Misrepresenting Halliday On The Nominal Group

Fawcett (2010: 195):

The nearest that the present grammar comes to a generalised concept of a 'modifier + head' relationship is its recognition of the fact that other elements of a group typically depend on the presence of the 'pivotal element'. Thus when the grammar generates a "common nouns" as the head of a nominal group, other elements realising other types of meaning typically get brought into play as well. Thus it is preferable to characterise the nominal group as a unit for expressing the wide range of types of meaning associated with a 'thing', rather than in terms of an over-simple series of 'modifier + head' relationships.

So far I have been explaining the concept of 'class of unit' in terms of the concepts of the Cardiff Grammar. In very broad terms, the concept is the same in IFG — except that the account of 'class of unit' given above is more directly connected to the level of meaning here than it is in IFG. However, the criteria used in the present theory for setting up different classes of unit are completely different from Halliday's, and the concept of 'class of unit' is therefore also significantly different. Indeed, the result is the recognition of a different set of classes of unit for English, as we shall see in the rest of Section 10.2.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This is misleading. To be clear, Halliday's SFL Theory models the nominal group as both an experiential structure ("types of meaning associated with a 'thing' ") and a logical structure ("an over-simple series of 'modifier + head' relationships"), whereas Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar only models the nominal group as an experiential structure. SFL Theory therefore has the added explanatory advantage of accounting for nominal group structures where the Thing and Head are not conflated, as in measure expressions (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 391-2):

and accounting for nominal groups in which there is no 'Thing' element, where a Deictic, Numerative, Classifier or Epithet is conflated with Head:

[2] This is seriously misleading, because it is the direct opposite of what is true. In SFL Theory, the class of a unit, such as a group, is distinguished by taking the view 'from above', the function it potentially serves at the higher rank. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 363): 

This is classifying groups in terms of the meanings they realise, not least because in the absence of metaphor, meaning and wording are congruent (agree).

Fawcett, on the other hand, does not classify groups in terms of meaning, but instead takes the view 'from below', distinguishing classes of unit according to the structures that realise them. Moreover, this is even inconsistent with Halliday's Scale & Category Grammar, the theory that Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar is said to develop. Halliday (2002 [1961]: 50):

A class is not a grouping of members of a given unit which are alike in their own structure. In other words, by reference to the rank scale, classes are derived “from above” (or “downwards”) and not “from below” (or “upwards”).

Seriously Misrepresenting Halliday On Groups

Fawcett (2010: 194-5):

Once we recognise that each element of a syntactic unit makes a unique contribution to realising the meaning of that unit, we can dispense with the traditional, over-narrow characterisation of the internal structure of groups as a series of 'modification' relationships. In its extreme form, this model presents groups as simply the 'hypotactic expansion' of the word class that functions as the 'head', in a series of 'modifier-head' relationships. This concept is central to 'sister dependency' grammars such as that of Hudson (1976), and it is reflected in Halliday's suggestion that there should be a 'logical' as well as an 'experiential' structure in the nominal group and the supposed 'verbal group'. (For a critique of the concept of a 'logical structure' in the 'verbal group' see Fawcett 2000.) However, to see groups as little more than the 'hypotactic expansion' of a word is to lose the important insights that come from approaching each group on its own terms, as a unit whose elements function to express meanings. Yet this is what Halliday is at times inclined to do. (See IFG pp. 180-1 and 196, and for a specific case where he treats the group very small as a 'word complex', see IFG p. 184.) 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, this non-sequitur is misleading. On the one hand, SFL Theory already recognises that each element of the structure of a unit realises meaning. On the other hand, SFL Theory models the structure of groups according to two principles: univariate and multivariate. The former is the iteration of the one relation, modification, which is why it is termed 'univariate'. The latter involves multiple relations, which is why it is termed 'multivariate'; see further below.

[2] This is misleading. This is not "extreme"; it is merely the application of the univariate model to group structure.

[3] To be clear, strictly speaking, there is no series of modifier-head relationships. The logical structure of a nominal group involves one Head, and potentially, a series of Modifiers.

[4] This misunderstands the epistemological basis of theorising. It is not the case that there should be a logical structure, but that modelling the group as a logical structure provides an explanatory advantage over not doing so.

