Monday 3 August 2015

Another Source Of The Elasticity Of Construal: Grammatical Metaphor

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 315-6):
The elasticity of construal is further increased through grammatical metaphor, which also relies on the manifestation of projection & expansion within participants (realised by the different types of modification in nominal groups). We have illustrated the range of options throughout the system at various points, and a schematic example will be enough here:
[i] logical
A happened, so B happened;
A caused B to happen;
[ii] experiential
A happened causing B / B happened because of A
A happening caused B happening
A affected B [‘cause-happened’]
with additional metaphorical variants:
B happened because of the happening of A
the happening of A caused the happening of B
the happening of A was the cause of the happening of B