The Thought Occurs

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Nominal Groups: The Modifying Relation Is Inherently Ascriptive (Intensive, Possessive Or Circumstantial)

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 183):
Experientially, there is a ‘carrier’ — the Thing — and there are ‘attributes’ — Epithets and other modifiers. However, participants are construed not only experientially but also logically, which means that the Thing (typically) serves as a Head that can be modified by successive attributes and that this modifying relation is inherently ascriptive. […] There is the same range of types of ascription as are found in ascriptive figures, and these can be interpreted in terms of the different categories of expansion.


expansion of Thing
Deictic
Epithet
Classifier
Thing
Qualifier
elaboration (intensive)
these
nutritious

swedes

these

Mexican
mangoes




kitchens
of distinction
extension (possessive)
my aunt’s


teapot

the


stems
of the leek
the

table
leg

enhancement (circumstantial)
these

18th C
vases

some


mangoes
from Mexico
a
chicory-like

plant