Problems With Exercise 4: Analysing Groups With Focus

 Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 210-1):

Exercise 4 Analysing groups with Focus

Analyse the following nominal groups, noting embeddings and noting sub-types of Focus as perspective (persp), re-counting (re-c), partitive (part), selecting (sel), dimensional (dimen), evaluative (eval) or classifying (class) as required. See 2.1.3 (ii).

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, as previously demonstrated, 'Focus' is the authors' unnecessary, and poorly named, rebranding of Halliday's Pre-Deictic and Pre-Numerative, and anomalously includes instances in which Head and Thing are conflated.

[2] See Problems With The 'Perspective' Subtype Of Focus.

[3] See Rebranding Halliday's 'Complex' Numeratives As The Authors' 'Re-counting' & 'Partitive' Subtypes Of Focus.

[4] See The 'Selecting' Subtype Of Focus As A Confusion Of Numeratives And Epithets.

[5] See A Serious Problem That Invalidates The 'Dimensional' Subtype Of Focus.

[6] See The 'Evaluative' Subtype Of Focus Reconsidered.

[7] See Serious Problems That Invalidate The 'Classifying' Subtype Of Focus.

[8] To be clear, the example nominal group misrepresents the embedded unit [the top of] as [the top]. In IFG terms (Halliday 1994), the embedded unit serves as Pre-Deictic: