Sunday, 24 November 2019

External Time: Misconstruing 'Simultaneous' As 'Successive'


Martin & Rose (2007: 126-7):
This kind of time relation is successive - events happen one after another. Successive conjunctions used in hypotactic relations include when, after, since, now that:
when I answered the questions
I was told that I was lying
Other successive conjunctions indicate that an event happens immediately before or after, including once, as soon as… :
as soon as I answered
I was slapped again
… Cohesive successive conjunctions include subsequently, previously, at once:
I answered the questions.
Subsequently I was told that I was lying. 
He said he was going on a 'trip'.
Previously it had been a beautiful relationship. 
I started fighting back.
At once four, maybe five policemen viciously knocked me down.
… Cohesive simultaneous conjunctions include meanwhile, simultaneously:
cohesive
The old White South Africa slept peacefully.
Meanwhile 'those at the top' were again targeting the next 'permanent removal from society'.


Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, when, once, as soon as signal 'same' time, not 'different' time.  This can be demonstrated by substituting them with at the time:
at the time I answered the questions
I was told I was lying
at the time I answered
I was slapped again 
 Different time is commonly signalled by before or after:
before/after I answered the questions
I was told I was lying
before/after I answered
I was slapped again
[2] To be clear, cohesion is a textual system on the stratum of lexicicogrammar.  Its details were painstakingly elaborated by Halliday & Hasan (1976). Here Martin & Rose rebrand it as Martin's logical system on Martin's stratum of discourse semantics (following Martin 1992).

By the same token, the earlier "non-cohesive" examples are instances of clause complexing, a logical system on the stratum of lexicogrammar.  Its details were painstakingly elaborated by Halliday (1985). Here Martin & Rose rebrand it as Martin's logical system on Martin's stratum of discourse semantics (following Martin 1992).

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