Thursday 20 February 2020

Hypotactic Verbal Group Complexes Are Always Progressive


Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 568):
The hypotactic sequence is always progressive – α ^ β (as in tried to do), α ^ β ^ γ (as in began to try to do), α ^ β ^ γ ^ δ (as in wanted to begin to try to do) .... While the groups making up the complex are typically contiguous, as in the examples above, the complex may be discontinuous:
||| DPP lawmaker Chen Ting-nan will be the justice minister, || responsible [[ for helping Chen keep his promise [[ to clean up graft]] ]] . |||
||| Again, a first requirement is [[ to do no harm to organisational frameworks [[ that, through years of evolution, are finally at the stage [[ where they are supporting programs [[ that are actually helping us to get on with the business [[ of increasing understanding]] ]] ]] ]] ]] . |||