[5] To be clear, the logical structure of the verbal group provides a systematic explanation of English tense.

[6] This is very misleading indeed. Halliday is not inclined to "see groups as little more than the hypotactic expansion of a word". Halliday complements this univariate structure of the group with the multivariate, and it the multivariate structure that Fawcett describes as "approaching each group in its own terms, as a unit whose elements function to express meanings". The deception here is Fawcett's implication that his derivative model provides what Halliday's original model does not.

[7] This is misleading. Halliday (1994: 181-2) describes the experiential structure of the nominal group, not the logical structure.

[8] To be clear, Halliday (1994: 196) not only presents both the logical and experiential structure of a nominal group, but also demonstrates the value of logical structure as a distinct analysis, since it illustrates a type of instance where the logical Head and experiential Thing are not conflated:

[9] To be clear, this "specific case" appears on p194, not p184:

As can be seen from the analysis, very small is not a group, but the Epithet of a nominal group. Fawcett's interpretation of the structural representation demonstrates a serious inability to understand Halliday's model.

Again, this instance demonstrates the explanatory value of complementing the experiential model of structure with the logical model, since it is only through logical submodification that the function of every word is accounted for at group rank.

Misconstruing Grammatical Features As Semantic

Fawcett (2010: 194, 194n):

I have just stated that each semantic unit has an associated "array of meanings". Such arrays of meaning are in effect the 'elements' of the higher unit that is constructed in the planner and that corresponds to each syntactic unit. They are realised — though not in a one-to-one relationship — in the different elements of structure of which the syntactic unit is composed.⁵

⁵ One example of the lack of a one-to-one relationship between the higher units in the planner and syntactic units of English is that a single element of the nominal group (the head) typically realises the two semantic variables of (1) the 'cultural classification' of things (which are realised by the 'common nouns' of a language) and (2) 'number' (i.e., 'mass' or 'count' and, if 'count', 'singular ' or 'plural', to slightly oversimplify).

Blogger Comments:

[1] As the term 'planner' makes clear, Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar is a model of text generation by computer, not a theory of language as embodied in human interactants.

[2] To be clear, like common noun, the categories of mass noun, count noun, singular noun and plural noun are grammatical, not semantic. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 75):

Consider for example the class of ‘noun’ in English. A general definition would involve both grammatical and semantic considerations, with some of the grammatical features having an overt manifestation and others not:

(semantic:) expresses a person, other being, inanimate object or abstraction, bounded or unbounded, etc.

(grammatical:) is either count or mass; if count, may be either singular or plural, plural usually inflected with -s; can be made possessive, adding -’s/-s’; can take the in front; can be Subject in a clause, etc.

See also Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 384-6).

Limiting All Classes Of Semantic Unit To Experiential Meaning

Fawcett (2010: 193-4):

Thus the Cardiff Grammar's approach to the concept of 'class of unit' in syntax is to recognise that each such class exists to express the specific array of meanings that are associated with each one of the major classes of entity in the semantics. For English these are what we might term situations, things, qualities (of both situations and things) and quantities (typically of things, but also of situations and qualities). English also has a semantic unit that can be termed a minor relationship with thing. Each of these semantic units corresponds directly to one of the five major classes of syntactic unit that are recognised in the present syntax of English. These are: 

clause,
nominal group, 

prepositional group, 

quality group, and 

quantity group.

 

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, the classes of semantic unit in the Cardiff Grammar are all experiential meanings, despite the fact that the Cardiff Grammar locates the textual system of THEME and the interpersonal system of MOOD, along with the experiential system of TRANSITIVITY, at the level of semantics. This discrepancy is not addressed anywhere in this publication.

