Saturday 1 June 2013

Complement Realised As Prepositional Phrase


the only time the ceremony has been interrupted in the last 700 years
was 
during the Second World War
Value/Location
Process
Token/Location
Subject
Finite
Complement


Reasoning:

If 'a Complement is an element within the Residue that has the potential of being Subject but is not' (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 122), and 'an Adjunct is an element that has not got the potential of being Subject' (op cit: 123), then the 'circumstance as participant' during the Second World War functions as Complement, not Adjunct, despite the fact that a Complement 'is typically realised by a nominal group' (ibid), since it has the potential of being Subject, as the following agnate clause demonstrates:
during the Second World War was the only time the ceremony has been interrupted in the last 700 years (wasn't it?)

during the Second World War
was 
the only time the ceremony has been interrupted in the last 700 years
Token/Location
Process
Value/Location
Subject
Finite
Complement


See also Fig. 5-26 (op cit: 244).

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