Misrepresenting Halliday On Layers Of Structure

Fawcett (2010: 317, 317n):

Secondly, Huddleston discusses in considerable detail certain problems that result from the concept of 'layered univariate structures' within 'parataxis' and 'hypotaxis'. We first met these concepts in Section 2.6.1 of Chapter 2. Figure 2 in that section (which is taken directly from Halliday 1965/81) illustrates in a simplified form the concept that 'hypotactic' structures add new layers to the overall structure. Moreover, the top halves of the diagrams in Figures 7-2 and 7-3 on p.217 of IFG similarly suggest that each 'hypotactic' relationship adds a further layer of structure. And the 'paratactic' structures of Halliday's model, with their elements of "1 2 3", necessarily also add more layers to the overall structure.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, Fawcett does not identify any of the"problems" resulting from layered univariate structures that Huddleston raises. He does, however, provide his own arguments, but as will be seen, these do not withstand close scrutiny.

[2] This is misleading. To be clear, Figure 2 only displays one level of structure: α β γ. Fawcett here simply misinterprets clauses displayed on three different lines as three levels of structure.

[3] This is misleading. To be clear, Fawcett here simply misinterprets clauses displayed on different lines in the top halves of Figures 7-2 and 7-3 as multiple levels of structure. On the other hand, the layers of structure are explicitly represented — not suggested — in the bottom halves of Figures 7-2 and 7-3.

[4] This is misleading. Clearly, the paratactic structure 1 2 3 construes only one level of structure.