Misunderstanding Internal Conjunction (inter alia)

Martin (1992: 436):

This interaction of lexical strings with Theme is itself associated with [6:34]'s internal conjunctive structure.  The text justifies the claim that the English constitution is the child of wisdom and chance with two examples ([6:34e-f] and [6:34g-q]).  The Themes in [6:34e+f] and in [6:34g+i] scaffold this rhetorical structure.  This three-way pattern of interaction (conjunctive relations, lexical strings and Theme) is outlined in Fig. 6.8.

Figure 6.8. Interaction of internal conjunction, lexical strings and Theme in [6:34]

Blogger Comments:

[1] Contrary to the analysis depicted in Figure 6.8, two of the examples presented as Theme, [d] and [k], do not constitute the Theme of their respective clauses.  In the case of [d], this is acknowledged in the text of the following page, but its inclusion in the diagram is a deliberate fudge in order to ease in the notion of hyper-Theme (see the following posts).

[2] There are no internal conjunctive relations in this text — implicit or otherwise.  As previously explained, in the case of temporal conjunction in textual cohesion, the distinction between internal and external relations is the distinction between the temporal unfolding of the discourse (interpersonal time) and the temporal sequence of the processes referred to (experiential time), respectively (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 545).  Here is the complete text for verification:

The English Constitution — that indescribable entity — is a living thing, growing with the growth of men, and assuming ever-varying forms in accordance with the subtle and complex laws of human character.  It is the child of wisdom and chance.  The wise men of 1688 moulded it into the shape we know, but the chance that George I could not speak English gave it one of its essential peculiarities — the system of a cabinet independent of the crown and subordinate to the Prime Minister.  The wisdom of Lord Grey saved it from petrification, and set it upon the path of democracy.  Then chance intervened once more.  A female sovereign happened to marry an able and pertinacious man, and it seemed likely that an element which had been quiescent within it for years — the element of irresponsible administrative power — was about to become its predominant characteristic and change completely the direction of its growth.  But what chance gave chance took away.  The Consort perished in his prime, and the English Constitution, … , continued its mysterious life dropping the dead limb with hardly a tremor as if he had never been.

[3] This confuses metafunctions.  'Justifying a claim' describes the text in terms of its interpersonal enactments (and ideational construals), rather than in terms of its textual highlighting (e.g Theme) and textual transitions (e.g. cohesive conjunction).

[4] What the author does textually is to take the New information in [d] wisdom and chance and highlight each of them in turn by giving thematic status, thereby making them the (Given) point of departure for the introduction of further New information.  In SFL theory, it is this, combined with the non-structural textual resources — those of lexical and grammatical cohesion — that create the texture of this text.

Misanalysing A Clause Complex And Its Clauses

Martin (1992: 434-6):

Topical Themes are in bold face in this text, and marked topical Themes are underlined … .

[6:34]	topical themes (underlined) [sic]
	j.	A female soverieign happened to marry an able and pertinaceous man,
	k.	and it seemed likely that an element which had been quiescent within it for years — the element of irresponsible administrative power — was about to become its predominate characteristic
	l.	and change completely the direction of its growth.

… Note that grammatical metaphor has been drawn on to weave these particular strings through Theme and to formulate the appropriate "hyper-Theme" predicting this interaction pattern.  … modalisation is dressed up as a quality in [6:34k] — likely.

Blogger Comments:

[1] There are only two, not three, ranking clauses in this clause complex; clause [l] is embedded:

A female sovereign happened to marry an able and pertinacious man,	and it seemed likely [[that an element which had been quiescent within it for years — the element of irresponsible administrative power — was about to become its predominate characteristic || and change completely the direction of its growth.]]
1	+ 2

[2] The (unmarked topical) Theme of the second clause is it.  The word likely is within the Rheme — not marked topical Theme.  This is an instance of postposed Subject, not predicated Theme, and as an interpersonal metaphor of modality, it seemed likely is an interpersonal Theme, not a topical Theme.

and	it	seemed	likely	[[that an element which had been quiescent within it for years — the element of irresponsible administrative power — was about to become its predominate characteristic || and change completely the direction of its growth.]]
Theme		Rheme

[3] In terms of ideational meaning, this is a quality of projection; see Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 211).  The realisation of a quality as an Attribute, as it is here, is not metaphorical.

and	it	seemed	likely	[[that an element which had been quiescent within it for years — the element of irresponsible administrative power — was about to become its predominate characteristic || and change completely the direction of its growth.]]
	Carr-	Process: relational	Attribute	-ier

The grammatical metaphor with regard to likely is interpersonal — a metaphor of modality: the explicit objective realisation of probability as it seemed likely.

It is this interpersonal metaphor that engenders a postposed Subject — see Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 97-8) — which is realised by an embedded clause complex that is lexically dense with ideational metaphor:

and	it	seemed		likely	[[that an element which had been quiescent within it for years — the element of irresponsible administrative power — was about to become its predominate characteristic || and change completely the direction of its growth.]]
	Subject	Finite	Predicator	Complement	postposed Subject

In terms of the textual metafunction, all the work here is being done by the marked distribution of information units, not by thematic structure.  The combined effect of the interpersonal and ideational metaphor is to package the quanta of information into four or five information units, highlighting four or five elements of New information, co-extensive with the postposed Subject.  It is New information that is most textually relevant here, not Theme.

that an element which had been quiescent within it	for years
Given	New

the element of	irresponsible administrative power
Given	New

was about to become	its predominate characteristic
Given	New

and change	completely
Given	New

the direction of its growth

New