Chapter III, Part 4
II.C A Lexicogrammatical of Parameters
82. The term Parameter, which has been
variously used for a set of variables in form or function (e.g. in mathematics),
might be enlisted to further specify our Lexicogrammar of Processes as they are
expressed in Clause Cores. In contrast to some languages, English often
identifies the Parameters not by grammatical forms but by lexical indicators, so
conventional ‘grammar’ has overlooked some and treated others by stilted
analogies to Latin ‘grammar’ as ‘tenses’, ‘voices’, or ‘moods’.
Yet within the integrated Lexicogrammar, these Parameters are normally selected
for each Clause of actual English discourse (III.94) — and even in invented sentences — but do not attract
notice when they are unmarked, i.e., chosen when there is no good motive to
choose otherwise (see VI.14).
83. The scheme I would propose has seven Parameters, shown in Table III.2. It was also fully revised in 2006 to circumvent Explorer. Items connected by commas apply only vertically to the heading, not horizontally straight across.
Polarity has the two terms of
Affirmative and
Negative. Logically, they might seem evenly balanced and decisive, like
yes and no, or + and -, or (for computers) 1 and Ø. Yet they differ about
implying that the Process would be reasonable or expected. The
Affirmative is
unmarked and non-committal,
e.g. [764], whereas a
[764] I was chased
around by a fearful goblin with a layer cake for a head. (Green Gables)
[765] Percy:
Upon my honour, Sir, I did not mean to be uncivil. Johnson:
I cannot say so, Sir; for I did
mean to be uncivil. (Boswell)
[766] I wonder I
did not dream about poor Mrs Farfrae, after thinking of her so (Mayor)
[767] You have probably
entirely forgotten a conversation between us one evening at Barton Park’.
[…] ‘Indeed’, answered Elinor, ‘I have not
forgotten it.’ (Sense)
[768] Arthur:
I don’t want no
cucumber Richard: you don’t want
no cucumber? Arthur:
no I don’t want none (conversation)BNC
[769] ‘Where are
the soldiers?’ ‘Gone. Ain’t
nobody outside at all. […] An’ dere ain’t nary soul
‘bout dis place — all run away.’ (Oliver Horn)
[770] Few Nobles
come, and yet not none. (French Revolution)
[771] Even if I had dared hope to be efficiently hushed
up,
I
couldn’t
have
not
fled.
(Dandies)
[772] Her voice was
not unsteady (Emma)
[773] Neither of them was very civil. They did not dislike
each other, but they each wanted to be somewhere else. (Longest Journey)
84. The Parameter of Degree, expressed by Modifiers of a Process or
(more often) of a Participant or Circumstance, has one central value plus
two higher and two lower values. The central value is unmarked and is known as
the Positive (though ‘posited’ might fit better). The Higher Comparative
is mainly a Modifier plus the Comparative Adverb ‘more’, and the Highest
Superlative with the Superlative Adverb ‘most’. Conversely, the Lower
Comparative is mainly the Comparative Adverb ‘less’; and the Lowest
Superlative has the Superlative Adverb ‘least’. Here are the data for
the Degrees of Processes occurring more or less ‘forcibly’:
[774] masterless men are forcibly prevented from producing the food they need. (Socialist)
[775] But in the
great Sperm Whale, […] you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living nature. (Moby)
[776] The thing
that struck me most forcibly when I saw
Niagara Falls was, where in the world did all that water come from? (Abraham Lincoln)
[777] a
superstitious conscience is less forcibly
bound by the spiritual energy, than by the outward and visible symbols of an
oath. (Decline)
[778] Courtney Love’s character, along with
David Chapelle’s disco-pimpin’ cab driver, are the strongest, perhaps
because they are the least forcibly acted. (Dallas
Mercury)
And
here are the data for the Degrees of Participants who were more or less
‘glamorous’, a term beloved by the military with its gaudy garbs and
gadgets.
[779] Sheen was the first Australian fighter pilot to taste
combat in Europe. He commented, ‘a fighter pilot is not always as glamorous
as it sounds’. (Air Force News)
[780] The Merchant Service are invariably overshadowed
by their more glamorous allies in the Royal
Navy. (Liverpool Echo)
[781] Become a Navy Fighter and serve your country in
the most glamorous and noble of all military
positions (Navy Blue Press)
[782] Young men were flocking into the RAF, hoping to become Fighter
Pilots, or one of the slightly less glamorous
Bomber boys. (One WAAF’s War)
[783]
The Pioneer Corps was the least
glamorous sector of the army (Policeman
Smiled)
For
shorter, commoner Modifiers, the higher values can take simpler forms with the
Comparative Ending ‘-er’ and the Superlative Ending ‘-est’, whereas the
lower values lack the option. Yet usage appears unstable.
I find a scattering of alternative forms even where I would expect only
the simple ones, e.g., for ‘ugly’ [784-87].
[784] the Rollers
were all hideously ugly, wonky, Scottish and gonky. Only the Glitter Band and
Leeds Utd were uglier. (NME)
[785]
People
in
Liverpool
have
more
humour.
[…] Manchester
is
more
ugly.
(The
Smiths)www
[786] Topping the
bill will be the ugliest band ever to get to No 1 — Dr And The Medics!
(Belfast Telegraph)BNC
[787] HC Cobras is the coolest, roughest, hardest and most
ugly team of the Swedish traditional sport called Hockey Bockey (HC Cobras)www
For some Modifiers, one form is more frequent though the other is not odd, e.g. ‘clever-er’
over ‘more clever’ [788-89], or ‘more ‘common’ over ‘commoner’
[790-91
[788] Mr Clinton is
cleverer than Mr Kinnock. (Daily
Telegraph)
[789] That Devil is
more clever than he is thought by some (Dracula)
[790] Shop bought cosmetics tend to be designed for the more common skin types (advert)www
[791]
On sites rich in fossils, collectors often become bored with the commoner
animals (New Scientist)
Also, Regional English may pick the simpler form for long
Adjectives [792-95]; or may even combine both forms [796-97].
[792] And
the nearer we got the nervouser and nervouser all three of us
become. (Danny)
[793]
nobody could be gratefuler and lovinger than what they was to Tom Sawyer (Detective)
[794] he is the peaceablest,
patientest, best-temperedest soul in the world! (Dombey)
[795] Uncle Silas
he preached them the blamedest jumbledest idiotic sermons you ever
struck; […] but the people never let on but what they thought it
was the clearest and brightest and elegantest sermons that ever was
(Detective)
[796] The
king
said
it
was
all
the
more
homely
and
more
pleasanter for these fixings (Finn)
[797] you injure me in one of the most delicatest
points in which one man can injure another. (Pickwick)
Such
instabilities might amuse speakers of languages which have largely settled in
favour of the Adverbs (like French) or the Endings (like German).
85. The Parameter of Tenses has traditionally called
the Simple Tenses by the terms Past [798], Present [799],
and Future [800], principally defined relative to the time of the
discourse, although not too strictly. The Aspectual Tenses (or
‘aspects’) deserve more precise terms: Predecessive (or
‘perfect’) for before a time [801], Progressive (or ‘continuous’)
for extending over time [802], and Successive for soon after a time
[803].
[798] In the summer
of 1981, Mrs Thatcher was at her lowest ebb (People’s Peace)
[799] Mrs Thatcher is
not regarded as a warm or compassionate person (Thatcherism)
[800] Thatcher will
never be short of a few bob — she’s worth an estimated £9.5 million.
(Mirror)
[801] Enoch Powell
recalled that Margaret Thatcher had been called
the ‘Iron Lady’ and rather liked the description. (Ministers Decide)
[802] Thatcher is
working hard to become a ‘Teflon Prime Minister’ [who] blames everyone
but herself when things are going wrong. (Independent)
[803] The Prime Minister is
going to borrow to fund tax cuts. (Neil Kinnock)BNC
By applying the options recursively, the full
scheme for ‘do’ in the Active of the Third Person Singular might look like
this:
Present: does
Present Progressive: is doing
Present Predecessive: has done
Present Predecessive Progressive: has been doing
Present Successive: is going to do
Present Successive Progressive: is going to be doing
Present Successive Predecessive: is going to have done
Past: did
Past Progressive: was doing
Past Predecessive: had done
Past Predecessive Progressive: had been doing
Past Successive: was going to do
Past Successive Progressive: was going to be doing
Past Successive Predecessive: was going to have done
Future: will do
Future Progressive: will be doing
Future Predecessive: will have done
Future Predecessive Progressive: will have been doing
Future Successive: will be going to do
Future Successive Progressive: will be going to be doing
Future Successive Predecessive: will be going to have done
Table III.3 Tenses of English
The more elaborate
Patterns become steadily more marked and less common. I had to dig hard for real
samples of Present Successive Progressive [804], Future Predecessive
Progressive [805], Future Successive [806], and Future Successive Predecessive
[807] (this last evidently facetious).
[804] Feasts are
going to be cropping up as we move through the year (Fairs)
[805] Your
increased metabolic rate will have been burning
up another few hundred calories when you have finished walking. (Walking
Diet)
[806] We
just came home and will be going to have some well-deserved sleep (NetAlive)www
[807] This talk will
be going to have covered the basics of objects and their syntax. (Hey, can
anyone help me with English time-travel tenses?) (MathNews)www
Tenses aptly show how formal consistency within
the Grammar can over-elaborate options that are grammatical but tend to be go
unused.
86.
The tendency is rather to simplify, notably by expanding the unmarked Simple
Present for Processes for narrated past time [808] and expected future time
[809], the latter also using the Present Progressive [810].
[808] Mrs. Inglethorp returned earlier than he
expected. Caught in the act, and somewhat flurried, he hastily shuts and locks
his desk. (Affair at Styles)
[809]
Simon Courtauld’s ‘Out of Town’ column returns next week. (Daily
Telegraph)
[810] My
mother-in-law is arriving on Christmas Eve
and we are all attending
midnight service (Today)
In some lexicogrammatical Processes described in III.B, such
as Perception and Cognition, some Verbs implying Intention or Control prefer
Progressives [811-812], whereas others prefer Simple [813-14].
[811] She was listening
to her husband [hardly: hearing]
[812]
Dad was looking at the fireplace. Mum was looking
at Vern. (Gate-Crashing) [hardly:
seeing]
[813]
In France, the government understands the need for cultural things. (Art
Newspaper) Paris is a fascinating place, one of the best in the world, and it is
frightening New York [hardly: is understanding]
[814] She knows all the folly and all the wickedness of my former life (Wildfell)
[hardly: is knowing]
However, preferences can be modified in delicate
contexts, e.g.:
[815] She studied it carefully as though it were some
unfamiliar object she was seeing for the first time. (Sons
of Heaven)
[816] Right now she was
hearing as though from a long way off, the sounds somehow muffled. (Maggie)
[817] that’s how I felt, that you were getting into it, you were
understanding how the bits tied together (GCSE chemistry tutorial)BNC
[= coming to understand]
Choices
can also reflect how long an Action, Event, or State normally lasts (III.93).
87. The term Transitivity can supplant the
traditional but abstruse term ‘voice’, which was narrowly applied to Verb
forms, whereas the discursive concern is the roles of Participants in the whole
Process. The Active is the least marked and assigns the functions of
Agent or Cause to the Clause Subject [818-19], whereas the Passive
assigns them to an Agentive Adverbial [820-21].
[818] sooner
than
anyone
thought
possible,
the
Russians
exploded
an
atomic
bomb.
(Fifties)
[819] He crossed
out the sentence. Black marks obliterated every word. (Hide and
Seek)
[820] Seconds after I passed through the Patt
intersection en route to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Bus 32 was
exploded by a young suicide bomber. (Nathan Cherny)www
[821] all traces of its natural colour were
obliterated by ink-stains. (Pickwick)
The Medial
has the putative Agent or Cause as the Medium of the Event [822-23] (cf.
III.21, 70). In a few Patterns, the Agent or Cause is not expressed, whilst the
Medium is the Affected — ‘dinghy’ in [824] and Theo van Gogh in [825].
[822] Amiss exploded with laughter. (Clubbed)
[823] A huge
bomb exploded in the centre of Portadown today (Belfast Telegraph)\
[824] I had to get
the dinghy afloat. I couldn’t carry her, but she dragged
easily enough (Death in the
City)
[825] Theo did not provoke easily, but he
could defend himself. (Van Gogh)
88. The Reflexive merges the roles of Agent or
Cause and Affected Entity [826]. An Affected can occupy the role of self-acting
Agent, e.g., to avoid naming the real Agent [827]. The Reflexive
may suggest that the Agent obeyed self-interest [828-89] or acted unwisely
[830]; or was not in control [831].
