A Problem With Exercise 7: Practising Tests To Discriminate Behavioural From Mental Processes

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 139):

Could the process in question report what was thought? (If yes, mental.)

e.g. He heard the news: he heard that they’d left.                      yes

e.g. He meditated in his room: he meditated that they’d left.   no

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, this misrepresents an embedded fact that they'd left of a mental clause of perception ('hear') as a report projected by a mental clause of cognition ('thought'). Mental processes of perception do not project; see Halliday & Matthiesesen (1999: 138-9). The embedded fact clause serves as the Phenomenon of the ranking clause: