Agency As Inherently Circumstantial

Halliday (1994: 287):

Causatives: Transitive & Ergative Perspectives

Halliday (1994: 286):

Causative: Actor vs Initiator

Halliday (1994: 285):

Second Order Agent In Analytic Causatives

Halliday (1994: 172):

Types Of Receptive Clause

Halliday (1994: 169, 170):

Agency

Halliday (1994: 168-9):

The Preposition As Signal Of Textual Status

Halliday (1994: 167-8):

Agent In Relational Clauses

Halliday (1994: 165, 167):

Agent In Material And Mental Clauses

 Halliday (1994: 165):

Agent

Halliday (1994: 164-5):

Manner: Means (vs Agent)

 Halliday (1994: 154):

Summary Of Generalised Participant Roles

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 158):

Figure 4-11 summarises the generalised participant roles in diagrammatic form. It shows Process and Medium as a complementarity — the Process is actualised through the Medium; and it represents the other participants as external to this nucleus, indicating the type of role relationship that obtains (x enhancing, + extending and = elaborating).

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, omitted from the diagram is the role relationship of projection, which obtains, for example, between the nucleus and the Range of a figure of sensing or saying (i.e. Phenomenon or Verbiage).

Generalised Model of Figures: Agent

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 154):

The model thus construes a nuclear figure consisting of a process unfolding through the medium of a participant. This then makes it possible to construe a further variable: namely, the causal origin of this unfolding. The Medium's actualisation of the Process may be construed as being brought about by a further participant — the Agent: see Figure 4-10. If the figure is construed with an Agent, it is other-agentive; if it is construed without an Agent, it is self-agentive.

Blogger Comments:

Mythology typically construes the origin of creation as other-agentive, whereas cosmology construes the origin of the universe as self-agentive.

Nominal Group & Prepositional Phrase: Functional Overlap

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 364):

There is also some overlap between nominal groups and prepositional phrases. … the distinction between participants and circumstances is less clear in the ergative organisation of the clause, and this means that certain participants (Agent, Range, Beneficiary) are realised by prepositional phrases to indicate a special status in the clause as message (when they are presented as early or late news … ). At the same time, circumstances of location and extent may be realised by nominal groups without a preposition marking the circumstantial relation … .

Initiating Materials, Inducing Mentals And Attributed/Assigned Relationals

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 352):

From a transitive point of view, in these initiating structures there is a feature of cause added.  This is also possible with (i) mental clauses and with (ii) relational ones. 

(i) Corresponding to the initiating structure in material clauses, we find an inducing structure in mental clauses; for example, remind can be interpreted as ‘induce to remember’ 

(ii) Corresponding to the initiating structure in material clauses, we find attributed and assigned structures in relational clause. As we have seen, for the transitive analysis we have to recognize the additional functions of Attributor and Assigner; but from the ergative point of view, these clauses simply add a feature of agency.

Transitive Variants Viewed Ergatively

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 351):

By interpreting processes ergatively as well as transitively we are able to understand many features of English grammar that otherwise remain arbitrary or obscure. We will take up just one such example, that of clauses such as the police exploded the bomb, the sergeant marched the prisoners, where — as suggested by the agnate clauses the bomb exploded, the prisoners marched – the meaning is not so much ‘do to’ as ‘make to do’ (what the sergeant made the prisoners do was march). Ergatively, there is no difference between these and clauses like the lion chases the tourist. Transitively, these appear as different configurations; we have to introduce the function of Initiator to take account of the executive rôle. But in modern English they are very much alike; and the ergative analysis expresses their likeness — both consist of a Medium and an Agent.  In ergative terms, ‘a does something to x’ and ‘a makes x do something’ are both cases of ‘x is involved in something, brought about by a’.

Receptive Voice & Agency In Spoken Language

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 349-50):

In spoken English the great majority of receptive clauses are, in fact, Agent–less … The speaker leaves the listener to locate the source.

Receptive Voice [Function]

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 349):

If the clause is effective, since either participant can then become Subject there is a choice between operative and receptive. The reasons for choosing receptive are as follows:

(1) to get the Medium as Subject, and therefore as unmarked Theme … and
(2) to make the Agent either

(i) late news, by putting it last … or
(ii) implicit, by leaving it out.

Middle & Effective Agency; Operative & Receptive Voice

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 349):

The way the voice system works is as follows.  A clause with no feature of ‘agency’ is neither active nor passive but middle. One with agency is non-middle, or effective, in agency. An effective clause is then either operative or receptive in voice. In an operative clause, the Subject is the Agent and the Process is realised by an active verbal group; in a receptive [clause] the Subject is Medium and the Process is realised by a passive verbal group.

Agent, Beneficiary And Range: The Textual Function Of ± Preposition

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 348):

… the choice of ‘plus or minus preposition’ with Agent, Beneficiary and Range … serves a textual function. … The principle is as follows. If a participant other than the Medium is in a place of prominence in the message, it tends to take a preposition (ie to be construed as ‘indirect’ participant); otherwise it does not. Prominence in the message means functioning either

(i) as marked Theme (ie Theme but not Subject) or

(ii) as ‘late news’ — that is, occurring after some other participant, or circumstance, that already follows the Process.

In other words, prominence comes from occurring either earlier or later than expected in the clause; and it is this that is being reinforced by the presence of the preposition. The preposition has become a signal of special status in the message.