Thursday 20 June 2013

Hypotactic Projection: Clause Complex Or Verbal Group Complex?

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 517):
All of them could be analysed as clause complexes; but there is a case for treating some of them as complexes of the verbal group — perhaps just those that
  • are proposals,
  • are perfective in aspect,
  • and have the same Subject in both halves.
This would exclude
  1. propositions, like pretend and claim (she claims to be infallible = she claims that she is infallible);
  2. imperfectives, for example she doesn’t like/mind John leaving so early; and
  3. ‘causatives’, for example I didn’t mean/expect you to notice, and all ‘indirect commands’ such as who asked you to comment?. It would also exclude those where the projecting process is itself causative, like tempt (‘make want’), decide in she tempted John to stay, what decided them to change their plans?.
All these would thus be interpreted as projecting clause complexes …