Theme Identification vs Theme Predication

See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 94, 124, 198).

Thematic Equative In Complex With Nested Dependent Clause

This identity encodes the Value what we can notice by reference to the Token a clear evolutionary tendency towards centralisation.

Thematic Equatives

 

See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 93-6).

One reason why the nominalisation in a thematic equative always serves as the Value participant is that an identifying clause relates a lower level of abstraction, Token, to a higher higher level of abstraction, Value, and the meaning realised by a nominalisation is, ceteris paribus, of a relatively higher level of abstraction than the meaning realised by a non-nominalisation.

'Forget' As Material Process

In the following clause, 'forget' serves the same function as the verbal group complex 'forget to bring', and so serves as a material Process:

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 568):

It is the secondary group, or last secondary group if there is more than one, that realises the process type of the clause…

See also Robin Fawcett On 'Forget' + Location

Interpersonal Metaphor Of Mood

Unpacking Metaphorical Attributives From Brazil

An Assigned Decoding Of The Coronavirus Pandemic

Decoding The Pandemic

Hypotactic Elaborating Verbal Group Complexes: Reality-Phase

Rectifying The Situation

Nothing Wrong With A Naked Attribute

The Phrasal Pursuit Of Long, Wavy Hair

A More Distressing Attribute

The motivation for the discontinuous Attribute is textual: to highlight the demonstrative reference item (that), in the comparison made by the Qualifier, as the unmarked New.

With An Extending Attributive Clause Complex Looking Like A Circumstance

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 476):

With the additive, the Process of a relational dependent clause may be implicit; the marker is the conjunctive preposition with (positive) or without (negative):

||| I told the whole story of the six-minute Louvre at The Kennedy Center || with President Carter there …|||

||| Without chlorine in the antarctic stratosphere, || there would be no ozone hole. |||  

She Was An Attribute, He Was A Value

 

The Reason For The Scope Of Willing Obedience

cf

A Serpent Verbally Projecting A Proposal

 cf

According to Joseph Campbell, in most mythologies, the serpent is a symbol of rebirth — and so of creation — since 'it sheds its skin to be born again'.

Such mythic symbolism uses lexical metaphor to make the deep epistemological observation that human 'reality' is a linguistic creation: a construal of experience as meaning.

(The) Glaxo Exhibit: Theme, Transitivity & Mood

hypotactic extending verbal group complex of conation:

Here not is interpreted as a formal or written variant of the Finite negative element n't, rather than a distinct modal Adjunct, on the basis that the unmarked Mood tag would be should she? rather than shouldn't she?. See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 175-6).

The lexical choice of see adds a 'mental' feature to the material Process.

The additional participant rôle of Behaver is explained by Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 576, 577):

The extending complex is a two-part process, in which the Subject fills a dual participant role: Behaver (in the conative component) plus Actor, or some other role, in the happening itself.

'Allow' As Material Process

'Autorise' & 'Permettre'

Cette démarche autorise l'agence à les rayer de ses listes.

This approach authorises the agency to delete them from its lists.

Pour permettre à ces demandeurs d'emploi seniors de subsister jusqu'à leur retraite, plusieurs types d'allocation sont prévus.

To enable these senior job seekers to survive until their retirement, several types of allowance are provided.

In English, these are the primary verbal groups of hypotactic enhancing causative (modulation) verbal group complexes. See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 580, 582-4).

In hypotactic verbal group complexes, it is the (last) secondary verbal group that realises the PROCESS TYPE. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 568):

It is the secondary group, or last secondary group if there is more than one, that realises the process type of the clause, e.g. [material:] she seemed to mend it, [behavioural:] she seemed to laugh, [mental:] she seemed to like him, [verbal:] she seemed to tell us, [relational:] she seemed to be nice.

So, in these instances, both authorises to delete and enable to survive are material Processes. Although survive means 'continue to exist', unlike existential Processes, but like material Processes, it takes a Range participant, Scope, as in they survived the ordeal, and its unmarked present tense is the present in present, not the simple present.

Process Realised By Verbal Group Complex: Enhancing Causative: Modulation

See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 580, 582-4).

Operative vs Receptive Material Clauses

Discontinuous Nominal Group Complex (The Soldiers He Smiled At … Most Of 'Em)

“Good morning, good morning!” the General said

When we met him last week on our way to the line.

Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,

And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

“He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack

As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

The nominal group most of 'em elaborates the the nominal group the soldiers he smiled at by clarifying it. The interdependency relation is paratactic, because either nominal group can serve as Carrier in its own right.

Again, the motivation is textual, not just in conforming to the rhythm of the poem, but because the elaborating nominal group in this position forms a single information unit, with most as the focus of New. But this has the added effect of making dead the focus of New in a following one-word information unit. In this way the poet makes his point by giving maximum textual prominence to both most and dead, together with the previous focus smiled at within the Theme.

// 1 ‸ Now the / soldiers he / smiled at are // 1 most of them // 1 dead //

Discontinuous Nominal Group (Woman … With Stab Wounds)

The motivation for displacing the Qualifier in this news story headline is textual: to make it the unmarked focus of New information, so that the Phenomenon/Subject is assigned two peaks of textual prominence: Theme and New.

Note also that the clause has no Finite or Medium through whom the Process is actualised.

Borderline Cases Between Identifying And Verbal Processes: Indeterminacy

The difference between an identifying clause and a verbal clause is that an identifying clause construes a relation of identity between participants, whereas a verbal clause construes a 'signal source' that projects a locution (wording) into semiotic existence. An identifying clause construes different levels of symbolic abstraction, Token and Value, whereas a verbal nexus construes different orders of experience, projecting (first-order) and projected (second-order). Often verb substitution — e.g. 'is' for identifying, 'say' for verbal — can differentiate the types, but there are still instances of indeterminacy, e.g.