Misconstruing Homophoric Reference As Not Phoric

Martin (1992: 119):

… two ways of avoiding the options above need to be taken into account.  One has to do with "the grammar of little texts" (Halliday 1985: 372-377), as found in headlines, telegrams, titles, labels, diagrams, instructions, notices, billboards, notes and so on.  In these registers requirements of space may mean that parts of the grammar which are not absolutely essential will actually be turned off.  When this includes turning off deixis in nominal group structure, the network of proportionalities systemicised above will simply not be relevant.  The only Deictic found in the following list for example is the, which cannot be left out of flash in the pan, and because of the idiom is not in fact phoric (formatting as in original texts):

Flash in the pan fizzles
agenda planning diary
Home address:
Blood type:
Doctor:
METRIC SYSTEM DEMYSTIFICATION
COMMON MARKET: FREE TRADE AREA
Curbs to be eased on loan sharks

Blogger Comments:

[1] This again confuses the interpersonal system of deixis realised in nominal group structure with the textual system of reference.

[2] This is untrue, since in terms of reference, the determiner the in this instance is homophoric, (self-specifying); see Halliday & Hasan (1976: 71) or Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 631).

[3] To be clear, the formatting is irrelevant to any of the claims being made, and so merely an attempt at obfuscation.