The Textual Choice Between Benefactive and Goal Culmination

Matthiessen (1995: 243):

Dispositive effective material clauses that express some kind of transfer of goods may be benefactive and have a Recipient: Please send us a contribution. The realisation of the Recipient depends on the textual choice between BENEFACTIVE CULMINATION and GOAL CULMINATION

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, Halliday explains this choice of CULMINATION more broadly as a choice between non-prominence and prominence as late news. Halliday (1985: 149-50):

But the choice of ‘plus or minus preposition’ with Agent, Beneficiary and Range is not just random variation; it serves a textual function. This is, in fact, another instance of the importance attached to the message structure in modern English. 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 (i.e. to be construed as ‘indirect’ participant); otherwise it does not. Prominence in the message means functioning either (i) as marked Theme (i.e. 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. Examples in Table 5(19).