Fawcett's Argument On Hypotaxis vs Embedding [3]

   Fawcett (2010: 327-8):

(3b, i-n) He left the room, but earlier (on) / first/ before that / before his departure / etc. they (had) voted. 

(3c, i-n) He left the room and in that period / during that time / during his absence / etc. they voted. 

(3a, v-n) He left the room, and later (on) / afterwards / after that / after his departure / etc. they voted.

It is always possible, of course, to express a roughly equivalent meaning by a combination of the Linker and and an Adjunct such as afterwards or during that time, etc., these Adjuncts being shown by underlining in (3b,i-n) and (3c, i-n). 

But this is a very different matter, in terms of the systemic choices that are available, as these examples show — because the introduction of the Adjunct opens up a very much larger range of possibilities than is available within the Linker. (Indeed, the use of "n" in the numbering of the examples symbolises the open-endedness of the available options.) 

Moreover, a similar range of options to those shown in (3b, i-n) and (3c, i-n) is also available to express the concept of 'subsequent time', as (3a, i-n) demonstrates. Thus the system of choices within 'paratactic' relations is significantly different from that when the relationship is one of 'dependence' (whether this is interpreted as 'hypotaxis' or as embedding). 

The lists of examples given in each of Tables (7(6) and 7(7) on pages 216 and 217 of IFG in fact illustrate precisely this difference. (These tables cover not just temporal relations but the full range of types of embedded clause that express a Circumstance, and in so doing they provide further evidence for the position taken here.) Halliday must therefore be aware that the parallels are limited.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, from the perspective of SFL Theory, it is only the conjunctive Adjuncts in Fawcett's data that mark temporal relations between the clauses in these paratactic complexes. These are:

• earlier (on)
• first
• before that
• later (on)
• afterwards
• after that

The circumstantial Adjuncts in Fawcett's data, on the other hand, do not mark temporal relations between the clauses in these paratactic complexes. Instead, they realise time as a circumstance of the Process of the clause in which they figure. These are:

• before his departure
• in that period
• during that time
• during his absence
• after his departure

[2] This is misleading because, in the case of conjunctive Adjuncts, this is not a "very different matter in terms of the systemic choices that are available", because, in terms of relating two clauses in a paratactic complex, the "introduction of the [conjunctive] Adjunct" does not "open up a very much larger range of possibilities than is available within the Linker [structure marker]". In such cases, the systemic choices are restricted to 'parataxis' and 'expansion: enhancing: temporal', varying for 'same' or 'different: earlier' or 'different: later'. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 438):

Here Fawcett has simply confused expressions of systemic choices ("the lists of examples") with the systemic choices that they express.