Misrepresenting Hasan's Work On Speech Function [New]

Martin (1992: 37-8):

Beyond this, the most significant work in the area has been undertaken by Hasan (forthcoming), working on the category of Offer. Her strategy is to extend the SPEECH FUNCTION network in delicacy to the point where it makes more categorical predictions about the realisation of discourse semantics in lexicogrammar. As a first step Hasan adds the system [conclusive/nonconclusive] to the SPEECH FUNCTION systems noted above. This allows her to distinguish between Offers which accompany the handing over of goods or performance of a service (proffers) and Offers which foreshadow such {pre-offers). …

But it is clear that the realisation relationship between discourse semantics and lexicogrammar has been considerably clarified simply by taking one step — subclassifying [giving/goods & services] exchanges as [conclusive/nonconclusive]. …

It provides a mechanism for systematically relating SPEECH FUNCTION to MOOD, and at the same time establishes a set of SPEECH FUNCTION classes that is clearly limited, and at the same time indefinitely extendable (through the scale of delicacy).

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] This is misleading. The term 'discourse semantics' here gives the false impression that Hasan is using Martin's model — and so: endorsing it — whereas, in fact, she is using Halliday's previously devised model of semantics.

This attempted deception is aided by Martin's citing of Hasan's paper as (forthcoming), despite the fact that it has been variously dated to 1985 and 1987 — 5-7 years before Martin's publication. 

Together, these two misrepresentations conspire to conceal the fact that the content plane was stratified into lexicogrammar and semantics before Martin came along to try and take credit for it.

[2] This is misleading. Hasan's work is concerned with extending the delicacy of an already established SPEECH FUNCTION system on the already established stratum of semantics, not with "systematically relating SPEECH FUNCTION to MOOD". The implication here is that the content plane is only now being carried out, here in this work, by Martin, in drawing on the work of others.

[3] Here once again Martin mistakes systemic features for classes.