On Martin's System Of Negotiation

Bateman (1998: 8):

Martin adopts a number of different starting points for his discussions, providing good insights into different ways of approaching discourse semantics. His starting point for Chapter 2 [pp31-92] on NEGOTIATION is the grammatical systems of MOOD: i.e., that part of clause grammar that describes basic interactional functions such as assertion, question, imperative, tags, finite vs. nonfinite, dependent vs. independent, and polarity (cf. IFG: Chapter 4; Matthiessen, 1995: Chapter 5, pp391-433). The system network for NEGOTIATION that Martin derives must provide motivations for selections from the MOOD system as are appropriate for particular dialogue moves. The basic framework set up is one that describes the semantic unit ‘text’ as an exchange of meanings. Such exchanges are organised into configurations of discourse moves; the particular configurations of moves that are found establish a notion of exchange structure.

Blogger Comments:

[1] This misrepresents Martin's theoretical inconsistencies as a virtue.  The different starting point for the system of NEGOTIATION reflects its different source (interpersonal semantics) from the other discourse semantic systems (textual lexicogrammar).

[2] Trivially, this confuses the grammatical system of MOOD with the semantic system of SPEECH FUNCTION.

[3] To be clear, "the system network for NEGOTIATION that Martin derives" is not displayed as an integrated network, but instead consists of:

• Figure 2.10 (p49): Ventola's (1987) extension of Berry (1981);
• Figure 2.11 (p49): Martin's augmentation of it with a less delicate system; and
• Figure 2.23 (p81): Martin's addition a more delicate system (parallel with Ventola's) which only applies to classroom registers.

[4] This misunderstands the relation between strata.  Semantic systems don't "motivate" grammatical selections; (selections in) semantic systems are realised by (selections in) grammatical systems, and the relation between the selections may be congruent or incongruent (metaphorical), and vary in terms of probability according to register.

[5] This is misleading on two counts.  On the one hand, it misrepresents the relation between the systems of NEGOTIATION and MOOD.  Martin's model (p50) distinguishes two ranks, exchange and move.  NEGOTIATION is the system of exchange rank, and it is not realised by any grammatical system.  Halliday's SPEECH FUNCTION is the system of move rank, and it is realised by the the grammatical system of MOOD.

On the other hand, since the relation between SPEECH FUNCTION selections and MOOD selections was theorised by Halliday, long before Martin, it falsely attributes Halliday's ideas to Martin.  Moreover, Martin (1992: 36) misunderstands the realisation relation between SPEECH FUNCTION and MOOD, as demonstrated here.

[6] This confuses Halliday's highest semantic unit, text, with Martin's highest discourse semantic unit, exchange.