Martin & Rose (2007: 82-3):
In building the purposes for the Commission and its three Committees, repetition and synonymy are used extensively to make quite clear which purpose is related to which Committee or Commission. This includes various synonyms for ‘the whole truth’, which is made explicit in the name of the Commission, and repetitions of human rights violations, amnesty, victims and reparation, which become the names of the Committees.
Blogger Comments:
[1] To be clear, merely repeating lexical items or using synonyms does not relate purposes to Committees and a Commission. Semantically, this is achieved through sequences of figures and their elements (the counterparts of clause complexes, clause transitivity and groups/phrases). In SFL theory, repetition and synonymy are lexical resources of textual cohesion.
[2] On the one hand, the nominal group 'the whole truth' is not a lexical item, and on the other hand, it does not feature in the text. Moreover, contrary to Martin & Rose's claims, Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not a synonym of 'the whole truth' — or of all the relevant facts or of full disclosure or of complete a picture (the nominal groups that do appear in the text).
[3] On the one hand, the nominal group human rights violations is not a lexical item, and on the other hand, the function of these words — victims does not feature — in qualifying each of the Things (Committees) is grammatical, not lexical:
- a Committee on Human Rights Violations,
- a Committee on Amnesty and
- a Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation.
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