GROUP AND PHRASES

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A.    Group and Phrases

The three functional components of meaning, ideational, interpersonal and textual, are realized throughout the grammar of a language. But whereas in the grammar of the clause each component contributes a more or less complete structure, so that a clause is made up of three distinct structures combined into one , when we look below the clause, and consider the grammar of the group, the pattern is somewhat different. Although we can still recognize the same three components, they are not represented in the form of separate whole structures, but rather as partial contributions to a single structural line.

The difference between clause and group in this respect is only one of degree; but it is sufficient to enable us to analyse the structure of the group in one operation, rather than in three operations as we did with the clause. At the same time, in interpreting group structure we have to split the ideational metafunction into two modes of construing experience: experiential and logical. So far what we have been describing under the ideational heading has been meaning as organization of experience; but there is also a logical aspect to it – language as the construal of certain very general logical relations – and it is this we have to introduce now.

It comes in at this point because 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’). It is also the reason why in the western grammatical tradition it was not recognized as a distinct structural unit: instead, simple sentences (that is, clauses, in our terms) were analysed directly into words. Such an analysis is still feasible provided we confine our attention to the sort of idealized isolated sentences that grammarians have usually dealt with, such as Socrates runs or John threw the ball 1; even there, however, the ‘words-in-sentences’ model ignores several important aspects of the meanings involved, and in the analysis of real-life discourse it leads to impossible complexity. Describing a sentence as a construction of words is rather like describing a house as a construction of bricks, without recognizing the walls and the rooms as intermediate structural units.

We shall examine the structure of the three main classes of group: nominal group, verbal group and adverbial group; along with a brief reference to preposition and conjunction groups. These classes of group are complexes of nominals, verbs, and adverbs, for example:

nominal group: the police

verbal group: will conduct

nominal group: an investigation

adverbial group: thoroughly and efficiently.

They serve different functions in the clause (unless they are rankshifted and embedded in other units). In terms of the modal structure of the clause, nominal groups serve as Subject, Complement or Vocative, verbal groups as Finite + Predicator, and adverbial groups as Adjunct (either circumstantial or modal ones); and in terms of the experiential structure, nominal groups serve in participant roles, verbal groups as Process, and adverbial groups in circumstance roles. The correspondences between class and function were illustrated

A phrase is different from a group in that, whereas a group is an expansion of a word, a phrase is a contraction.

B.     Nominal group

Those two splendid old electric trains Deictic Numerative Epithet, Epithet Classifier Thing determiner numeral adjective adjective adjective noun.

·         Experiential structure of the nominal group: from Deictic to Classifier

Categorization within the class is typically expressed by one or more of the functional

elements Deictic, Numerative, Epithet and Classifier. They serve to realize terms within

different systems of the system network of the nominal group. We will consider each of

these systems and elements in turn.

1.      Deictic

The Deictic element indicates whether or not some specific subset of the Thing is intended and if so, which. The nature of the Deictic is determined by the system of DETERMINATION: The primary distinction is between (i) specific or (ii) non-specific. Here is an example of the use of Deictics from the beginning of a narrative; as we shall note below, the absence of the Deictic element is also systemically meaningful within the system of non-specific determination.

2.      Numerative

The Numerative element indicates some numerical feature of the particular subset of the Thing: either quantity or order, either exact or inexact.

a)      The quantifying Numeratives (or ‘quantitatives’) specify either an exact number (cardinal numerals, e.g. two trains) or an inexact number (e.g. many trains, lots of trains); for example: the Senate confirmed seven Cabinet secretaries .

b)      The ordering Numeratives (or ‘ordinatives’) specify either an exact place in order (ordinal numerals, e.g. the second train) or an inexact place (e.g. a subsequent train). For example: For the third time in a decade, the telephone company is changing people’s phone numbers.

3.      Epithet

The Epithet indicates some quality of the subset, e.g. old, long, blue, fast; since qualities are denoted by adjectives. Tucker (1998) provides a detailed, lexicogrammatical and semantic description of adjectives in English, with system networks showing the potential for construing qualities. (i) The quality of the subset may be an objective property of the thing itself, construed as a depiction of the experience of the entity that it represents; or  (ii) it may be an expression of the speaker’s subjective attitude towards it, e.g. splendid, silly, fantastic (see Poynton, 1996). We refer to these as (i) experiential Epithets and (ii) interpersonal, or attitudinal, Epithets, respectively.

