On The Heteroglossic Function Of "Concessive But"

Martin & Rose (2007: 56-7):

The third resource we need to consider, as far as heteroglossia in discourse is concerned, is known as ‘counterexpectancy’. This is more a feature of Helena’s narrative than the exposition or Act, and has to do with the way she tracks readers’ expectations, adjusting them as her story unfolds. In her prayer for example, she tells God she can’t handle her second love anymore, creating an expectation as she does so that she will try to leave. Then she counters this by saying that she can’t leave.

I can’t handle the man anymore! But, I can't get out.

In this example Helena uses the conjunction but to signal that she is countering an expectation that she’s created for the reader. At any point in a text, readers have an expectation about what is likely to follow, and Helena takes this into account as she counters it. In other words she is acknowledging voices in addition to her own, in this case those of her readers.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, in SFL theory, the interpersonal system of counterexpectancy (exceeding vs limiting) is distinct from the conditional relation of concession, whose meaning is 'if P then contrary to expectation Q', and which may function logically between units in complexes or textually in conjoining messages cohesively.

[2] The claim here is that an author can track ('trail', 'follow') the expectations of all future readers.

[3] This misunderstands the data.  Firstly, the proposition I can’t handle the man anymore does not entail the proposition I will leave — any more than numerous other possible propositions such as He's got to go or Something has to change etc.

Secondly, the cohesive conjunction relation between the two messages is not the enhancing relation of concessive condition ('if P then contrary to expectation Q'):

• if I can't handle the man anymore
• then, contrary to expectation, I can't get out.

but the extending relation of adversative addition (X and conversely Y):

• I can't handle the man anymore
• and conversely I can't get out.

[4] The claim here is that the author's use of but acknowledges the "voice" of the reader, and that this acknowledgement constitutes an instance of heteroglossia.  Regardless of whether acknowledging the voice of the reader would constitute an instance of heteroglossia, as demonstrated in [3], the claim itself rests on a misinterpretation of the text and a misconstrual of the expansion relation between the two clauses.