Saturday 5 September 2015

Misrepresenting The Directions Of Coding And Mistaking A Verbal Projection Nexus For An Identifying Clause

Martin (1992: 282):
The discussion will now be limited to the semiotic options subclassifying the feature [realise].  These can be divided into a general set which do not specify which strata or ranks are being related and a set which is specific to either the semantics/grammar interface or the grammar/phonology (including grammar/graphology) one…
Both interfaces make a distinction between encoding and decoding, depending on whether the Token is treated as closer or further away from the expression substance than the Value.
GRAMMAR/PHONOLOGY:ENCODING
[5:17]  N-G spells ng
GRAMMAR/PHONOLOGY:DECODING
[5:18]  But it actually reads the big dog must be able to see the dog at all times
SEMANTICS/GRAMMAR…ENCODING
[5:19]  Spell means 'to represent graphically as' 
SEMANTICS/GRAMMAR…DECODING
[5:20]  'To represent graphically as' defines spell.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This seriously misrepresents decoding and encoding.  The directions of coding are not semiotic options "subclassifying the feature [realise]", and have nothing whatsoever to do with "whether the Token is treated as closer or further away from the expression substance than the Value".

The direction of coding pertains to all identifying processes and simply depends on whether the Value is used to identify the Token (decoding) or the Token is used to identify the Value (encoding), as Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 230) make clear.

Of the three genuine identifying clauses provided, each can be construed as either decoding or encoding, as demonstrated below:

decoding: what word do the letters ‘N-G’ spell?
N-G
spells
ng
Token/Identified
Process: identifying
Value/Identifier
Given

New

encoding: what letters spell the word ‘ng’?
N-G
spells
ng
Token/Identifier
Process: identifying
Value/Identified
New

Given


decoding: what does the word ‘spell’ mean?
spell
means
to represent graphically as
Token/Identified
Process: identifying
Value/Identifier
Given

New

encoding: what word means ‘to represent graphically as’?
spell
means
to represent graphically as
Token/Identifier
Process: identifying
Value/Identified
New

Given


decoding: what meaning defines the word ‘spell’?
to represent graphically as
defines
spell
Value/Identifier
Process: identifying
Token/Identified
New

Given

encoding: what word is defined by the meaning ‘to represent graphically as’?
to represent graphically as
defines
spell
Value/Identified
Process: identifying
Token/Identifier
Given

New

This last  clause is extremely marked, not least because, in the vast majority of instances of identifying processes, it is the Token, not the Value that conflates with Subject in clauses of operative voice.


[2] This is not an identifying relational clause; it is a nexus of verbal clause projecting a quoted locution clause (despite the omitted quotation marks).

but
it
actually
reads (‘says’)
the big dog
must be able to see
the dog
at all times
1
“ 2

Sayer

Process: verbal
Senser
Process: mental
Phenomenon
Location: time

This instance, therefore, does not construe the 'grammar/graphology interface'.  The logical relation it construes is projection, not elaboration, and the domains that are related are the material order of experience (a sayer saying) and the semiotic order of experience (a wording; i.e. lexicogrammar).