Confusing Context With Language

Martin & Rose (2007: 93):

We said earlier that a field consists of sequences of activities. The granting of amnesty is one activity within the Truth and Reconciliation field, that includes activities such as applying for, giving and refusing. This hierarchy of activities can be represented by a tree diagram, as in Figure 3.11. 

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, even Martin & Rose model field as context — even if they misconstrue context as register — and here they locate activity sequences as discourse semantics, contradicting Martin (1992) where activity sequences are located in context.  That is, even in their own terms, Martin & Rose misconstrue the realisation relation between two levels of symbolic abstraction, context and discourse semantics, as one of composition at the same level.

[2] To be clear, the claims here are that:

• granting includes applying for
• granting includes giving
• granting includes refusing.

The logical inconsistencies here are therefore as follows:

• inclusion is a relation of extension: composition (meronymy), but
• the relation of granting to applying for is enhancement: time or cause-condition (collocation),
• the relation of granting to giving is elaboration (synonymy),
• the relation of granting to refusing is elaboration (antonymy).