Thursday 5 February 2015

David Rose On Projection

How many projections?
Tony Abbott won't deny that Julie Bishop declined his request for a commitment not to challenge.



One but it projects an exchange, realised lexically in a single clause
Tony Abbott won't deny that
A1 Julie Bishop declined
A2 his request
A1 for a commitment
A1 not to challenge
Even the projecting ‘deny' implies a K2/K1 exchange

How to render as congruent grammar?

Blogger Comment:

The clause that Julie Bishop declined his request for a commitment not to challenge is not a ranking clause that is projected by the clause Tony Abbott won't deny.  Instead, as Bob Hong had already suggested, it is a pre-projected fact, and so is embedded as a constituent, Verbiage, in a clause simplex.  See analysis here.

Reasoning:

(a) The clause can be rendered as Tony Abbott won't deny the fact that Julie Bishop declined his request for a commitment not to challenge.

(b) The clause that Julie Bishop declined his request for a commitment not to challenge is not projected into semiotic existence by the clause Tony Abbott won't deny.

For the projection distinction between hypotaxis and embedding, see here.