Misrepresenting The Logical Structure Of Both The Verbal Group And Verbal Group Complex

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 193):

So the greatest challenge is to assign sequences of verbs to either simple verbal groups or hypotactic verbal group complexes. In both environments, the verbs are related in a logical hypotactic series (α β γ δ...) and the line between the two environments is, in principle fuzzy:

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This is misleading, because it is untrue, since in neither environment are verbs related in a logical hypotactic series. Firstly, in simple verbal groups, it is the expressions of tense — not verbs — that are related hypotactically, because the logical structure realises the system of TENSE. Halliday (1994: 198, 199):

Secondly, in verbal group complexes, it is verbal groups — not verbs — that are related hypotactically: