Misrepresenting Writing Pedagogy As Linguistic Theory

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 287, 287n):

As far as tracking these people is concerned the text is a much more stop and start affair. It begins by referring exophorically⁹ to the people in the image…

 ⁹ Exophoric reference is resolved between modalities – from verbiage to image here.

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 288):

FitzSimons' text also features an important interaction between identification and periodicity. …

[macro-Theme] Big waves and Bondi Beach have always gone together, writes Peter FitzSimons, but no one had ever seen the ocean rise up with a strength such as this …

[hyper-Theme] At three o'clock there was still not the slightest clue that this afternoon would forever be known as ‘Black Sunday’ in the annals of Sydney. Then it happened.

[hyper-Theme] In their long and glorious history, this still stands as the finest hour of the Australian surf lifesaving movement.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, in claiming that the reference to the image is exophoric, the authors are claiming that the image is outside the text.

[2] To be clear, the text designated as macro-Theme is not written by FitzSimons, but is nevertheless analysed as if it were part of his text.

[3] To be clear, 'macro-Theme' is Martin's (1992) rebranding of 'introductory paragraph', and 'hyper-Theme his rebranding of 'topic sentence, both of which are writing pedagogy (proposals on how to write), not linguistic theory (propositions about the nature of language). No mention is made of the complementary 'macro-Rhemes' or 'hyper-Rhemes'.