Sys-Func Discussion Of Theme Analysis [1]

On the sys-func discussion list, at 21:37 on 11 October 2011, Van Tran sought help in analysing the thematic structure of the following:

One year after they got married, they found ....

Tom Bartlett replied at 23:52 11 October 2011:

As an alternative analysis to Mick's (O'Donnell's analysis of one year [[after they got married]] as a nominal group realising Theme), you could have "one year" as modifying the conjunction "after".

Tom's reasoning at this stage:

This might appear a bit unusual, but from a fucntional [sic] perspective I think it looks like that is what is happening.

Mick O'Donnell then replied:

I'd buy that. Makes sense.

Blogger Comments:

(1) On Halliday's theoretical model, this is not "what is happening".

Premodifiers in conjunction groups, as in their sister adverbial groups, are grammatical items — adverbs of polarity, comparison or intensification, such as even, just, not, only) not lexical items like (one) year [Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 356, 358].

(2) On Halliday's theoretical model, one year [[after they got married]] is a nominal group realising a circumstance of Location: time.  The function structure of the nominal group is as follows:

one Numerative

year Thing

[[after they got married]] Qualifier (realised by a rank-shifted clause).

(3) The utter ludicrousness of regarding preceding lexical words as Premodifiers within a conjunction group can be seen in the following, with the supposed conjunction group highlighted in green:

One excruciatingly painful and somewhat hazardous, and not to say chaotic year after they got married …

See also nominal conjunctions.

Sys-Func Discussion Of Theme Analysis [2]

Lise Fontaine replied on sys-func at 18:12 on 12 October 2011:

I agree with Tom's view.  There are many examples related to this:

after they got married

right after they got married

one year after they got married

10 years after the got married

and there are other prepositions which follow similar patterns.  In IFG terms this ('one year after') constitutes a prepositional group within a prepositional phrase.

Blogger Comments:

(1) Lise says she agrees with Tom's view, even though Tom mistakenly analyses one year after as a conjunction group, while she mistakenly analyses it as a preposition group.

(2) In IFG terms:

after they got married is a clause initiated by the (unmodified) conjunction group after

right after they got married is a clause initiated by the (premodified) conjunction group right after

one year [[after they got married]] is a nominal group with an embedded clause as Qualifier

10 years [[after they got married]] is a nominal group with an embedded clause as Qualifier
and
those twenty unforgettable though nightmarish years [[after they got married]] is a nominal group with an embedded clause as Qualifier

Sys-Func Discussion Of Theme Analysis [3]

Lise Fontaine continued on sys-func at 18:52 on 13 October 2011:

I'm just leaving for a conference so my reply won't be as detailed as I would like. I should say though that I wasn't suggesting I was representing the views of IFG in my reply, only that I agreed with Tom's analysis.

Blogger comments:

Lise says "I wasn't suggesting I was representing the views of IFG in my reply", but in that reply she had written:

"In IFG terms this ('one year after') constitutes a prepositional group within a prepositional phrase".