Misconstruing A Mood Adjunct (Temporality) As A Continuity Item [1]

Martin (1992: 230):

[4:162] CONJUNCTION Ben is here.

                                 Still I wonder if Flo is coming. 

            CONTINUITY    Ben has left.

                                 But Flo is still here.

Blogger Comments:

[1] The function of still is ambiguous here.  It is conjunctive only if its meaning is similar to 'yet':

Ben is here.  Yet I wonder if Flo is coming.

still ('yet')	I	wonder
conjunctive Adjunct	Subject	Finite	Predicator
	Mood		Residue

However, if the clause is a textual agnate of:

Ben is here. I still wonder if Flo is coming.

I	still	wonder
Subject	mood Adjunct: temporality	Finite	Predicator
Mood			Residue

then still is functioning as a mood Adjunct of temporality (see Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 128), and does not mark a relation of conjunction with the previous message.

still	I	wonder
mood Adjunct: temporality	Subject	Finite	Predicator
Mood			Residue

[2] The function of still here is interpersonal: a mood Adjunct of temporality, and so it does not mark a logical (for Martin) relation of continuity.

but	Flo	is	still	here
	Subject	Finite	mood Adjunct: temporality	circumstantial Adjunct
	Mood			Residue