Misrepresenting The Mapping Of Verbal Group Structures

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 227):

A verbal group realises a process in the clause structure, or, from an interpersonal perspective, a Finite + Predicator element. Verbal groups have a possible multivariate structure of Finite + Auxiliary/ies + Event, as in [Finite:] have [Aux:] been [Event:] avoiding, which maps onto a univariate structure in which the Finite is Head: [α:] have [β:] been [γ:] avoiding. Finites may realise tense or modality and Auxiliaries may realise secondary tense and/or passive.

 

Blogger Comments:

This is misleading because it misrepresents the mapping of the experiential ('multivariate') and logical structures of the verbal group, since the realisations of tense in the logical structure do not correspond to the words that make up the verbal group. Halliday (1994: 198, 199):

However, the structural labelling of the words that make up the verbal group is of limited value, not only because the meaning can be fully represented in terms of grammatical features (of tense, voice, polarity and modality), but also because it is the logical structure that embodies the single most important semantic feature of the English verb, its recursive tense system, and the elements of the logical structure are not the individual words but certain rather more complex elements.

In the authors' example, the elements of the logical structure are -s, have…-en and be…-ing: