Grammar: Groups & phrases: Verb group: Adjusting interactions: modality

Overview

Other ways of expressing interpersonal meanings

Modality is an important grammatical resource for adjusting interpersonal meanings; however, there are other ways of expressing and adjusting interpersonal meanings. 

In our daily interaction with others we typically find ourselves talking with our friends and family about how we feel and what we like and dislike. When chatting with others, we often find ourselves talking about other people's behavior and we compare notes about things in the world around us ranging from the weather to works of art. Inevitably, we find ourselves expressing a whole range of interpersonal meanings: agreement, disagreement, approval, disapproval, etc. We express these meanings in speech and writing through a combination of attitudinal lexis , grammatical resources and tone of voice.

For more information, see Communicative functions: Interacting with others: Expressing feelings and opinions