'Praise' Serving As Verbal (Not Behavioural) Process

they	praised	her	to her parents
Agent Sayer	Process: verbal	Medium Target	Beneficiary Receiver

Blogger Comment:

In Deploying Functional Grammar (Martin et al. 2010: 124), this is erroneously analysed as a behavioural clause with verbal participants — on the grounds that projection is not possible here (even though this is usually the case for targeting verbal processes):

they	praised	her	to her parents
Agent Behaver	Process: behavioural	Medium Target	Beneficiary Receiver

This analysis

1. mixes verbal and behavioural participants in a configuration that is deemed to be behavioural;
2. construes a behaviour as targeting one participant and being received by another;
3. construes a Behaver as an Agent, rather than the Medium, of a behavioural Process;
4. complicates the theory unnecessarily — making it internally inconsistent — and results in a loss, not gain, in explanatory power.

Other verbal Processes erroneously analysed as behavioural — on the grounds that they are said not to take a Receiver (ibid.) — are:

• the tyres went 'screech!',
• the little engine went 'wheeee!',
• the car went 'bang!'

In a behavioural clause, the relation between the Nucleus (Process/Medium) and Range (Behaviour) is elaboration, whereas, in a verbal clause, the relation between the Nucleus (Process/Medium) and Range (Verbiage) is projection.  The source graphology realises the projection relation in these verbal clauses by the use of quotation marks.

See also 'Deploying Functional Grammar' On "Behavioural" Processes.