Tuesday 30 December 2014

The Medium: Obligatory In The Clause

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 156):
In the grammar therefore the Medium appears as an obligatory element — the only element that has this status in the clause. This does not mean that we will find a nominal reflex of the Medium made explicit in the syntagm of every clause; there are various ways in which the Medium may be present as a cryptotypic feature rather than as an overt form. Nevertheless its presence is required in some guise or other; and this distinguishes the Medium from all other participants in the figure.

Blogger Note:



it
had been raining
function structure

Process/Medium
syntagm
nominal group
verbal group


But see Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 289).