Summary Of The Problems With The System Of External Consequence

Martin & Rose (2007: 132):

Options for external consequence, including expectant and concessive cause means, purpose and condition, are shown in Figure 4.4.

Blogger Comments:

[1] As previously demonstrated, in terms of SFL Theory, the authors' system of external consequence comprises a subclass of manner (means), two subclasses of cause (reason and purpose) and condition, all misunderstood, to varying degrees, and rebranded as discourse semantics (instead of grammar). Cf Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 477-8):

[2] As previously demonstrated, the oppositions 'expectant' vs 'concessive' and 'desire' vs 'fear' derive from misunderstandings of the logical relations involved.  See the previous posts:

• Confusing Ideational 'Cause' With Interpersonal 'Modulation'
• Misconstruing Concessive Condition As Concessive Cause
• Confusing Concessive 'But' With Adversative 'But' And Using Ambiguous 'However' To Disambiguate The Two
• Confusing Ideational 'Means' With Interpersonal 'Ability' And With Ideational 'Cause'
• Misunderstanding Concessive Condition As Concessive Means
• Misunderstanding Purpose And Confusing It With (± Concessive) Condition
• Misunderstanding Condition

[3] To be clear, even in its own terms, this is a poorly conceived network, since it features the same system (expectant vs concessive) four times, instead of once with four disjunctive ('or') entry conditions.