Finite As Focus Of New Information

(1) //4 While this / notion / does make //4 sense on the / surface //

(2) //4 While this / notion makes / sense on the / surface //

The use of tone 4 expresses reservation in both dependent concessive clauses.  However, while the second instance only highlights this reservation once, on the comment Adjunct on the surface, the first instance, in separating the Finite from the Predicator, highlights the reservation twice, on both the comment Adjunct and the positive polarity of the Finite does.  The contrastive aspect of this New information primes the reader for the opposite polarity (does not) after the concession.

While	this notion	does	make	sense	on the surface
	Subject	Finite	Predicator	Complement	comment Adjunct
Given		New: contrastive	Given		New: contrastive

A 'Circumstance-Like' Medium

Rakugo stories	could	only	be performed	successfully	by a Japanese story teller
Verbiage	Process:		verbal	Manner: quality	Sayer
Subject	Finite	mood Adjunct	Predicator	circumstantial Adjunct	circumstantial* Adjunct
Mood			Residue

* Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 157) label all Adjuncts that are experiential in function 'circumstantial Adjuncts'.

Particularising Clarifying Elaborating Conjunctive Adjunct

in particular	when	they	are	committed	as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes
conjunctive Adjunct		Subject	Finite	Predicator	circumstantial Adjunct

How do we know that in particular doesn't modify when?

Because, like a conjunctive Adjunct, it can occur at different points in the clause:

• when, in particular, committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes
• when committed, in particular, as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes
• when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes, in particular