Exponents Of The Elements Of Fawcett's Prepositional Group

 Fawcett (2010: 204-5):

The element 'preposition' is typically expounded by an item from the word class with the same name, i.e., by a preposition. But occasionally it is filled by a quality group, as in the underlined portions of very near the wall and more like his mother than he used to be. (In this last example the quality group is discontinuous; see Section 11.7 of Chapter 11 for 'discontinuity'.) And in other cases the unit of the quantity group is 'borrowed' to express the internal structure within the prepositional element, as in right into the corner. 

The second major element is the completive, and this is practically always filled by one or more nominal groups; see Appendix B and, for a more complete picture of this unit, Fawcett (in press).

Blogger Comments:

[1] As previously observed, this misconstrues a formal unit (at the rank of word), a preposition, as an element of function structure (at the rank of group) — and in a model that purports not to feature a rank scale. To be clear, in SFL Theory, a preposition serves in a preposition group which realises the functional element minor Process/Predicator in a prepositional phrase.

[2] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the underlined portions in these examples — Fawcett's quality and quantity groups — are preposition groups, involving modification, that serve as the minor Process/Predicator in a prepositional phrase. 

[3] Arguably, in SFL Theory, this is a nominal group rather than a prepositional phrase (Fawcett's preposition group), in which like his mother serves the same function as cautious in the agnate wording more cautious than he used to be:

On this analysis, like his mother is an embedded prepositional phrase of comparison, serving as the Head of the Epithet of the nominal group. Cf the near agnate: more mother-like than he used to be.

[4] To be clear, in SFL Theory, Fawcett's 'completive' is the Range of a minor Process, in terms of the experiential metafunction, and the Complement of a minor Predicator, in terms of the interpersonal metafunction. The most obvious disadvantages of Fawcett's model are that 

• (i) it does not distinguish the two different metafunctional rôles, 
• (ii) the term 'completive' interprets the function of the nominal group as merely completing the prepositional group, and 
• (iii) the term 'completive' fails to recognise the fact that the Complement of a prepositional phrase — just like the Complement of a clause — can be made the Subject of a clause, as exemplified by:

[5] To be clear, the "more complete" picture of this unit in Appendix B (p306) is as follows, noting that its structural elements include both a conjunction (and) and a punctuation mark (.):

[6] As previously noted, Fawcett (in press) is still unpublished, 21 years after the first publication of this work.