Behavioural, Verbal And Existential Clauses As Middle Only

Matthiessen (1995: 211):

If MATERIAL, MENTAL, and RELATIONAL are taken as major types, as they are in IFG, it is interesting to note that the other minor types, BEHAVIOURAL, VERBAL and EXISTENTIAL are all more restricted in AGENCY - they are middle only: See Figure 4-8.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, this overstates the case. Effective behavioural clauses are exemplified by she burped the baby and you make me laugh. Effective verbal clauses include all those that take a Target (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 344). And Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 157) analyse the cold front brought heavy showers as an effective existential clause.