Introducing another problem, … what can we do with "or" coordination?
He went to the shops on Thursdays or Fridays
I want a red or blue dress
These events can by definition not be conjuncts, so would we have to say that whenever we have OR we have conjunction of whole elliptical clauses?
Blogger Comments:
[1] In SFL theory, 'X or Y' is the logico-semantic relation of extension: alternation (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 471).
[2] The logico-semantic relations in these instances do not obtain at clause rank, and for this reason, do not imply clause ellipsis. In the first clause, Thursdays or Fridays is a word complex realising the Thing of a nominal group:
clause
He
|
went
|
to the shops
|
on Thursdays or Fridays
|
Actor
|
Process: material
|
Location: spatial: motion
|
Location: temporal: rest
|
prepostional phrase
on
|
Thursdays or Fridays
|
Process
|
Range
|
nominal group
Thursdays or Fridays
|
Thing
|
In the second clause, red or blue is a word complex realising the Epithet of a nominal group:
clause
I
|
want
|
a red or blue dress
|
Senser
|
Process: mental
|
Phenomenon
|
nominal group
a
|
red or blue
|
dress
|
Deictic
|
Epithet
|
Thing
|
[3] This again demonstrates that Bartlett is taking a formal rather than functional perspective on the grammar — as previously noted here — since he is concerned with assigning functions to forms, rather than assigning forms to functions.
