Genre Staging And Phasing Lower Stratum Context Selections In The Instantiation Of Language

Martin (2013: 111):

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For some of the theoretical problems with the model of genre in Martin (1992), see the 69 posts here.

To be clear, Martin (1992) models genre as a (non-metafunctional) stratum of context, located above the systems of field, tenor and mode, which he misunderstands as systems of register. As a consequence, genres (narratives etc.) are modelled as realised by field, tenor and mode features, such as those characterising the relative social status and contact of the speaker/writer and the addressee.

To be clear, even in Martin's model, genre cannot be "a resource for staging field, tenor and mode selections in unfolding discourse" because unfolding discourse is the instantiation of language systems in logogenesis, whereas genre and field, tenor and mode are systems of different strata at the level of context, and are thus not instantiated in language.

Outline Of Chapter 6

Martin (2013: 11):

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This foreshadows the misleading misunderstandings to appear in Chapter 6.

Firstly, the intonational system of TONE realises the system of KEY, not MOOD. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 168):

The tones are not, however, simply additional markers attached to the realisation of mood. They realise distinct grammatical systems of their own, which are associated with the mood categories. The general name for systems that are realised by tone is KEY. The term KEY covers a number of systems;

Secondly, rank is a way of modelling formal constituency, but semantics has no form, and so no formal constituency to model as a rank scale.

Thirdly, the 'probabilistic perspective' relates the cline of instantiation, not with any one stratum, such as context. For example, for context, the instantiation probabilities of field, tenor and mode features distinguish one situation type from another, and for language, the instantiation probabilities of content plane features distinguishes one register from another.