Fawcett's Claim That Phrasal Verbs Undermine The Rank Scale

Fawcett (2010: 334):

In a rather similar manner, Halliday analyses the word off in They will call the meeting off as an Adjunct in IFG, i.e., as an element of the clause rather than as an element of the 'verbal group'. Yet we might have expected him to have analysed it as an element of the 'verbal group' since it is the co-realisation, with call, of the meaning of the single Process of 'calling off', and called is unequivocally an element of the 'verbal group' in IFG.

Blogger Comments:

 [1] This is not misleading, because it is true. See IFG (Halliday 1994: 208) on the phrasal verb as Process rather than Process + circumstance.

[2] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the reason why the word  off is not analysed as realising an element of the verbal group is that it serves no function in the verbal group. Instead, the word off is analysed as an adverb that serves as the Head element of an adverbial group.