Misrepresenting Halliday & Matthiessen On 'Unit' And 'Rank'

Fawcett (2010: 192-3):

To summarise: the two mutually defining concepts of 'unit' and 'rank' have no explicit role in the theory of SF syntax that is set out here. Moreover, although they are heralded as central concepts in most works that describe the Sydney Grammar, neither Halliday nor Matthiessen make much use of them in practice — either in their theoretical statements or in their descriptions of English (except in their accounts of 'rank shift', where Halliday's preference is now for the term "embedding"). The twin concepts of 'unit' and 'rank' play no part in the operation of the grammar, and the centrality of the concept of 'unit' in "Categories" is replaced by the centrality of the concept of class of unit (as described in Section 10.2 below). The concept of the 'rank scale' is replaced by a statement about the probabilities that a given class of unit fills a given element of the same or another class of unit, as discussed in Section 11.2 of Chapter 11 and as exemplified in Appendix B.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This is misleading, because, as previous posts have demonstrated, Fawcett explicitly ranks his units on a scale from higher to lower.

[2] This is very misleading indeed. In SFL Theory, the rank scale provides the formal units that are modelled in terms of their functions in realising meaning. Paradigmatically, each unit on the grammatical rank scale is the entry condition for the systems that are realised as structures. Syntagmatically, each function structure at a higher rank is realised by a syntagm of forms at the lower rank. For example, a clause structure such as Sayer ^ Process ^ Verbiage ^ Location is realised by the syntagm nominal group ^ verbal group ^ nominal group ^ adverbial group.

[3] To be clear, if there is a class of unit, there is a unit of which there are classes.

Confusing Form With Function

Fawcett (2010: 192):

Finally, I should comment briefly on the fact that the concepts of 'word' and 'morpheme' are not even considered as candidates for any possible 'rank scale'. The explanation is connected with the meanings of the terms item and exponence, as defined in this theory, and these will be explained in the sections dealing with those concepts (Section 10.5 of this chapter and Section 11.5 of Chapter 11). The present theory regards the relationship of words and morphemes to the 'higher' units on the supposed 'rank scale' as different from the relationship between, let us say, groups and clauses. Indeed, it is the relationship between clauses and the various classes of groups that lies at the heart of understanding English syntax, as Appendix B demonstrates.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, Fawcett's 'item' (p226) includes both 'word' and 'morpheme', and it expounds the lowest element of syntactic structure:

The third of the three major categories in the present theory of syntax (with 'unit' and 'element') is the item. This term includes both 'word' (in its traditional sense) and 'morpheme'. … In the present theory of syntax, the lowest syntactic category on each branch of the tree in a tree diagram representation of a sentence is an element (e.g., the head of a nominal group). And each such lowest element is expounded by an item — or as we shall see shortly, by items (in the plural).

That is, Fawcett's model confuses function structure (head of a nominal group) with formal units (items as words and morphemes).

[2] To be clear, as the quote above demonstrates, the exponence relation does not obtain between items (words and morphemes) and higher units (e.g. nominal groups), but between items and an element of group structure (head). That is, Fawcett's model confuses formal constituency (clause-group-word-morpheme) with function structure (head as element of the nominal group).

[3] To be clear, if there are higher and lower (formal) units and (functional) elements, then both units and elements are ranked on (formal and functional) scales.

Some Problems With Fawcett's Treating Hypotaxis As Embedding

 Fawcett (2010: 192n):

³ However, there is still the major difference between the two models in what types of relationship they permit between two (or more) clauses that make up a sentence. While the Sydney Grammar allows for "paratactic" and "hypotactic" relationships between clauses, the Cardiff Grammar recognises only the first of these. The prototypical type of "paratactic" relationship is that of 'co-ordination', as in My brother has arrived but his girlfriend will be a few minutes late, and all grammars recognise this relationship. In contrast, Halliday's "hypotactic" relationship between two units is not recognised in most other grammars. It is said to be one of 'dependency' without 'embedding', an example being He told us that he would be there. In Halliday's model the unit that he would be there is said to be 'projected by' the superordinate clause He told us, rather than being an element of it. In the Cardiff Grammar it would be regarded as a 'Participant' in the Process of 'telling', and it would be treated as an embedded clause that fills a Phenomenon that is conflated with a Complement. Thus the Cardiff Grammar treats virtually all of Halliday's "hypotactic" relationships as types of embedding.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the relation of clause to clause complex ('sentence') is not constituency ('make up'). In each clause nexus, one clause is the expansion or projection of the other.

