Elaborating & Extending Figures As Alternative Modes Of Construal

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 146):

Elaboration and extension are agnate, one with the other; they offer alternative modes of construal, often with very little apparent difference. Thus we may find both

(1)Elaborating 'Man' is +male, + adult & + human ;

'Man' is a male, adult & human being

(2)Extending 'Man' consists of +male, + adult & + human :

'Man' has the features +male, +adult & +human

But if we technicalise these alternatives, they do constitute significantly different approaches to the interpretation of meaning. In this book and elsewhere in systemic-functional work, elaborating interpretations tend to be taken further than in many other approaches: this means emphasising realisation, delicacy, and identities across metafunctions to supplement the traditional emphasis on constituency and composition.