Wednesday 29 July 2015

Misrepresenting Continuity

Martin (1992: 230):
Before turning to the question of conjunctive structures in text, an additional set of meanings, closely related to CONJUNCTION in certain respects, will be brought into the picture.  This system will be referred to as CONTINUITY and is realised through already, still, yet, anymore, any longer, finally, at last, only, just, even, also, as well, too, either and neither.

Blogger Comment:

In SFL theory, continuity is the cohesive system, within conjunction, that is realised by continuatives like yes, no, well, oh, now which 'signal a move in the discourse: a response, in dialogue' as related to a previous move, or 'a new move to the next point if the same speaker is continuing' (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 81, 534).

It will be seen in coming posts that the adverbs listed above do not function logically (in Martin's terms), but interpersonally — as modal Adjuncts.  That is, what in SFL theory, is an interpersonal system, is construed here as the logical system of continuity — a system which in SFL theory, is a textual system (cohesion).