[2] To be clear, recognising one type of interdependency, parataxis, but not the other, hypotaxis, introduces theoretical inconsistency, and prevents the recognition of agnate clause complexes (and their further agnates), as will be seen in later discussions.

[3] To be clear, in SFL Theory, 'co-ordination' involves two dimensions of choice: interdependency (parataxis) and expansion (extension).

[4] To be clear, here Fawcett implies the logical fallacy known as argumentum ad populum: a proposition is claimed to be true or good solely because a majority or many people believe it to be so.

[5] To be clear, in SFL Theory, dependency (taxis) is distinct from embedding (rankshift).

[6] To be clear, the locution clause (that he would be there) is projected by the main (α) clause, not the superordinate clause. A superordinate clause is a clause that contains another clause. That is, the superordinate clause in this instance is he told us that he would be there, not he told us.

[7] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the Range of a verbal Process is Verbiage, not Phenomenon. Phenomenon is a participant of a mental clause, not a verbal clause.

[8] To be clear, this reduces the explanatory potential of the theory. For example, it fails to distinguish embedded facts, which are clause participants, from projected ideas, which are not.

Some Problems With Fawcett's Notion Of 'Sentence'

Fawcett (2010: 192):

The present model takes broadly the same position as Halliday on this matter, i.e., the clause is taken to be the "highest" unit of English syntax. The term "sentence" is used here simply as a place-holder for the function served by the clause (or clause complex) in discourse. Thus it operates at the interface between the grammar and the 'higher grammar' that specifies the structure of discourse. Thus it is more like an "element" (see Section 10.5) than a "unit".³

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, if there is a highest unit, then there is a scale on which the unit ranks highest. That is, contrary to Fawcett's claims, his model is indeed formulated on the basis of a rank scale of units.

[2] To be clear, the term 'sentence' labels a form, not a function, and so cannot be a "place-holder" for any function served by the clause.

[3] To be clear, this is the only use of the term 'higher grammar' in this publication; but see later posts. 

[4] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the term 'element' refers to a function, such as existential Process, whereas the term 'unit' refers a form, such as a verbal group. In Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar, however, an 'element' is the lowest syntactic category in the representation of a sentence, in a model that has "no rank scale" (p226):

In the present theory of syntax, the lowest syntactic category on each branch of the tree in a tree diagram representation of a sentence is an element (e.g., the head of a nominal group).

Misrepresenting Halliday On 'Sentence'

Fawcett (2010: 191-2, 192n):

Halliday's formalisation of the concept of the 'rank scale' is, as with a number of his concepts, the formalisation of concepts that are found in traditional grammar. We therefore find broad equivalences to his proposals in works such as Quirk et al (1985), with the presentation of the concept that the units of the sentence (but often with reservations) clause, group or phrase, word and morpheme are typically related to each other in a 'constituency' relationship. Interestingly, however, Halliday later changed his view on the status of the "sentence", redefining it as a "clause complex", and limiting the use of the term "sentence" to clause complexes that occur in writing. Since his framework also allows for "group complexes" (and also, though very much less frequently, for "complexes" of "words" and "morphemes"), it is clear that a "sentence" is not a unit in the same sense that a clause or group is. For Halliday, then, the "sentence" is simply another type of "unit complex". The significance of this change of position is that it makes the clause the highest unit of English syntax.²

² It should be noted that, while the concept that a sentence is a "clause complex" underlies all of Halliday's analyses of texts in IFG, he nonetheless still includes "sentence" in the list of units in his discussion in Chapter 1 (1994:23) of the theoretical concepts use in IFG — while warning that this will be "re-interpreted" later in the book.

