The Conflation Of Process And Attribute (Qualitative Processes)

Halliday and Matthiessen (2004: 222):

Within ‘quality’ attribution, there is a further option: a small number of qualities may be construed as a qualitative Process rather than as a qualitative Attribute. Thus, alongside will it be enough? we have will it suffice?. (Alternatively, we can interpret such clauses as having a conflation of Process and Attribute.)

Some examples of qualitative verbs (ibid.):

matter, count ‘be important’ …

suffice ‘be enough’,

abound ‘be plentiful;

figure ‘make sense’;

differ, vary ‘be different, varied’;

hurt, ache ‘be painful’;

dominate ‘be dominant’,

apply ‘be relevant’ …

do ‘be acceptable, enough’ …

remain ‘be + still’,

stink, smell, reek … ‘be smelly’ …

and a number of verbs of negative appraisal, some of them abstract versions of ‘be + smelly’, for example stink, suck …

eg Giving institutional power to ignorant imbeciles really sucks.