Tilting Towards Grammatical Metaphor

The instances above demonstrate a developmental path toward mastering grammatical metaphor. The Year 7 student has produced a congruent realisation of a sequence, a clause complex, but moved towards the grammatical metaphor of adult language by using an anaphoric reference item (that) as Token of the primary clause. The next step is to replace the reference item with the referent, thereby creating a metaphorical clause simplex in which an act is decoded by reference to a fact:

The verb mean can serve as the 'sign' subtype of intensive identifying process, like indicate, suggest, imply, show, betoken, mark, reflect, or as the 'symbol' subtype, like express, signify, realise, spell, stand for (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 269). Here it serves as as the 'sign' subtype.

The Butter Betty Bought

// 1 Betty / Botter / bought some / butter; //

// 1 “But,” said / she, “this / butter’s / bitter! //

// 4 If I / put it / in my / batter //

// 1 It will / make my / batter / bitter. //

// 3 But a / bit o’ / better / butter //

// 1 ‸Will / make my / batter / better.” //

// 13 Then she / bought a / bit o’ / butter

/ Better / than the / bitter / butter, //

// 1 Made her / bitter / batter / better. //

// 1 So ’twas / better / Betty / Botter

/ Bought a / bit o’ / better / butter. //

Paratactic Elaborating Nominal Group Complex

Breathing Light

Francis Bacon's original words in 'Of Truth' were actually:

First he breathed light upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man;

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and see the ships tossed upon the sea;

Decoding vs Encoding Equations And Their Reversals

Decoding

Encoding

Reversed Decoding

Reversed Encoding

Dimension Of Measurement As Qualifier

Protection From Other People With Guns

The information analysis is based on the tonic falling on have and legally in the first clause, and on majority and protect in the clause complex.

Predicated Theme vs Postposed Subject

Note that both clauses have the same interpersonal structure, though the Subject is realised by a nominal group in the predicated Theme clause, but by an elaborating paratactic nominal group complex in the postposed Subject clause.

Note also that the predicated Theme clause is encoding (the Value is encoded by reference to the Token your good luck), whereas the postposed Subject clause is decoding (the Token is decoded by reference to the Value your good luck).

Giving A False Impression

This is not a material clause, as shown by the unmarked present tense: gives, not is giving.