Sys-Func Discussion Of Theme Analysis [4]

In response to the IFG-consistent analysis provided by Ernest Akerejola, Tom Bartlett replied at 18:19 on 13 October 2011:

I think that your analysis is posssible, but I still prefer the analysis with "one year" as modifying "before".

Tom's Reasoning:

(1) Compare "three times before they were married they went on holiday together", which means that each time individually was before they got married. In this case "before they got married" is a modifier in the ngp with "time" [sic] as head. 

(2) In "Three years before they got married" this is not the case, there is only one occasion. We are told something happened before they got married and additionally how long before. 

(3) However, in the seemingly similar sentence "The year before they got married they bought a house together" I would analyse "before they got married" as an embedded clause within the noun group "the year before they got married". Something happened in a particular year which is defined as being the one before their wedding.

Blogger Comments:

Tom's analyses in (1) and (3) are consistent with Halliday's analysis.  That is:

three times [[before they were married]]

the year [[before they got married]]

However, his claim that three years before they got married is not the same grammatically, ie

three years [[before they got married]]

is not consistent with Halliday's analysis.

More significantly, the argumentation that Tom uses to support his different analysis is entirely spurious.  There is no grammatical reasoning involved.  Instead, the grammatical difference is said to turn on the distinction between:

"each time individually was before they got married" and

"something happened in a particular year which is defined as being the one before their wedding"

versus:

"something happened before they got married and additionally how long before".

Sys-Func Discussion Of Theme Analysis [5]

Tom Bartlett continues in his response to Ernest Akerejola:

I would analyse "exactly one year after they got married" as [[exactly[one year]] after they got married], with "exactly" modifying the noun "one year" and the whole the ngp "exactly one year" modifying the conjunction "before".

Blogger Comments:

(1) one year is not a noun; it is part of the nominal group; the Numerative of the nominal group is exactly one; the logical structure of the Numerative is b^a —ie exactly modifies one (not one year).

(2) The IFG analysis is exactly one year [[after they got married]], for reasons given previously. So:

exactly one: Numerative

year: Thing

[[after they got married]]: Qualifier