Logical Metaphor And Patterns Of Information Flow

Martin & Rose (2014: 149-50):

The Act required that
the application should be dealt with in a public hearing
unless such a hearing was likely to lead to a miscarriage of justice
(for instance, where witnesses were too intimidated to testify in open session).

In this sequence, Tutu first uses a passive clause to start the first message with the application and end with a public hearing. The public hearing is then the starting point for the next message (such a hearing), that ends with a miscarriage of justice. This is then exemplified in the next step. This sequencing of information is shown as follows:

Such patterns of information flow are discussed further in Chapter 6 on periodicity. Here we can note that the logical metaphor (is likely to lead to) enables the sequence of cause (such a hearing) and effect (a miscarriage of justice) to be packaged as chunks of information within a single message.

Blogger Comments:

[1] There are only four problems with this claim:

• ideationally, this is a sequence of four figures;
• textually, this is a message complex of four messages;
• terminologically, 'passive' is a feature of the verbal group; the clause is receptive; and
• the passive verbal group appears in the second message, not the first.

The Act required	that the application should be dealt with in a public hearing	unless such a hearing was likely to lead to a miscarriage of justice	(for instance, where witnesses were too intimidated to testify in open session)
α	" β
	α	× β
		α	= β

The Act	required
Theme	Rheme

that the application	should be dealt with in a public hearing
Theme	Rheme

unless such a hearing	was likely to lead to a miscarriage of justice
Theme	Rheme

for instance, where witnesses	were too intimidated to testify in open session
Theme	Rheme

[2] This confuses an exemplifying relation between figures (logical metafunction) with information flow between messages (textual metafunction), and, moreover, misrepresents both:

• logically, the final figure exemplifies the preceding figure, not a miscarriage of justice; and
• textually, the final message does not take up a miscarriage of justice as its point of departure (Theme).

[3] To be clear:

• the mood Adjunct likely is not part of the Process;
• the metaphor is not merely the logical relation realised as a Process;
• the metaphor involves a sequence of two causally-related figures being realised as a figure of causally-related elements (Token and Value).