Monday 11 February 2019

Cliché Nominal Groups: Participle As Classifier Or Epithet?


Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 380):
Note finally that the fact that a particular expression is a cliché does not imply that the modifying element is necessarily a Classifier – the ‘permanence’ is merely a feature of the wording! Thus in a considered opinion, a heated argument, the promised land, a going concern, the verbs are all Epithets: ‘which has been considered’, ‘which has become heated’, ‘which has been promised’, ‘which is going [well]’.