Problems With 'Further Reading'

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 229):

Further reading

Matthiessen 1996 develops the reasoning around IFG’s approach to English tense in some detail; …

Matthiessen, Christian M I M 1996 Tense in English seen through systemic-functional theory. M Berry, C Butler & R Fawcett & G Huang (eds), Meaning and Form: systemic functional interpretations. (Volume 2 in Meaning and Choice in Language: studies for Michael Halliday) Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 431-498.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, the misunderstandings of verbal group logical structure that have been identified in the preceding posts can also be found in the recommended reading Matthiessen (1996):

The logical structure of the verbal group realises the system of TENSE, so, because the Event does not constitute a choice in tense, it does not feature as an element in representations of logical structure; see Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 411n).

The tense of the first of these verbal groups is 'present in future in past in future', and so makes 4 tense choices, not 5:

The tense of the second verbal group is 'present in past in future', and so makes 3 tense choices, not 4: