Thursday 14 May 2015

Participant Chains Of Non-Participants

Martin (1992: 143):
Cataphoric reference almost always presumes text, rather than participants; this can be entered into the participant chain where room is available, or simply indexed to the relevant portion of the text being analysed.

Blogger Comments:

On the one hand, the notion of a participant chain is invalidated by any 'links' in that chain that are not participants.  

On the other hand, given that participants are part of the text, the distinction between 'text' and 'participant' discloses that Martin conceives of participants as meanings outside the text (Frege's Bedeutung or 'referent') rather than as meanings in the semantic sense (Frege's Sinn or 'sense').  This is inconsistent with the epistemological foundation of SFL theory, whereby all meaning is conceived of as immanent, within semiotic systems, rather than transcendent of them.

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