Promising An Argument Against Metafunctional Clause Structures

Fawcett (2010: 4):

We shall find that there are a number of theoretical problems with IFG which need to be addressed if we are to develop an adequate theory of syntax for a modern SF grammar. Part 1 of the present book therefore also functions as a friendly critique of that work from within a framework of shared basic assumptions. However, the argument that I shall present here concludes with a demonstration that the representations in IFG cannot serve as the 'final' representation at the level of form, and that this fact requires us to reconsider the theoretical status of the 'multiple structure' representations in IFG itself — and so in the many derived works.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This again repeats the still undemonstrated claim that the metafunctional clause structures of SFL theory are 'intermediate', and need to be integrated into a single formal syntactic structure, which is thus another instance of the logical fallacy known as proof by (repeated) assertion.  The reason for noting all these repetitions is the interpersonal function they serve in the discourse, which will become clear when the promised "demonstration" finally appears.

[2] It is the lack of 'shared basic assumptions' that makes Fawcett's work inconsistent with SFL theory, as already demonstrated for the notions of structure and syntax.

[3] To be clear, the metafunctions are, perhaps, the major innovation to Halliday's theorising since first setting out his 'categories for a theory of grammar' in 1961, and they are integral to the theory.  Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 84):

… these three kinds of meaning run throughout the whole of language, and in a fundamental respect they determine the way language has evolved.  They are referred to in systemic accounts of grammar as metafunctions, and the concept of ‘metafunction’ is one of the basic concepts around which the theory is constructed.

A major advantage of theorising metafunctional structures on the stratum of lexicogrammar is that it enables the systematic examination of grammatical metaphor.