The Argument For Quality As Peripheral In The Verbal Group

Martin & Rose (2007: 97):

Second, Events may be described with Qualities (manner adverbs in traditional grammar), that are more peripheral:

Blogger Comments:

[1] Here Martin & Rose mistake clause rank relations for group rank relations.  To be clear, in SFL theory, Quality is not a functional element of the verbal group.  The four examples provided are (partial) clause rank structures:

shake	uncontrollably
Process	Manner: quality

visit	regularly
Process	Extent: interval

mutter	abruptly
Process	Manner: quality

sits	motionless
Process	depictive Attribute

Note that, experientially, regularly is not the manner of 'visiting' ('visiting in a regular way'), but the extent of doing so ('visiting at regular intervals').

Further, as Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 208) point out, qualities can be construed as participant (Attribute), as circumstance (Manner), or as a feature of the Process (e.g. qualitative Process):

[2] Trivially, if Quality were a functional element of the verbal group, the relation to the Event would be one of qualification (enhancement), not "description" (elaboration).

[3] Here Martin & Rose provide no reason whatsoever as to why Qualities are to be categorised as peripheral.