On Predicator, Complement and Adjunct As Labels For Otherwise Empty "Boxes"

Fawcett (2010: 115):

It is interesting to note that the inclusion of the clause elements "Predicator", "Complement" and "Adjunct" as 'secondary' elements in the "Residue" is the last remaining trace in the descriptive framework found in IFG of a set of concepts that were central in the Scale and Category description of English. Indeed they, together with "Subject" were the primary elements of clause structure in "Categories". Interestingly, these elements are not referred to in the explication of "The 'silver' text" (IFG pp. 368-85). So what is their role?

In IFG, their role seems to be little more than a way of labelling another row of boxes that would otherwise remain empty, like the "Residue" (of which they are said to be the corresponding more delicate analysis) and the Rheme. But in Halliday (1970/76b) and (1977/78) they played a far more important role, as we saw in Section 4.9 of Chapter 4. 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, Predicator, Complement and Adjunct feature in the Mood structures in the analysis of the 'silver' text, and a Predicator is explicitly mentioned in the discussion of clause 7 (p377).  However, the discussion of the text generally takes a systemic perspective — e.g. MOOD selection — rather than a structural one.

[2] On the one hand, this misunderstands the notion of structure in SFL Theory. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 451):

A multivariate structure is a configuration of different functional relationships … . Note that, although it is the functions that are labelled, the structure actually consists of the relationships among them.

That is, the textual structure of the clause is the relation between Theme and Rheme; the interpersonal structure of the clause is the relation between Mood (elements) and Residue (elements).

On the other hand, the "labelling of boxes" is the assignment of clearly defined theoretical functional categories to the data. For example, the label 'Predicator', inter alia, identifies the element that specifies the Process that is predicated of the Subject (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 152-5). The  label 'Complement' specifies any element that was passed over for the choice of Subject (ibid.), and the label 'Adjunct' specifies any element that could not have been selected as Subject (ibid.). (Note that neither conjunctive nor modal Adjuncts are part of the Residue.)

[3] This is misleading, because it is untrue.  See the earlier post: Seriously Misrepresenting Halliday's Early Theorising.