Sunday 17 June 2018

Possessive Identifying Clauses: Possession As Process

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 246):
Here the possession is encoded as a process, typically realised by the verb own as in Peter owns the piano. (Notice we do not normally say Peter has the piano, in the sense of ownership; have is not used as an identifying verb of possession.) The participants are possessor Peter and possessed the piano; in this case Peter is Token and the piano is Value.