Identifying And Story Phases

Martin & Rose (2007: 173, 174):

Table 5.6 gives an overview of the resources used to introduce and track the main characters in Helena’s story.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, Table 5.6 confuses personal and demonstrative reference items (my, I, our, the etc) with ideational denotations (a young man, Mr F.W. de Klerk etc.). Moreover, four of the six columns (Helena, 1st love, 2nd love, those at the top) contradict both of the authors' previous claims (p173) that:

reference helps construct the Act’s staging, using pronouns and determiners to track information within sections but not between, relying on names to refer between sections.

[2] To be clear, as previously explained, 'introducing a participant' is not textual reference, but the first instance of a specific ideational denotation.

[3] To be clear, reference is a textually cohesive relation between a reference item and its referent, and does not involve the tracking of participants. The authors' absurd claim is that Helena keeps track of herself through her text.