Mick O'Donnell Misconstruing Non-Finite Dependent Clauses As Circumstances [Revised]

On 17 September 2013, Claudia Stoian asked on the sys-func and sysfling email lists:

What do you think about the following clauses, are they adverbial or non-defining relative clauses?

Every night, at exactly 21:53, the Chief Yeoman Warder of the Tower emerges from the Byward Tower wearing his long red coat and Tudor bonnet and carrying a candle lantern and the Queen's Keys.

And Mick O'Donnell replied:

The clauses in yellow (wearing... and carrying...) are not relative clauses, but rather present participle clauses (one of the three infinitive clause types)

I have never liked the label "adverbial" used in traditional grammar: clauses are not adverbs. "Adverbial" (or adverb-like) is a holdover from grammars which only had one label for each item, (its class), while good grammars label items by both function (what it does in larger units) and structural class (what shape of unit it is). Because we have two kinds of label, rather than talk of adverbial clauses, we can talk of clauses functioning as Adjunct (or as Circumstance, pick your layer).

I would say these clauses are Circumstances, my best guess would be Manner (how did he emerge?) but I am not sure of that.

Blogger Comment:

[1] This is misleading, because it is the opposite of what is true. On the SFL model, these clauses are non-finite clauses related to the primary clause by hypotactic elaboration, which makes them non-defining relative clauses. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 464):

The combination of elaboration with hypotaxis gives the category of non-defining relative clause (also called ‘non-restrictive’, ‘descriptive’). This functions as a kind of descriptive gloss to the primary clause…

See the clause complex analysis here.

[2] To be clear, labelling a clause 'adverbial' is not a claim that the clause is an adverb. However, in spite of his misgiving, O'Donnell nevertheless misconstrues these dependent clauses as circumstances, a function served by adverbs in adverbial groups.

In SFL, the traditional notion of an adverbial clause corresponds to a dependent clause in a relation of hypotactic enhancement.  Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 481):

The combination of enhancement with hypotaxis gives what are known in traditional formal grammar as ‘adverbial clauses’.