4.      Classifier

The Classifier indicates a particular subclass of the thing in question, e.g. electric trains, passenger trains, toy trains. Sometimes the same word may function either as Epithet or as Classifier, with a difference in meaning: e.g. fast trains may mean either ‘trains that go fast’ (fast = Epithet) or ‘trains classified as expresses’ (fast = Classifier). The line between Epithet and Classifier is not a very sharp one, but there are significant differences. Classifiers do not accept degrees of comparison or intensity – we cannot have a more electric train or a very electric train; and they tend to be organized in mutually exclusive and exhaustive sets – a train is either electric, steam or diesel. The range of semantic relations that may be embodied in a set of items functioning as Classifier is very broad; it includes material, scale and scope, purpose and function, status and rank, origin, mode of operation – more or less any feature that may serve to classify a set of things into a system of smaller sets;  for example:

Prison guards restrain the inmates with electric shock stun guns, leg irons, pepper spray and restraint chairs.

·         Experiential functions and word classes

Deictic Deictic2 Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing determiner adjective numeral adjective noun or adjective noun But there are other possibilities: for example, numeral occurring as Classifier, as in first prize, or embedded nominal group as possessive Deictic, e.g. the day before yesterday’s paper. These word classes – noun (= common noun), adjective, numeral and determiner – are all different kinds of noun; they are sub-classes of this one primary class. This larger class can be referred to as ‘nominals’, to avoid confusion with ‘noun’ in its narrower, more specific sense. Other words also enter into the nominal group, namely words of the class verb, which may function as Epithet or Classifier. Verbs function in the nominal group in one of two forms:

        i.            present (active) participle, V-ing, e.g. losing, as in a losing battle;

      ii.            past (passive, or intransitive) participle, V-en, e.g. lost, as in a lost cause. When functioning as Epithet, these forms usually have the sense of the finite tense to which they are most closely related: the present participle means ‘which is (was/will be) ... ing’, the past participle means ‘which has (had/will have) been ... ed’. When functioning as Classifier, they typically have the sense of a simple present, active or passive: present (= active) ‘which ... s’, past (= passive) ‘which is ... ed’.

·         Experiential structure of the nominal group: interpretation of ordering;

the Qualifier

Ø  Ordering

We can now follow the experiential pattern that is embodied in nominal group structure. Proceeding from left to right, we begin with the immediate context, the identification of the item in terms of the here-&-now, e.g. those trains ‘the trains you can see over there’. Of course, this identification is often in terms of the surrounding text rather than the situation, e.g. those trains ‘the trains you’ve just been talking about’; but the point of reference is still the speech event. From there we go on to quantitative features: place in order, and number. These are less naturally definitive than this or that, mine or yours, but more so than a merely qualitative attribute; and the ordinals, being the more definitive of the two, come first. An ordinal is a kind of superlative cardinal: third = ‘three-est’, i.e. identified by being at number three. Next come the qualitative features, again with superlatives preceding others: the oldest trains ‘trains for which oldness is the identifying feature’. Often there is an intensifier, such as very, or an attitudinal element like nice, terrible as a marker of the quality. Finally, comes class membership; this reduces the size of the total set referred to in the noun by specifying a sub-set, e.g. passenger train ‘kind of train that is for carrying passengers’. We are talking here, it should be made clear, of the identifying potential of these elements. In any actual instance, the item in question may or may not be identifying; and this is the function of the word the at the beginning of the group – to signal that something that is capable of identifying is actually functioning in this way. So there is a progression in the nominal group from the kind of element that has the greatest specifying potential to that which has the least; and this is the principle of ordering that we have already recognized in the clause.

Ø  Qualifier

What of the element which follows the Thing? The original example, Look at those two splendid old electric trains with pantographs, ended with the phrase with pantographs; this also is part of the nominal group, having a function we shall refer to as Qualifier. Unlike the elements that precede the Thing, which are words (or sometimes word complexes, like two hundred, very big; see Section 6.3.2), what follows the Thing is either a phrase or a clause. For example:

Guinness, who was knighted in 1959, had a long film partnership [with director David Lean].

