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'Mere' As Post-Deictic

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 373, 374):

The post-Deictic identifies a subset of the class of ‘thing’ by referring to its fame or familiarity, its status in the text, or its similarity/dissimilarity to some other designated subset. …
The words occurring as post-Deictic are adjectives, and may also occur in the function of Epithet but with a different sense; …
In an incongruent nominal group, the post-Deictic may correspond to an interpersonal Adjunct in the related congruent clause.

For example: 

In the first two instances, the word 'mere' identifies a subset of the Thing in terms of its dissimilarity to some other designated subset. In each case it corresponds to 'merely', an interpersonal Adjunct of counter-expectancy: limiting.

In the third instance, the word 'merest' has a different sense, indicating a quality of the subset of the Thing, like 'slightest', and so functions as Epithet.

"Feelings" vs "Faux Feelings"

The distinction between 'feelings' and 'faux feelings' is the distinction between inner and outer experience, as distinguished grammatically by the domain of attribution: semiotic vs material.

See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 260, 272-3).

The Speech Function Of Silence

* William Armour's translation.

By coding the silences in terms of the two potential moves not selected, the disconnect between the two interlocutors is made more apparent. From a social psychology perspective, there is a crucial switch in epistemic authority from Mr Ikeda to Mr Tasaki with the move I treated you.

Performative Verbal Processes

The Reification Of 'Please'

Por Favor

Please

Modified 'Ago'

Nominal Group Qualifiers?

Beatriz Quiroz asked on Sysfling on 12 Apr at 5:24:

How would you analyse the underlined element in the following English nominal groups:

The year 1920
My friend John
captain Ahab
his wife Sarah
The city of Rome

Would they all be Qualifiers?

Blogger Comments:

Just the first and last.

But, even in IFG4 (p391):

Other than this type [nominal group as Attribute], Epithets and Classifiers do not normally function as Head.

England's King's Hat

The King Of England's Hat

Adverbial Group As Attribute Encoding 'The Amazing Thing About The 80s'

The Days Of Auld Lang Syne

Both units of the Qualifier realise the meaning 'in the past', with the second elaborating the first, and the relation is paratactic, because neither depends on the other:

The days of auld (old)
The days lang syne (long since/long ago)

However, on the model of Halliday (1994: 193):

 the logical structure is:

From A Vast Cloud Of Gas And Dust

 For 'from'/'out of' as Manner: means, see Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 313).

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.

Probability Realised By Both Finite Modal Operator And Noun Of Modalisation

There are thus 2 probabilities:

1. the probability of complications or adverse effects (➘ noun of modalisation);
2. the probability of increasing that probability (➘ Finite).

For nouns of modalisation, see Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 536).

'Dare' As Finite vs Event

The unmarked Mood tag of the first clause is dare they?

The unmarked Mood tag of the second clause is would they?

See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 574): 'risk doing', 'venture to do'.

The Materiality Of Birth

Once upon a time, there was a girl and the girl had a shadow. The two were connected, tethered together. And the girl ate, her food was given to her warm and tasty. But when the shadow was hungry, he had to eat rabbit raw and bloody. On Christmas, the girl received wonderful toys; soft and cushy. But the shadow's toys were so sharp and cold they sliced through her fingers when she tried to play with them. The girl met a handsome prince and fell in love. But the shadow at that same time had Abraham, it didn't matter if she loved him or not. He was tethered to the girl's prince after all. Then the girl had her first child, a beautiful baby girl. But the shadow, she gave birth to a little monster. Umbrae was born laughing. The girl had a second child, a boy this time. They had to cut her open and take him from her belly. The shadow had to do it all herself. She named him Pluto, he was born to love fire. So you see, the shadow hated the girl so much for so long until one day the shadow realised she was being tested by God.

Reasoning:

1. In the first clause, the question is whether a beautiful baby girl is a depictive Attribute or a unit in a nominal group complex. Viewed 'from above', both interpretations construe an elaborating relation between her first child and a beautiful baby girl. However, viewed 'from below', a beautiful baby girl is realised by its own tone group, with the same tone choice as the preceding tone group (tone concord). This is a feature of paratactic elaboration (apposition), but not of depictive Attributes.

2. In the second clause, the question is how to analyse the shadow. In this instance, there is no possible tone concord with she, so the two do not form an elaborating paratactic nominal group complex, and so the shadow is a distinct clause element. The clue here is textual. Whatever its experiential function, the shadow is realised by its own tone group, making it the focus of New information, switching the focus of attention from the girl. Similarly, if the shadow is a distinct clause element, then it must function as marked Theme, since the Subject/Actor is she. The simplest explanation comes from taking the view 'from roundabout' and interpreting the shadow as agnate to such Matter circumstances as regarding the shadow, as for the shadow etc.

3. In the third clause, the question is whether open is the particle of a phrasal verb or a resultative Attribute. Viewed 'from above', both interpretations construe open as the result of cut, and viewed 'from roundabout', both interpretations have the same modal structure, since the particle of a phrasal verb and a resultative Attribute both serve as Adjunct. In this instance, the view 'from below', however, favours a resultative Attribute interpretation, since the particle of a phrasal verb is either a preposition or an adverb (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 413), whereas open is an adjective, which is a typical realisation of a resultative Attribute.

Making A Good Wife

i.e.

Sue constructed a good wife for Mary.

Sue was a good wife for Mary.

Sue turned Mary into a good wife.

Identifying A Happy Baby With A Happy Mother

In the first clause, the lexical choice of thrive adds a quality 'well' or 'vigorously' to the Process, and the circumstance on Glaxo answers the Manner: means interrogative 'what with?' (Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 318).

The second (reversible) clause identifies a happy baby with a happy mother; it does not construe a happy baby as member of the class a happy mother.*

The third clause assigns the membership of you to the class a happy mother.

* Cf. an attributive agnate which construes a mother as a member of the class happy:

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

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Hypotactic Elaborating Verbal Group Complexes: Reality-Phase