit. In other words, he sees the clause as a semantic tool to express meanings. In accordance with number of choices, that are both syntactic and semantic, under the umbrella of three metafunctions; the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual. He argues that the ideational metafunction introduces language as an instrument of thought with which we represent the world to ourselves. The interpersonal metafunction, which is the concern of this paper, introduces language as an instrument of transaction by which we present ourselves to the others. The textual metafunction introduces language as an instrument of communication