·         Experiential structure of the nominal group: the Thing

The element we are calling Thing is the semantic core of the nominal group. It may be realized by a common noun, proper noun or (personal) pronoun. The personal pronoun represents the world according to the speaker, in the context of a speech exchange. The basic distinction is into speech roles (I, you) and other roles (he, she, it, they); there is also the generalized pronoun (one).

Ø  A note on interpersonal and textual contributions

We noted at the beginning of the chapter that in analysing group structure it is not necessary to set up three distinct ‘lines’ corresponding to the experiential, interpersonal and textual metafunctions. A single structural representation will suffice. We have been able to express this in experiential terms, because it is a general principle of linguistic structure that it is the experiential meaning that most clearly defines constituents ( Halliday, 1979). Interpersonal meanings tend to be scattered prosodically throughout the unit; while textual meanings tend to be realized by the order in which things occur, and especially by placing of boundaries. These are very general tendencies, worked out differently in every language but probably discernible in all.

Ø  Logical structure of the nominal group

We now need to consider the structure of the nominal group from a different, and complementary, point of view; seeing it as a logical structure. This does not mean interpreting it in terms of formal logic; it means seeing how it represents the generalized logical-semantic relations that are encoded in natural language. For the purposes of the nominal group we need to take account

5.      Head and Thing

We have assumed so far that the Head of the univariate structure is also always the Thing, in the multivariate structure. But this is not so. There is always a Head in the nominal group (unless it is ‘branched’, like one brown in one blue eye and one brown [Δ]); but there may be no Thing.

There is one functional environment in which we regularly find Epithet as Head, namely .The complex functional entity formed by the conflation of Head and Thing acts as the fulcrum of the nominal group: before it, as Premodifier, a sequence of words having distinct experiential functions; after it, as Postmodifier, one or more embedded items which may be prepositional phrase or non-finite or finite clause. The Premodifier can then be interpreted in logical terms as a hypotactic word complex.

C.    Verbal Group

The verbal group is the constituent that functions as Finite plus Predicator (or as Predicator alone if there is no Finite element) in the mood structure of the clause (clause as exchange) and as process in the transtivity structure of the clause (clause as representation). In the clause Someone’s been eating my porridge. The verbal group is has been eating .

A verbal group is the expansion of a verb, in the same way that a nominal group is the expansion of a noun, and it consists of a sequence of words of the primary class of verb.

1.      Experiental structure of the verbal group

The experiental structure of the finite verbal group is Finite (standing for ‘Finite operator’) plus Event, with optional elements Auxiliary (one more) and polarity. Finite verbal group range from short, one word items.

ate

Finite/Event

Couldn’t	Have	Been	Going to	Be	Being	eaten
Finite	Auxiliary1	Auxiliary2	Auxiliary3	Auxiliary4	Auxiliary5	Event

A striking feature of this structure is its parallelism with the nominal group. The verbal group begins with the Finite, which is the verbal equivalent of the Deictic, relating the process to the ‘speaker now’ the Finite does so by tense or modality. The verbal group ends with the Event, which is the verbal equivalent of the thing, the former expresses an entity of some kind, but both represent the core of the lexical meaning.

Both verbal and nominal group begin with the element that fixes the group in relation to the speech exchange, and both end with the element that specifies the representational content the difference being that, since things are more highly organized than events, there are additional lexical elements in the nominal but none in the verbal group. And it is not difficult to explain why the structure should be this way round. Initial position is thematic, and the natural theme of a process or participant is its relation to the here and now. Final position is informative, and the newsworthy component of a process or participant is some aspect of its lexical content. So the structure of groups recapitulates, in the fixed ordering of their elements, the meaning that is incorporated as choice in the message structure of the clause.

2.      Logical structure of the verbal group

The verbal group is also structured logically, but in a way that is quite different from, and has no parallel in the nominal group. The logical structure of the verbal group realizes the system of tense.

