Types Of Receptive Clause

Halliday (1994: 169, 170):

The Preposition As Signal Of Textual Status

Halliday (1994: 167-8):

Beneficiary And Range

 Halliday (1994: 165, 167):

Behalf vs Beneficiary

Halliday (1994: 155):

Beneficiary As Subject

  Halliday (1994: 146):

Beneficiary In Attributive Clauses

 Halliday (1994: 146):

Receiver

Halliday (1994: 145-6):

Beneficiary

Halliday (1994: 145):

Client

Halliday (1994: 145):

Recipient

Halliday (1994: 145):

Recipient And Client

Halliday (1994: 144-5):

Beneficiary And Range

Halliday (1994: 144):

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: Beneficiary

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 158):

The Beneficiary role is more restricted: it occurs in certain subtypes of figures of doing as Recipient (e.g. they awarded her the Pulitzer Prize : they awarded the Pulitzer Prize to her) or Client (e.g. she designed them a vacation home : she designed a vacation home for them), in figures of saying as Receiver (e.g. they told her a story : they told a story to her) and in a couple of subtypes of figures of being (e.g. he made her a good husband).

Figures Of Doing: Semantic Characterisation

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 151):

Here there is one participant, the Actor, that performs the process in question; and this process may then impact upon another participant, the Goal (or may result in bringing the Goal into (material) existence). Other participants that may be present are the Beneficiary, the one that derives "benefit" from the process; and the Scope, the one that defines the domain over which the process extends.

Blogger Comments:

Strictly speaking, 'Beneficiary' is a participant of the generalised model. Its counterparts in the particularistic model, for doing figures, are Client and Recipient.

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 … .

Receptive Voice: Beneficiary & Range As Subject

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 350):

… there are other potential Subjects besides Agent and Medium. There are the other participants, the Beneficiary and Range, either of which may be selected as Subject of the clause; the verb will then similarly be in passive.

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.

Agent, Beneficiary And Range As Mixed Categories

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 348):

Semantically, therefore, Agent, Beneficiary and Range have some features of participants and some of circumstances: they are mixed. And this is reflected in the fact that grammatically also they are mixed: they may enter in to a clause either directly as nominal groups (participant–like) or indirectly in prepositional phrases (circumstance–like).

Agent, Beneficiary And Range From Transitive And Ergative Perspectives

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 348):

These, seen from a transitive perspective, are circumstantial: Agent is a kind of Manner, Beneficiary is a kind of Cause and Range is a kind of Extent; and they can all be expressed as minor processes. But seen from an ergative point of view they are additional participants in the major process: the nucleus of ‘Process + Medium’ has an inner ring of additional participants as well as an outer ring of circumstances surrounding it …