Tuesday 8 September 2020

Fawcett's Theories Of Syntax Potential & Instances Of Syntax

Fawcett (2010: 174):
In the rest of the present chapter I shall specify the theory of syntax potential that is required in a modern, large-scale systemic functional grammar — i.e., the concepts that are required in the grammar itself. Then Chapters 10 and 11 will provide an account of the theory of instances of syntax — i.e., the part of the theory that underlies the description of text-sentences. Finally, Chapter 12 will summarise the current theory in relation to its antecedents, including "Categories", offering an evaluation of its importance today.

Blogger Comments:

[1] As previously explained, for Halliday (1985 & 1994: xiv), the term 'syntax' suggests an approach to theorising that is inconsistent with the approach to SFL Theory, 'such that a language is interpreted as a system of forms, to which meanings are then attached'. In SFL Theory, 'syntax' is modelled as a rank scale. Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar does not include a rank scale.

[2] As previously explained, Fawcett's 'instances of syntax' are not instances of potential, but syntagmatic structures that realise realisation rules. That is, Fawcett's model (Figure 4) confuses the realisation relation between the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes with the instantiation relation between potential and instance.

[3] To be clear, the term 'text sentences', like the architecture of Fawcett's model (Figure 4), confuses instance (text) with structure (sentence). In SFL Theory, 'sentence' is theorised as a rank unit of graphology.

[4] Fawcett's evaluation of the importance of his own model will be evaluated in the examination of his final chapter.

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