	Primary	Secondary
past	V-ed (simple past tense) as in was/were, took, walked	Have+V-en as in have been, have taken, have walked
present	V-s (simple present tense) As in is/are, takes, walks	Be+V-ing As in be being, be taking, be walking
future	Will+V(infinitive) As in will be, will take, will walk	Be going to + V (infinitive) As in be going to be, be going to take, be going to walk

In naming the tense, it is best to work backwards, beginning with the deepest and using the preposition in to express the serial modification. Clearly it is possible to represent every instance of a verbal group by a structural analysis showing the auxiliaries, in a way that is parallel to what is done for the nominal group.

3.      Finite, sequent and non-finite tense systems

There are, in fact, three distinct systems of tense in English:

            System I:                    finite                                            36 tenses

            System II:                  sequent                                        24 tenses

            System III:                non-finite/modalized                    12 tenses

The finite system, system I, is the one displayed in the centre columns of Table 6-13. The way it works can be illustrated by building up clauses with associated time expressions. It will be noted that the order of time Adjuncts is the reverse of that of the tenses, there is what is known as ‘mirror concord’ between them, invariable except that the one corresponding to the primary tense can be picked out and made thematic, e.g. by now she’s known for some time, for a while she was going to have known already be tonight. The clause chosen is one of mental process, so as to be able to be built up naturally from the simple present.

System II is that which is available following a past projection. What happens here is that in the environment of a ‘past’ feature, the past element ih three of the system II tenses is neutralized, past, ost in present and past in past all represented as past in past.

System III is the tense system available in non-finite and in modalized forms of the verbal group. Derivation of system III by the neutralization of certain contrast in system I shows the combined effect of both these steps.

4.      Feature of serial tense

It would be possible, obviously, to think of all the tense in any one of these systems-finite, sequent or non-finite as making up a simple set. But this would leave unaccounted for both the relations among the three systems and the serial character of the tense system as a whole.

What is remarkable about serial tense is its regularity, the way in which each choice of tense, whether past, present or future, defines a location in time which is then used as the point of departure for a further choice among the same three tenses. This regularity is obscured, and distorted, by the categories of the structuralist analysis, and especially the ‘aspect’nomenclature of perfect and progressive (or continuous).

5.      The system network of the verbal group

As we have seen, the verbal group is highly grammaticalized, all elements of its structure except for the event are realized by grammatical items, the event being the only one that is realized by a lexical item. It follows that the system network of the verbal group is a network of systems representing contrast that are purely grammatical in nature. The only systems that extends in delicacy towards distinctions that are realized lexcillay is the key system of EVENT TYPE the verbal group analogue of the thing type system of the nominal group. This systems is concerned with distinctions among verbs relating to their temporal properties (thus complementing the clausal system of process type, which is concerned with distinctions among process relating to configurations of process plus participants).

The systems of the verbal group derive from different metafunctions:

                                                        i.            Textual: voice, contrast, and ellipsis

                                                      ii.            Interpersonal: polarity, finiteness, and modality

                                                    iii.            Experiental: aspect and event type

                                                    iv.            Logical: secondary tense

The logical system of secondary tense privides the key organization of the verbal group. This is the system that defines the logical structure discussed above. The system of voice also contributes an auxiliary to this structure (be … -en), which functions like a final secondary tense right before the event.

6.      Phrasal verbs

The class of word functioning as event in the verbal group structure is the verb. Phrasal verbs are lexical verbs that consist of more than just the verb word itself (also discussed under a number of other headings, including ‘verb particle construcyion’, or ‘VPC’, and ‘multi-word verb’, or ‘MWV’). they are of two kinds, plus a third, which is a combination of the other two:

                                                        i.            Verb + adverb, e.g. look out ‘unearth, retrieve’

                                                      ii.            Verb + preposition, e.g. look for ‘seek’

                                                    iii.            Verb + adverb + preposition, e.g. look out for ‘watch for the presence of’

Examples:

                                                        i.            Could you look out for a good recipe for me?

-yes I’ll look one out in a moment.

                                                      ii.            I’m looking for a needle, could you help me find one?

-Yes I’ll look for one in a moment.

                                                    iii.            Look out for snakes, there are lots around here.

-Yes I’ll look out for them.

Expressions of this kind are lexical items, look out, look for, and look out for belong as separate entries in a thesaurus or dictionary. They are thus tending more and more to function as grammatical constituents, but this tendency is far from complete, and grammatically they are rather unstable. Experientally, a phrasal verb is a single process, rather than process plus circumstantial element.

