Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 126):
Because of the prevalence of phrasal verbs in English, it may sometimes be difficult to decide whether to interpret a structure as process + circumstance or process + participant. For example, which is the best analysis of the following:
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To be clear, if looked at is analysed as a phrasal verb, then the snail functions as Phenomenon, on the model of the anomalous verb watch. Halliday (1994: 139)
The verb watch is anomalous: in I’m watching you, the tense suggests a behavioural process but the you appears as a participant, like the Phenomenon of a ‘mental’ clause. Since this is restricted to watch, we can label this participant as Phenomenon, indicating the mental analogue.
This anomaly can be avoided, however, by following Halliday's advice and choosing the second alternative, where at the snail is interpreted as the locational orientation of the Process. Halliday (ibid.):
Some [types of behavioural clause] also regularly feature a prepositional phrase in it with to, at or on: I’m talking to you, don’t look at me, fortune is smiling on us. These are, in origin, circumstances of Place; in the behavioural context they express orientation but we may continue to use that label.
Importantly, the snail is clearly not a behaviour, and, in SFL Theory, Scope is not a participant of a behavioural Process.
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