Sunday 9 February 2020

Elaborating Hypotactic Nominal Group Complex


Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 564):
We saw in Chapter 6 that a nominal group can have as Postmodifier not only an embedded clause (‘defining relative’ clause) but also an embedded prepositional phrase, as in the man = [ in the moon ]. There is the same contrast between embedding and hypotaxis with a phrase as there is with a clause. Parallel to
(a) || (this is) my new house, = || β which Jack built ||
(b) || (this is) the house = [[ that Jack built ]] ||
we have
(c) (have you seen) | my new hat, = | β with the feather in
(d) (have you seen) | my hat = [ with the feather in] |
The secondary element in (c) is a descriptive phrase, ‘note that it has a feather in it’, not a defining one as in (d). Examples:
It began with worship at St. John’s Episcopal Church, across Lafayette Park from the White House 
Before the Opera House was completed || the Town Hall’s Centennial Hall, with seating for 2,000, was Sydney’s main concert venue.