RSSThe Circumstantiality Of Agent, Beneficiary And Range
Aug 05
(1) Agent, Beneficiary And Range From Transitive And Ergative Perspectives
Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 295):
These, seen from a transitive perspective, are circumstantial: Agent
is a kind of Manner, Beneficiary is a kind of Cause and Range is a
kind of Extent; and they can all be expressed as minor processes. But
seen from an ergative point of view they are additional participants
in the major process: the nucleus of ‘Process + Medium’ has an inner
ring of additional participants as well as an outer ring of
circumstances surrounding it …
(2) Agent, Beneficiary And Range As Mixed Categories
Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 295):
Semantically, therefore, Agent, Beneficiary and Range have some
features of participants and some of circumstances: they are mixed.
And this is reflected in the fact that grammatically also they are
mixed: they may enter in to a clause either directly as nominal groups
(participant–like) or indirectly in prepositional phrases
(circumstance–like).
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