D.    Adverbial group, conjunction group, preposition group

1.      Adverbial group

The adverbial group serves as Adjunct in the modal structure of the clause, either circumstantial Adjunct or modal Adjunct (mood or comment). Examples:

a)      Circumstantial Adjunct

But you mustn’t take it personally. (UTS/Macquirie Corpus)

Yeah but it didn’t aggressively market them. (UTS/Macquirie Corpus)

You’ve coped beautifully tonight, you’ve coped so well compared to how I would have coped. (UTS/Macquirie Corpus)

b)      Interpersonal Adjunct, mood

I actually didn’t have a lot of chicken, I had probably more vegetables. (UTS/Macquirie Corpus)

c)      Interpersonal Adjunct, comment

Apparently he’s got a wife and a couple of kids. (UTS/Macquirie Corpus)

And I nearly I nearly smashed him in the face frankly. (UTS/Macquirie Corpus)

Otie, stop licking plates. There’s one person in this room who just loves that lasagna. Unfortunately, he isn’t human. (UTS/Macquririe Corpus)

Specifically what have you been working on this evening Bruno? (UTS/Macquirire Corpus)

The adverbial group has an adverb as Head, which may or may not be accompanied by modifying elements. Adverbial groups serving as circumstantial Adjunct have an adverb denoting a circumstance as Head.

2.      Conjunction group

Within the primary word class of adverbials, there is another class besides adverbs, namely conjunctions. Their roles in the grammar are described in chapter 7, they form three sub-classes, namely linker, binder and continuative.

Conjunctions also form word groups by modification, for example even, if, just, as, not, until, if only. These can be represented in the same way. Note however that many conjunctive expressions have evolved from more complex structure, e.g. as soon as, in case, by the time, nevertheless, in so far as. These can be treated as single elements without further analysis. They are themselves, of course, subject to modification, e.g. just in case, almost as soon as.

3.      Preposition group

Prepositions are not a sub-class of adverbials functionally they are realted to verbs. But they form groups by modification, in the same way as conjunctions, e.g. right behind, not without, way off as in right behind the door, not without some misgivings, all along the beach, way off the mark.

Again, there are more complex forms, such as in front of, for the sake of, which can be left unanalyzed. These are also subject to modification, as in just for the sake of, immediately in front of. It is important to make a distinction between a preposition group, such as right behind or immediately in front of, which is a Modifier-Head structure expanded from and functionally equivalent to a preposition, and a prepositional phrase, which is not an expansion of anything but a clause like structure in which the process/predicator function is performed by a preposition and not by a verb.

Complex prepositions such as in front (of), for the shake (of), have evolved from prepositional phrase with front, sake as ‘complement’. Many expressions are determinate between the two, for example by the side of, as an alternative to, on the grounds of, expressions like these are on the way to becoming prepositions typically occur without a Deictic preceding the noun (in front of, not in the front of), and the noun occurs in the singular only (in front of, not in front of).

E.     Prepositional phrase

The prepositional phrase serves as Adjunct in the modal structure of the clause. Like the adverbial group, it can serve as circumstantial Adjunct or, less commonly, as interpersonal Adjunct; and like the conjunction group, it can serve as conjunctive Adjunct. In addition, it can be rankshifted to serve as Postmodifier in a nominal group or an adverbial group. Examples:

Ranking, circumstantial Adjunct

Stop for lunch and a swim at Kuta.

Yeah, we were doing that in Adelaide too.

F.     Word classes and group functions

At the beginning of this chapter, we presented a table showing the relationship between group and phrase classes and clause functions . As the table shows, the mapping between classes at group/phrase rank and functions at clause rank is fairly complex: a group/phrase of a given class can typically serve a number of different clause functions (the exception being the verbal group). When we move down one step along the rank scale to consider the relationship between word classes and group/phrase functions, we find that there is a stronger tendency towards a one-to-one relationship: a word of a particular class tends to serve only one group/phrase function. The major exception is the class of adverb; but this is partly a matter of delicacy: certain adverbs function only as Head, whereas others function only as Modifier or Sub-Modifier.