Metafunctional Consistency And Selection

The probability that a model will be selected by potential users is higher if it is assessed to be consistent with other ideational construals, interpersonal values and/or textual foci of which the potential users are most certain. As already discussed, model building, like all semiosis, is a matter of relating (fitting) specific meanings, qualities and quantities, to each other. While the rôle of ideational consistency is usually explicit in arguments about alternative models, the role of interpersonal and textual consistency is usually left implicit. The three types will be discussed here in turn.