Thursday, 1 July 2021

Medium As The Only Obligatory Element Of Experiential Clause Structure

 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.


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For example, the use of the 'medio-passive' in mental and targeting verbal clauses:

you were seen, you were accused

and in impersonal projection nexuses: 

it was thought…, it was said… .