Sunday 11 November 2018

Shooshi Dreyfus Mistaking Non-Defining For Defining Relative Clauses

Here’s my version of your analysis – but it’s only one version and you could analyse the last bit as a second clause but I think this works too:
Third, the crisis [[(that is) in the European and the global economy]] [ACTOR – with downranked spatial meaning ie NOT a circumstance but a Qualifier realising circumstantial meaning] has entered [PRO: MATERIAL] a second phase, [[(that is) characterized by a recovery [[that is proceeding at a faltering pace]] //and (which) is uneven [ATTRIBUTE] across countries]]
Basically, this way, you’ve got one clause with lots of embedding, which is typical of highly written text. And you’ve got circumstantial meaning being realised across numerous lexicogrammatical structures – see my attached paper (and have another one forthcoming on circumstantial meanings)


Blogger Comments:

[1] The proposed analysis can represented as follows:

Third
the crisis [[in the European and the global economy]]
has entered
a second phase [[characterised by a recovery [[that is proceeding at a faltering pace]] //  and is
uneven
across countries]]

Actor
Process: material
?
Attribute
?


[2] To be clear, the instance in question is a complex of four clauses:

Third, the crisis in the European and the global economy has entered a second phase
characterised by a recovery
that is proceeding at a faltering pace
and is uneven across countries
α
= β

α
= β


1
+ 2

Suggested transitivity analyses of the four clauses can be viewed here.

[3] Trivially, this is an embedded phrase ([ ]), not an embedded clause ([[ ]]).

[4] Trivially, // marks a tone group boundary, not a clause boundary (||).

[5] The primary source of Dreyfus' confusion — analysing a complex of four clauses as a single clause — is her mistaking non-defining relative clauses (hypotactic elaboration) for defining relative clauses (embedded clauses serving as nominal group Qualifier).

[6] To be clear, the circumstantial meanings in this instance are realised grammatically as
  • locational Qualifier (nominal group): in the European and the global economy;
  • circumstance of Manner (clause): at a faltering pace;
  • circumstance of Location (clause): across countries.