Using Clause Simplexes To Theorise Conjunctive Relations

Martin (1992: 204):

There are two variations on [similarity], one conditional and one temporal, where apparently hypotactically dependent clauses cannot appear initially in the clause complex:

SIMILARITY (conditional)

[4:99]  Ben looked

            as if he'd just won the Best of Show. 

SIMILARITY (temporal)

[4:100] Ben looked

            like when he won Best of Show.

Blogger Comments:

[1] Neither of these is a clause complex; each is an attributive clause.  If Ben looked were a clause, it would be one without an Attribute.

In the first, an embedded clause serves as Attribute:

Ben	looked	[[as if he'd just won the Best of Show]]
Carrier	Process: attributive	Attribute/Manner: comparison

In the second, an embedded clause complex (with Mood ellipsis) serves as Attribute:

Ben	looked	[[like (he did) || when he won Best of Show]]
Carrier	Process: attributive	Attribute /Manner: comparison

[2] Both Attributes construe comparison (as if, like).