Confusing Metafunctions (inter alia)

Martin & Rose (2007: 40-1):

If we take communal healing as one dimension of value [i.e. appreciation] analysis, then the Act can also be seen to be concerned with repairing social relations:

SINCE the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 (Act No. 200 of 1993), provides a historic bridge between the past of a deeply divided society characterised by strife, conflict, untold suffering and injustice, and a future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence for all South Africans, irrespective of colour, race, class, belief or sex …

Blogger Comments:

[1] Trivially, the if…then relation here is logically invalid, because whether or not the text can be seen to be concerned with repairing social relations is not conditioned by taking communal healing as one dimension of appreciation analysis.

[2] This confuses what can be appraised (communal healing) with a system of appraisal.

[3] This confuses ideational construal (what the text is concerned with) with interpersonal enactment (appraising by the values of appreciation).  Interpersonal meaning is enacted, not construed.

[4] The text that Martin & Rose mistakenly refer to as 'the Act' is actually part of the 'Explanatory memorandum to the Parliamentary Bill'.