Mistaking (Partial) Grammatical Units For Lexical Items

Martin & Rose (2007: 100-1):

In the analysis in Figure 3.16, there is one lexical string for goannas and other reptiles, and another string for their parts.

 

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Reminder:

Australia is home to 25 of the world's 30 monitor lizard species, In Australia, monitor lizards are called goannas. Goannas have flattish bodies, long tails and strong jaws. They are the only lizards with forked tongues, like a snake. Their necks are long and may have loose folds of skin beneath them. Their legs are long and strong, with sharp claws on their feet. Many goannas have stripes, spots and other markings that help to camouflage them. The largest species can grow to more than two metres in length. All goannas are daytime hunters, They run, climb and swim well. Goannas hunt small mammals, birds and other reptiles, They also eat dead animals. Smaller goannas eat insects, spiders and worms. Male goannas fight with each other in the breeding season. Females lay between two and twelve eggs.

To be clear, this is not a lexical string because it confuses lexical items with the following grammatical units:

1. the nominal group many goannas,
2. the partial nominal group complex stripes, spots and other markings
3. the partial nominal group largest species, and
4. the nominal group more than two metres in length.

This completely undermines the proposed taxonomic relations, the most ludicrous of which is the analysis of (more than two metres in) length as part of largest species.