The Main Verb As Pivotal Element Of The Clause

Fawcett (2010: 201):

The most important syntactic fact about the English clause is the great variety in the positions in which its elements occur. However, this is not a matter of so-called 'free word order' (i.e., 'free element order'), since each positional difference realises a different meaning, however fine the distinction.

There is no element of the clause that is obligatorily realised — not even the Main Verb. Moreover it varies in its position, so that there is no element that can be used as an 'anchor-point' from which to start building the structure of the unit in generation — a vital point to which we shall return in Section 10.4.2.

In text analysis, however, it is useful to begin with a working assumption that each unit has a 'pivotal element' that is typically realised, and in the case of the clause in English this 'pivotal element' is the Main Verb.

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[1] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the different meanings here are textual in terms of metafunction:

• unmarked Theme vs marked Theme,
• unmarked New vs marked New

and variation is motivated by the textual function of relating the clause to its environment, especially the preceding co-text; see, e.g. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 120, 282).

[2] As previously explained, Fawcett's notion of a pivotal element corresponds to the Head of a logical structure, since the Head is the element which is potentially modified by optional elements. However, as previously discussed, Fawcett (p 196) rejects logical structure in his model of syntax, and in SFL Theory, the clause does not include a logical structure.

[3] To be clear, in SFL Theory, a verb is a formal constituent (of the verbal group), not an element of function structure.