[826] The Bride strips herself,
glowing with pleasure (Big Glass)
[827] The bacon
done burnt itself up (Cross Creek)
[828] Eck made his way to Rome and got himself appointed
papal nuncio. (Roads That Move) [compare: was appointed]
[829] General Noriega had himself declared
formal head of government by his self-appointed National Assembly (Guardian)
[compare: was declared]
[830] Mitchum also frisked drunks and got himself arrested
on a vagrancy charge. (Hollywood Rogues) [compare: was
arrested]
[831] The Soviet President this weekend risks finding himself
an unwilling player in a domestic political drama (Independent)
Whereas
some related languages in the Germanic and Romance families have Reflexives for
ordinary Human Actions like sitting down [832-35], English often prefers the
Medial [836-37]. A Reflexive choice may suggest the Action was more deliberate,
e.g. [838-39].
[832] Den Wedel nimm hier, und setz dich
in Sessel! (Faust)
[833]
Nous nous assîmes
tous autour de la table de fer.(Swann)
[834]
A la sombra de unos árboles se sentaron
y comieron allí .(Don Quijote)
[835]
Tinha-se sentado numa cadeira ao pé da mesa (Dom Casmurro)
[836]
‘Can you spare a moment?’ I nodded.
He
sat
in
the
chair
in
front
of
my
desk
(Nudists)
[837]
Back in his small room, Sandison lay down on the bed and slept (Truth
of Stone)
[838]
When I get on that plane, I’ll just sit myself
in
a
corner
and
concentrate.
(TV
news)BNC
[839] Back in his room,
he carefully laid himself down on the bed. (Rain)
89. The Reciprocal
combines two or more Agents acting on each other:
[840]
they scratched and bit and fought each other (Other
People’s Blood)
[841] Polish,
Czechoslovak and Hungarian reformers met one another at
secret border meeting points (Economist)
The more common Reciprocal Processes in my data
include Dispositive (‘chase’, ‘confront’, ‘clasp’), Perceptive
(‘look at’, ‘see’, ‘stare at’), Enactive (‘face’, ‘smile
at’, ‘grin at’) and Communicative (‘communicate with’, ‘argue
with’, ‘shout at’). Reciprocity tends to imply some message or feeling
when ‘staring’ and ‘smiling at’ [842-43], or just ‘facing’ and
‘looking at’ [844-45].
[842]
They stared at each other for a moment, measuring each other up. (Isvik)
[843] They smiled
at each other with complete understanding. (Healing
Fire)
[844] They faced
each other, their hatred bristling and crackling. (Strawberries)
[845] They stood and looked at each other, as if they could
never have enough, till he said at last: ‘There isn’t a minute that I
don’t long for you’. (Dark Flower)
90. Clause
Type concerns the formatting of discourse actions when a Process is
expressed as a full Clause Core, affecting the relation among speakers and
hearers and the expected mode of action. As Major Types, the Declarative
functions as a Statement [846]; the Interrogative as a Question [847];
the Exclamatory as an Exclamation [848]; and the Imperative as a
Command [849].
[846] Navarre shall be the wonder of the world.
(Love’s Labour)
[847] Wherefore was
I to this keen mockery born? (Midsummer)
[848] Fie, cousin
Percy! How you cross my father! (Henry IV)
[849] Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground (Romeo)
These four Major Types have mostly been
described with distinctive forms, but the functions need not fit. The
Declarative form, as the unmarked choice, can carry the other three functions of
Question, Exclamation, or Command:
[850] You’ll pay me the eight shillings I won
of you at betting? (Henry V)
[851] Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats! (Macbeth)
[852] I crave our composition may be written, and sealed
between us. (Antony)
I shall suggest later that the more vital
distinctions are in the Prosody (IV.14).
91. The Minor
Clause Types include the Dependent [853] and the Relative [854],
both signalled by Dependent Conjunctions; the Conditional for a Process
contingent on some condition being met, e.g. [855]; the Contrafactual
when the Process is distinctly hypothetical or fictional, e.g. [856]; and the Optative
for wishing that something would occur, e.g. [857].
[853] I’ll ne’er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil,