Thursday 10 June 2021

Traditional Subtypes Of Doing & Happening

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 148):
The subtypes that have been generally recognised in grammar are 
(1) intransitive/transitive
(2) within intransitive, action/event; and 
(3) within transitive, effectum/affectum
The first is the distinction between doings that involve only a doer (intransitive: John ran) and those that also involve something 'done to' (transitive: Mary threw the ball, realised respectively as Actor + Process, Actor + Process + Goal. 
The second is that between an intentional act by an animate (typically human) being (John ran) and an unintentional action or inanimate event (John fell; rain fell). 
The third is the distinction between a Goal that 'exists' prior to the doing of the deed (affectum: Mary threw the ball) and one that is brought into existence by the doing (effectum: Jack built a house). 
We shall use this distinction, referred to as dispositive/creative, to explain figures of doing in terms of their outcome in other figures.