Misunderstanding Homophoric Reference

Martin & Rose (2007: 170):

It may also be the case that presumed identities are to be found outside the verbal text. There are two main places to look for these identities: outside in the culture or outside in the situation of speaking. The first involves information which is to be found in the cultural knowledge that writer and reader share. Examples are Helena’s reference to the Boer Afrikaners and F. W. de Klerk, who her readers are aware of. Proper names are usually used in this way, and so align a group of people who know who’s being talked about, for example Eastern Free State, God, Mpumalanga, Steve Biko.

Definite reference can also be used in this way when the reference is obvious; Helena talks about the truth, ‘those at the top' ‘the cliques', the Truth Commission, the operations, the old White South Africa and the struggle in this way. The scare quotes around those at the top and the cliques indicate that she is addressing a special group of readers in the know. This communal reference, whether realised through names or definite nominal groups, is called homophora.

Blogger Comments:

[1] Here Martin & Rose misunderstand both homophoric reference and the architecture of SFL Theory. Homophoric reference is the subtype of exophoric reference that does not depend on a specific situation (Halliday & Hasan 1976: 71). Culture, on the other hand, is potential at the level of context, and "cultural knowledge" is language that construes context.

[2] To be clear, proper names do not refer in the textual sense, because they do not presume information, they provide it.  Again, this is reference in the sense of ideational denotation: words realising ideational meanings.

[3] To be clear, the vacuous claim here is that the use of proper names, such as Donald Trump, aligns those who know who such people are.

[4] Here Martin & Rose misunderstand the function of scare quotes, and as a consequence, misunderstand the text. It is not a matter of "addressing a special group of readers in the know":

Scare quotes are quotation marks that writers place around a word or phrase to signal that they are using it in a non-standard, ironic, or otherwise special sense. Scare quotes may indicate that the author is using someone else's term, similar to preceding a phrase with the expression "so-called"; they may imply skepticism or disagreement, belief that the words are misused, or that the writer intends a meaning opposite to the words enclosed in quotes.