The paper then sets out four major types of reason why this approach in both more workable (e.g., in a generative version of the grammar) and more insightful (e.g., for purposes of text-analysis). The first reason is that, if the Finite is to be promoted to function as an element of the clause, the other 'major' elements of the 'verbal group' must be promoted too. This is because, under the appropriate circumstances, each of the Auxiliaries or the Main Verb can be conflated with the Finite. And it would be a highly illogical grammar that treated an Auxiliary, let us say, as an element of the clause when it is conflated with the Finite and as an element of the 'verbal group' when it is not. Part 1 of the paper then introduces three other elements which must clearly also be promoted to the clause if the Auxiliaries and the Main Verb are, i.e., the Auxiliary Extension, the Infinitive (to) and the Negator (not). All of these are introduced in Appendix B.
Blogger Comments:
[1] This is misleading, because the Finite is not to be "promoted" to clause rank. The Finite is a function in the structures of both the verbal group and clause. The other elements of multivariate verbal group structure, however, only function at group rank, as explained in the previous post.
[2] On the one hand, this is misleading, because, in SFL Theory, the Finite can only conflate with the Event, not with an Auxiliary. On the other hand, and more importantly, inconsistent with SFL Theory, Fawcett here again takes the view 'from below', giving priority to how the meaning is expressed structurally — Finite conflated with Event — rather than to the meaning — finiteness — that is expressed.
[3] To be clear, even ignoring the invalidity of Fawcett's argument, on purely logical grounds, elements that are not elements of the verbal group — Main Verb, Auxiliary Extension, Infinitive — cannot be promoted to the clause.
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