Matthiessen (1995: 657):
The more weight the nominal group with the potential for serving as Facet is given, in particular through specific determination, the less likely it is to be interpreted as Facet and the more likely its Head is to be interpreted as the Thing of the whole nominal group, as in I haven't seen this beautiful expensive picture of Dorian Grey before. Here the Postmodifier is unlikely to serve as Theme — that is, we would hardly get Dorian Grey I haven't seen this beautiful expensive picture of before; and this indicates that the multivariate and univariate structures are congruent with picture as Head/ Thing.
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To be clear, the thematic potential of the Postmodifier is irrelevant to whether Head and Thing are conflated. The Thing is the experiential element of the nominal group that serves as the participant in the experiential structure of the clause. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 394):
What all these have in common is that, while the Thing is the entity that is functioning as participant in the transitivity structure of the clause … . It is the Head that determines the value of the entity in the mood system, and therefore as a potential Subject.
In this instance, picture serves as Thing because it is this that I haven't seen, not Dorian Grey.
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