Blogger Comments:

This is misleading. Halliday (1994: 23) explicitly uses the term 'sentence' as a way of connecting his functional grammar to 'folk linguistic theory' and 'traditional school grammar' for the benefit of the reader who is unfamiliar with his model:

Later, rather than "change his position", Halliday (1994: 216) explains why the term 'clause complex' is theoretically preferable to the term 'sentence' :

In later editions of IFG (2004, 2014), 'sentence' is explicitly listed as a unit of written expression (graphology); Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 21):

Why Fawcett's Unit 'Cluster' Is Unnecessary

Fawcett (2010: 191):

The unit of the clause and various classes of group (or "phrase", as the group is termed in traditional grammars) are well-established in all theories of syntax. However, so far as I am aware no linguists other than those who use the Cardiff Grammar have yet recognised the unit of the cluster (though Quirk et al (1985:1276) come close to doing so in the case of the genitive cluster). For a brief discussion of this matter and an account of the various classes of cluster, see Sections 10.2.10 to 10.2.12.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, in SFL Theory, there is an important distinction between 'group' and 'phrase', though both are positioned on the same rank, because both realise functional elements at clause rank. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 362-3):

… a group is in some respects equivalent to a word complex — that is, a combination of words built up on the basis of a particular logical relation. This is why it is called a group (= ‘group of words’). …

A phrase is different from a group in that, whereas a group is an expansion of a word, a phrase is a contraction of a clause. Starting from opposite ends, the two achieve roughly the same status on the rank scale, as units that lie somewhere between the rank of a clause and that of a word.

[2] To be clear, one reason why Fawcett's 'cluster' is not recognised in SFL Theory is that it is not necessary. To explain, Fawcett (pp212-3) provides the following examples of 'genitive' cluster:

• a girl's bike (glossed as 'a bike that is suitable for a girl'),
• my sister's most precious doll, and
• the dog's back legs;

and the following example of a name cluster:

• This is my father's

SFL Theory provides the following analyses:

These will be discussed in more detail in the examination of Sections 10.2.10 to 10.2.12, but, for the moment, note the difference in function between Fawcett's first example (Classifier) and the other three (Deictic realised by embedded nominal group).

Fawcett's Rank Scale Of Functions

Fawcett (2010: 190-1):

The closest that it is possible to come to the 'rank scale' concept in the theory to be described here is to extract from a wider, probabilistic set of statements (which we shall come to in Section 11.2 of Chapter 11) a statement that the various classes of cluster always fill elements of groups (though they are in fact virtually limited to one class of group, i.e., the nominal group), and that groups quite frequently fill elements of clauses (though they also frequently fill elements of every class of group and cluster, and there is one class of group — the quantity group — which fills elements of groups very much more frequently than it fills an element of the clause). Or we might take a different approach and, ignoring the cluster, we might say that, for each word in a text that is being analysed, there is a fairly good possibility that it will be functioning as an element in a group (though many high frequency words such as forms of be function directly as elements of clauses), and also that, if one has identified a group, there is a fairly good possibility that it is functioning as an element of a clause (though many groups do not).

However, these heavily hedged statements are as far as one can go, in the present theory, in trying to state generalisations about the syntax of English in 'rank-like' terms. Notice, moreover, that we cannot turn such statements on their head and say, in the manner of "Categories", that clauses "consist of' groups and groups "consist of' clusters or words, because in the present model it is only some elements of clauses that can be filled by groups; it is only a very few elements of groups that are filled by a cluster (see Section 10.2.12); and it is only some elements of groups that are always expounded by words. (In any case, in the present theory we would not wish to say that groups "consist of' words, because the phenomena typically described as "words" are treated as a type of 'item', and so not as 'units'. See the discussion of this point in Section 10.5.) Thus, while some of the phenomena that originally gave rise to the concepts of a 'rank scale' of 'units' have their place in the new theory, the concept of the 'rank scale' itself plays no part in it.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, this demonstrates that Fawcett is operating with a rank scale of constituency, but one which involves internal inconsistencies and which violates the principle of exhaustiveness. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 84):

The general principle of exhaustiveness means that everything in the wording has some function at every rank (cf. Halliday, 1961, 1966c). But not everything has a function in every dimension of structure; for example, some parts of the clause (e.g. interpersonal Adjuncts such as perhaps and textual Adjuncts such as however) play no role in the clause as representation.

[2] To be clear, Fawcett's 'item' includes both 'word' and 'morpheme', and is said to lie 'outside syntax' in his model of syntax. Fawcett (p266):

The third of the three major categories in the present theory of syntax (with 'unit' and 'element') is the item. This term includes both 'word' (in its traditional sense) and 'morpheme'. Strictly speaking, the concept of 'item' lies outside syntax, since items are a different manifestation of meanings at the level of form from syntax.

