Another more complex example is the one shown in Figure 7-38, mentioned earlier.
Blogger Comments:
To be clear, this misconstrues and misrepresents the univariate structure of the verbal group. Because there are only five features selected — future, past, future, past, passive — there are only five elements of univariate structure, not six:
will have been going to have been tested
α future β past γ future δ past ε passive
passive in past in future in past in future
The most convenient way of naming these tense selections is to start with the last selection and work towards the first. This indicates the context in which a given tense selection has been made; for example, primary: past, secondary: future, tertiary: past — was going to have walked — is called past-in-future-in-present. The following example (taken from Halliday, 1976; 1981) is present-in-future-in-past-in-future:
Blogger Comments:
[1] To be clear, this is merely a typo that should read 'past'. The univariate structure is:
was going to have walked
α past β future γ past
past in future in past
will have been going to be being tested
α future β past γ future δ present ε passive
passive in present in future in past in future.
Secondary tenses are realised by tense auxiliaries followed by the particular verb form they govern:Secondary past is realised by the tense auxiliary have followed by the past participial form (v-en), as in have eaten; have walked; have been eating; have been walking.Secondary present is realised by the tense auxiliary be followed by the present participial form (v-ing), as in be eating; be walking; be being eaten.Secondary future is realised by the tense auxiliary be going + a to infinitival verb form (to v), as in be going to eat, be going to have eaten, be going to be eating. (We can also include forms such as be about to for immediate future and would as a special form for future-in-past, as in He would later regret his rash decision.)
Blogger Comments:
This is misleading because it misrepresents words as the realisation of secondary tense in univariate structure. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 398-9):
… the elements of the logical structure are not the individual words but certain rather more complex elements. … The logical structure of the verbal group realises the system of tense. … The primary tense is that functioning as Head, shown as α. This is the Deictic tense: past, present or future relative to the speech event. The modifying elements, at β and beyond, are secondary tenses; they express past, present or future relative to the time selected in the previous tense. Realisations are shown in Table 6-12.
Matthiessen (1995: 730):
Examples:
positive & finite: temporal: future & unmarked focus & secondary: past: secondary: future: secondary: past & passive
Blogger Comments:
To be clear, this misconstrues and misrepresents the univariate structure of the verbal group. Because there are only five features selected — modal, past, future, past, passive — there are only five elements of univariate structure, not six:
should have been going to have been tested
α modal β past γ future δ past ε passive
Matthiessen (1995: 730):
Examples:
positive & finite: modal & unmarked focus & secondary: past & active
Blogger Comments:
This misconstrues and misrepresents the univariate structure of the verbal group. Because there are only two features selected, modal and past, there are only two elements of univariate structure: the expression of modality and the secondary past tense have + V-en: (with the -en not realised phonologically or graphologically for this irregular verb):
should have become
α modal β past
Matthiessen (1995: 730):
Examples:
positive & finite: modal & unmarked focus & no secondary & active
Blogger Comments:
This misconstrues and misrepresents the univariate structure of these verbal groups. Because there is no secondary tense, there is only one element of univariate structure: the expression of modality:
would live
can see
α modal
Matthiessen (1995: 730):
Examples:
positive & finite: temporal: past & marked focus : polarity (not shown in network) & no secondary & active
Blogger Comments:
This miconstrues and misrepresents the univariate structure of this verbal group. To be clear, the tense of this verbal group is again the simple past (V-ed), and so there is only one structural realisation of tense, not two:
did fall
α past
Examples:positive & finite: temporal: past & unmarked focus & no secondary & active
Blogger Comments:
To be clear, the tense of this verbal group is the simple past, realised structurally by V-ed, which is realised phonologically and graphologically by vowel change in this irregular verb:
fell
α past
Matthiessen (1995: 715):
The verbal group is a group of verbs - one lexical verb and one or more auxiliaries. It is organised both univariately and multivariately. The principles will be discussed below; the univariate structure is a simple hypotactic one, realised progressively — α –> β –> γ –> δ (as in α must β have γ been going δ to leave) and so on.
