A Problem With Exercise 1: Analysing Verbal Groups With Secondary Tenses

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 216):

Exercise 1 Analysing verbal groups with secondary tenses

Analyse the verbal groups in the following clauses and name the tense:

Blogger Comments:

Here again the authors misrepresent the logical structure of the verbal group by including the Event as an element, and thereby mislead the reader to do likewise. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 411n):

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.