Abstract
In this chapter, the concept of clause complex and the system of clause complexing will be firstly introduced in Sect. 5.1. Section 5.2 will analyze verbal projection in clause complexing (at clause complex level), that is the logico-semantic relations between the projecting clause and the projected clause, with a view to identifying similarities and differences in the two Chinese translations. In Sect. 5.3, two Chinese translations of verbal clause complexes will be further examined in terms of rhetorical relations, which will bring out the complexity of verbal clause complexes and the scope of projection. And the findings will be summarized in Sect. 5.4. Table 5.1 provides an overview that locates the analysis presented in this chapter in relation to the overall analysis.
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Notes
- 1.
The contribution of hypotactic chains to the development of discourse is, naturally, very different from that of paratactic chains: in a hypotactic chain, each new link in the chain moves further away from the place in the discourse where the dominant clause is located. In contrast, paratactic chains of enhancement move the discourse forward, as happens in narratives and procedures. (Halliday and Matthiessen 2014: 482).
- 2.
As mentioned in Halliday and Matthiessen (2014: 558), we have to differentiate group and phrase complexes from clause complexes involving ellipsis.
- 3.
Because sometimes the scope of projection can be as long as one paragraph, which contains a lot more clauses or clause complexes. They are beyond the scope of this present study.
- 4.
Embedded clauses do not enter into relations of hypotaxis or parataxis with other clauses (Martin et al. 2010: 240).
- 5.
I categorize some behavioral verbs as verbal processes as long as they project in the text, because “as with propositions, there is an extensive set of verbs in ‘verbal’ clauses for quoting proposals, especially in narrative fiction. As with verbs used to quote propositions, many class verbs serve in ‘behavioral’ clauses pressed into quoting service” (Halliday and Matthiessen 2014: 524).
- 6.
Hypotactic reporting idea in the clause complexes consisting of three and four clauses have been excluded. But the frequency in each text is calculated as follows: text 1: 1; text 2: 6; text 3: 1; text 3: 5; text 4: 9; text 5: 8; text 6: 9; text 7: 5; text 8: 9; text 9: 11.
- 7.
Because of time limit and space constraint, it is impossible to examine all the patterns, but more findings will be obtained if further studies could be done to investigate all the patterns in the two Chinese translations.
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Wang, Y. (2020). Logico-Semantic and Rhetorical Analysis of Verbal Clause Complexes. In: A Comparative Study on the Translation of Detective Stories from a Systemic Functional Perspective. The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7545-7_5
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