Wednesday 31 July 2019

‘Fronted’ Non-Finite Non-Defining Relative Clauses

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 469-70):
With non-finite elaborating hypotactic nexuses, there is a special construction where the dependent precedes the dominant; for example:
||| A science and transport museum || the Powerhouse has over 11,000 objects on display … |||
These elaborating clauses are always ‘intensive attributive relational’ ones where the Process is implicit and the Attribute is typically the only explicit element of the clause. In fact, such nexuses look like nominal group complexes when they only involve two juxtaposed nominal groups — as with a science and transport museum plus the Powerhouse. But when we probe further, we find that the nearest agnates are non-finite and finite non-defining relative clauses: being a science museumwhich is a science museum …; and this explains among other things why clausal elements may be present: reportedly a science and transport museum … . The effect of the construction is to give thematic status within the elaborating clause nexus to the Attribute of the elaboration