Moreover, the 'item' is itself related to a rank scale of functions, on which 'element' is the lowest rank. Fawcett (p266):

In the present theory of syntax, the lowest syntactic category on each branch of the tree in a tree diagram representation of a sentence is an element (e.g., the head of a nominal group). And each such lowest element is expounded by an item — or as we shall see shortly, by items (in the plural).

That is, Fawcett's model also applies a model of formal constituency (rank scale) to functions (e.g. head of a nominal group), despite Fawcett denying that a rank scale is a component of the theory.

The Topmost Unit On A Scale That Is Not A Rank Scale

 Fawcett (2010: 190n):

¹ In other words, the topmost unit in a representation of syntax is always a clause — even though the topmost unit in a given text-sentence may appear to be a nominal group because of ellipsis.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, if the clause is the topmost unit, and a nominal group is not the topmost unit, then there is a scale on which there are higher and lower units. That is, despite Fawcett's claims, his model makes use of a rank scale — though inconsistently, as will be seen.

A Rank Scale That Is Not A Rank Scale

 Fawcett (2010: 189-90):

One way in which a clause may be said to be a 'higher' unit than the others — as the 'rank scale' concept predicts it to be — is the fact that the unit that is shown as the 'highest' on the page in any tree diagram representation of a text-sentence is always the clause.¹ In a generative SF grammar, provision for this fact is built into the probabilities on the features in an early system in the overall network, so ensuring that a clause is always generated first. However, we may note that the informal summary of clause syntax for text analysis purposes shown in Appendix B shows that a clause is the only unit that can fill the "element" of "sentence", and this fact is given to the computer parser of texts as a relevant part of its knowledge of syntax. However, this is a fact about clauses in relation to all other units, and on its own it does not constitute evidence that there is a 'rank scale' of units in the "Categories" sense of the term.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the rank scale does not "predict" that the clause is a higher unit than the others. The rank scale is a way of modelling constituency, and what makes the clause the highest unit, in this model, is the fact it alone is not a constituent of some other unit. A tree diagram merely represents this fact. Halliday (2002 [1961]: 43):

The units of grammar form a hierarchy that is a taxonomy. To talk about any hierarchy, we need a conversational scale; the most appropriate here might seem that of size, going from “largest” to “smallest”; on the other hand size is difficult to represent in tables and diagrams, and may also trap one into thinking in substantial terms, and a vertical scale, from “highest” to “lowest”, has advantages here. For the moment we may use both, eventually preferring the latter. The relation among the units, then, is that, going from top (largest) to bottom (smallest), each consists of one, or of more than one, of the unit next below (next smaller). The scale on which the units are in fact ranged in the theory needs a name, and may be called rank.

[2] To be clear, Fawcett's set of procedures for clause generation is inconsistent with the theory he is claiming to be developing: Halliday's superseded theory of Scale & Category Grammar. Halliday (2002 [1961]: 42):

In this view of linguistics description is, as already emphasised, a body of method derived from theory, and not a set of procedures. This has one important consequence. If description is procedural, the only way of evaluating a given description is by reference to the procedures themselves: a good description is one that has carried out the right procedures in the right order, but for any more delicate evaluation external criteria have to be invoked. Moreover, every language has to be treated as if it was unknown, otherwise procedural rules will be violated; so the linguist has to throw away half his evidence and a good few of his tools.

A theory on the other hand provides a means for evaluating descriptions without reference to the order in which the facts are accounted for. The linguist makes use of all he knows and there is no priority of dependence among the various parts of the description. The best description is then that which, comprehensiveness presupposed, is maximally grammatical: that is, makes maximum use of the theory to account for a maximum amount of the data.

[3] As this clause demonstrates, Fawcett's model is concerned with text generation by computer, not with language as spoken or written by humans.

[4] This is misleading. As Appendix 2 (pp306-7) demonstrates, Fawcett's model includes the following units, all of which are, in effect, constituents of the clause:

• nominal group,
• prepositional group,
• quality group,
• quantity group, and
• genitive cluster.

That is, Fawcett's model has a 2-level rank scale, in the "Categories" sense (see [1]), in all but name.