Blogger Comments:
[1] This is misleading. The elements of the univariate structure of the verbal group are not words. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 398-9):
… the elements of the logical structure are not the individual words but certain rather more complex elements. … The logical structure of the verbal group realises the system of tense. … The primary tense is that functioning as Head, shown as α. This is the Deictic tense: past, present or future relative to the speech event. The modifying elements, at β and beyond, are secondary tenses; they express past, present or future relative to the time selected in the previous tense. Realisations are shown in Table 6-12.
And so, importantly, the Event does not figure as an element in the univariate structure. Halliday (1985: 184n):
A major point of difference between the verbal group and the nominal group is that the Event (unlike the Thing) is not the point of departure for the recursive modifying relationship. Hence it does not figure as an element in the notation.
[2] To be clear, this misrepresents the univariate structure of the verbal group. Only three features, not four, are selected in this verbal group: modal, past and future, realised as:
[must] [have + V-en] [be going to + V]
must have been going to leave
α modal β past γ future
In contrast, in verbal groups, the Head is not the main experiential function, the Event, but rather the Finite, i.e., the function that relates to the now of the communicative exchange — the interpersonal reference point created in the speech interaction. Consequently, expansion within the verbal group of the Head does not start as a construal of the event; rather, it construes a (stepwise) move away from the interpersonal reference point of the Finite to the experiential Event through time and/or modality.
However, the structural labelling of the words that make up the verbal group is of limited value, not only because the meaning can be fully represented in terms of grammatical features (of tense, voice, polarity and modality), but also because it is the logical structure that embodies the single most important semantic feature of the English verb, its recursive tense system, and the elements of the logical structure are not the individual words but certain rather more complex elements. …
The logical structure of the verbal group realises the system of tense. … Thus tense in English is a recursive system. The primary tense is that functioning as Head, shown as α. This is the Deictic tense: past, present or future relative to the speech event. The modifying elements, at β and beyond, are secondary tenses; they express past, present or future relative to the time selected in the previous tense. Realisations are shown in Table 6-12.
Matthiessen (1995: 92):
Simple groups and words are organised partly in the same way as complexes; they can partly be seen as word and morpheme complexes, respectively. Examples are given in Table 2-5.
In previous editions the Postmodifier also was brought into the scope of the logical representation. But this appears to complicate the description without adding further to its explanatory power.
However, most importantly, the logical structure of the verbal group is not a word complex. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 398-9):
… the elements of the logical structure are not the individual words but certain rather more complex elements. … The logical structure of the verbal group realises the system of tense. … The primary tense is that functioning as Head, shown as α. This is the Deictic tense: past, present or future relative to the speech event. The modifying elements, at β and beyond, are secondary tenses; they express past, present or future relative to the time selected in the previous tense. Realisations are shown in Table 6-12.
Moreover, the verb serving as the Event (shoot in Table 2-5) has never featured in the logical structure of the verbal group. Halliday (1985: 184n):
A major point of difference between the verbal group and the nominal group is that the Event (unlike the Thing) is not the point of departure for the recursive modifying relationship. Hence it does not figure as an element in the notation.
Consequently, the verbal group don't shoot in Table 2-5, like all verbal groups with no secondary tense, has no logical structure, since it consists only of a single element. Halliday (1985: 177):
More importantly, the elements of the logical structure of the verbal group (α,β, γ etc.) are not realised by auxiliary verbs. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 398-9):
… the elements of the logical structure are not the individual words but certain rather more complex elements. … The logical structure of the verbal group realises the system of tense. … The primary tense is that functioning as Head, shown as α. This is the Deictic tense: past, present or future relative to the speech event. The modifying elements, at β and beyond, are secondary tenses; they express past, present or future relative to the time selected in the previous tense. Realisations are shown in Table 6-12.
