Thursday 25 June 2015

Using Clause Simplexes To Theorise Conjunctive Relations

Martin (1992: 204):
There are two variations on [similarity], one conditional and one temporal, where apparently hypotactically dependent clauses cannot appear initially in the clause complex:
SIMILARITY (conditional)
[4:99]  Ben looked
            as if he'd just won the Best of Show. 
SIMILARITY (temporal)
[4:100] Ben looked
            like when he won Best of Show.

Blogger Comments:

[1] Neither of these is a clause complex; each is an attributive clause.  If Ben looked were a clause, it would be one without an Attribute.

In the first, an embedded clause serves as Attribute:

Ben
looked
[[as if he'd just won the Best of Show]]
Carrier
Process: attributive
Attribute/Manner: comparison


In the second, an embedded clause complex (with Mood ellipsis) serves as Attribute:

Ben
looked
[[like (he did) || when he won Best of Show]]
Carrier
Process: attributive
Attribute /Manner: comparison


[2] Both Attributes construe comparison (as if, like).