Fawcett's Claim That The Finite Operator Undermines The Rank Scale

Fawcett (2010: 333-4):

Interestingly, none of the previous critics of the concept of the 'rank scale' (except Hudson 1971, implicitly) have discussed the role of the 'verbal group' as either supporting or undermining the concept of the 'rank scale'. Yet the reasons for abolishing the 'verbal group' and promoting its elements to function as elements of the clause are so persuasive that this set of reasons alone is sufficient to cause one to re-think the viability of the concept of 'accountability at all ranks', and so the 'rank scale' itself. In the present section, therefore, I shall provide an outline of the argument set out in my two-part paper "In place of Halliday's 'verbal group'" (Fawcett 2000 and forthcoming b).

Part 1 begins by pointing out a number of inconsistencies, from the functional viewpoint, in the way in which Halliday labels the elements of his 'verbal group' in IFG. It then demonstrates the way in which these problems are resolved in the alternative approach taken in the Cardiff Grammar.

The most obvious of these inconsistencies is the way in which IFG presents the Finite (which is very roughly equivalent to the Cardiff Grammar's Operator). At one point (p. 72) Halliday describes the Finite as "part of the verbal group [my emphasis]", while at another (p. 79) he says that "the predicator ... is realised by a verbal group minus the Finite [my emphasis]". And the Finite is in fact shown in the analyses of clauses throughout IFG as part of the more delicate of the two analyses of 'interpersonal' meaning in the clause, i.e., as an element of the clause. (However, if it really is to be modelled an element of the clause as well as an element of the 'verbal group', this would bring horrendous problems in its train for a generative SF grammar.)

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the reason why critics of the rank scale have not cited the verbal group in their arguments is that it neither supports nor undermines the rank scale. The verbal group is merely the outcome of modelling formal constituency as a rank scale wherein clauses consist of groups.

[2] To be clear, as previously demonstrated, Fawcett's argument against the verbal group with regard to the rank scale confuses form with function. In SFL Theory, the value of the verbal group includes the fact that it is the entry condition for the recursive system of TENSE.

[3] To be clear, the Finite operator is a functional element, not a formal constituent, and is thus irrelevant to the rank scale as a way of modelling formal constituency.

[4] This is not misleading, because it is true.

[5] To be clear, this is yet another bare assertion, unsupported by argument.