Misrepresenting 'Filling Probabilities' As An Alternative To The Rank Scale

Fawcett (2010: 337):

Interestingly, the concept of the 'rank scale' plays no role in a generative SF grammar. Its main practical value has always been as a model (if a problematical one) that makes predictions that guide the text analyst in how the units in a text-sentence relate to each other. And for this purpose we can now use the set of units supplemented by the concept of filling probabilities that is described in Section 11.2 of Chapter 11 and exemplified in Appendix B. From one viewpoint they are simply a drastic re-interpretation of the 'rank scale' concept, but in essence they are a replacement for it, as a guide for use in text analysis.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This is misleading. It is only in Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar that the rank scale plays no acknowledged role.

[2] This is misleading, because the rank scale model of formal constituency is fundamental to SFL Theory since it is the means of modelling syntax and morphology. The rank scale provides the various entry conditions to grammatical systems and identifies the formal units that serve grammatical functions.

[3] This is misleading, because filling probabilities are concerned with form-function relations, not with form-form relations ("how units relate to each other"), they are neither a re-interpretation of the rank scale nor a replacement for it as a model of formal constituency.