David Rose Misrepresenting Halliday On Grammatical Metaphor

David Rose wrote to sys-func on 11/7/22 at 10:26:

This diagram is a good illustration of the grammatico-semantic model, with a semantic ‘figure’ realised by a grammatical clause and a semantic ‘participant’ by a grammatical nominal group. It must then explain grammatical metaphor by stratifying the semantic stratum into two ‘domains’, with the diagram showing a more abstract ‘Value’ realised by a less abstract ‘Token’.

In the discourse semantic model, stratification is between the strata of DS and LG. So a semantic figure may be realised ‘congruently’ by a clause, or metaphorically by a nominal group. This paper proposes the term ‘symbolising’ for the latter metaphorical type of relation between DS and LG.

Martin, J. R. (2020). Metaphors we feel by: stratal tension. Journal of World Languages, 6(1-2), 8-26.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the diagram is Figure 6-16 from Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 289):

[2] To be clear, the 'grammatico-semantic' model is Halliday's original stratification of the content plane.

[3] To be clear, here Rose misunderstands Figure 6-16. The diagram simply represents the semantics of the metaphorical wording engine failure as a congruent meaning (figure) realised by a metaphorical meaning (participant).

[4] This is misleading, because what Rose describes is actually Halliday's ('grammatico-semantic') model of grammatical metaphor. Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 280):

The notion of a semantic figure originates in Halliday's model of ideational semantics (Halliday & Matthiessen 1999), and did not feature in Martin's model of discourse semantics (Martin 1992). The terms 'figure' and 'element' — from Halliday & Matthiessen (1999) — are assumed at times in Martin & Rose (2007), without either explanation or attribution, though neither term is identified as a unit in their model of ideational discourse semantics.

[5] To be clear, 'symbolising' is a poor choice of term for a subtype of realisation, if only because, in SFL Theory (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 269), realisation is a subtype of 'symbol'.

[6] To be clear, in order for 'stratal tension' to be a valid model of grammatical metaphor, the model must provide a systematic contrast between stratal tension and its absence. This is not provided by Martin's (1992) model of ideational discourse semantics, since it is a rebranding of lexical cohesion (textual lexicogrammar) and does not feature discourse semantic analogues of clause complex, clause and group — its only unit being the 'message part' (Martin 1992: 385).