Saturday 28 September 2019

Embedded Enhancing Non-Finite Relative Clauses


Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 499):
The non-finite clause corresponds to the finite, having some variant of a WH- prepositional phrase as the relative; these may be ordinary imperfectives in -ing, e.g.
the solution [[now being experimented with]]
but perhaps the most typical are ‘destiny’ clauses with to or for*, e.g.
New progressivism is a cause [[ × to fight for ]]
Only the ‘destiny’ type allow an explicit Subject, with for:
Together they would create an artwork [[ × for the community to celebrate]].

* If the relative functions as means (instrument), where the usual preposition is with, there may in fact be no preposition, the sense of instrument being derived from the ‘destiny’ sense of the clause as a whole: e.g.
Alice had no more breath [[ × for talking]] , i.e. ‘for talking with’, ‘with which to talk’.
Contrast the elaborating type
no more water [[ = for drinking]], 
where there is no circumstantial sense (and therefore no preposition could occur).