Problems With The Authors' Example Of Grammatical Metaphor Untying A Text From A Situation

 Martin & Rose (2007: 299):

Note for example how Mandela reconstrues aircraft roaring over the Union buildings as symbols (a display and a demonstration) of precision, force and loyalty; in doing so he reworks evaluation of the event through affect and appreciation (in awe as a spectacular array ... in perfect formation ...), into evaluation through judgement (capacity, tenacity and propriety: pinpoint precision and military force, loyalty to democracy ... freely and fairly elected ...). 

The transformation enables the evaluation he wants for this event of the day:

A few moments later we all lifted our eyes in awe as a spectacular array of South African jets, helicopters and troop carriers roared in perfect formation over the Union Buildings. It was not only a display of pinpoint precision and military force, but a demonstration of the military's loyalty to democracy, to a new government that had been freely and fairly elected.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, this is purported to be an example of the use of grammatical metaphor to untie a text from a situation — as part of a discussion of the contextual system of mode. (See the previous post for some of the theoretical misunderstandings behind this nonsensical notion.)

It can be seen that the 'situation' here is ideational semantics within Mandela's text, rather than the material setting in which Mandela wrote his text — which was one of the authors' previous uses of the term 'situation'. In other words, Martin & Rose have trouble distinguishing different orders of experience: the phenomenal order of speakers/writers projecting language, and the metaphenomenal order of the language that speakers/writers project.

[2] To be clear, these evaluations, which are irrelevant to the issues being discussed, do not require the use of ideational metaphor, since they can also be made with less metaphorical construals, such as:

A few moments later we all looked up and felt awe as South African jets, helicopters and troop carriers roared over the Union Buildings in a spectacular, perfectly formed array. This not only displayed that the military could fly absolutely precisely and how forceful it is, but also demonstrated that they are loyal to democracy, to a new government that had been freely and fairly elected.