Sunday 22 October 2017

Confusing Axial Realisation With Instantiation And Logogenesis

Bateman (1998: 5-6):
Showing how this works in detail is then the task taken up in the second part of the book, where, for several distinct regions of discourse semantics, Martin attempts to provide both paradigmatic and syntagmatic semantic descriptions and to show how these relate, i.e., how the semantic potential captured by the paradigmatic options described is actualised in unfolding discourse structures.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This is misleading.  In SFL theory, the relation between the paradigmatic axis (system) and the syntagmatic axis (structure) is realisation.  Martin provides no realisation statements in his discourse semantic systems that specify how options are realised structurally.

[2] In SFL theory, the relation between 'potential' and 'actualised' is one of instantiation.  In using these terms to describe the realisation relation between system and structure, Bateman is uncritically repeating the error in Martin (1992: 4), as critiqued here.

[3] This repeats Martin's confusion of logogenesis — the unfolding of the text at the instance pole of the cline of instantiation — with syntagmatic structure.  This further compounds the error of mistaking axial realisation for instantiation.  See also John Bateman Misunderstanding Realisation And Instantiation.

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