Uncovering Congruent Agency By Undoing Ellipsis And Unpacking Metaphor

A.

 (1) Reinstating the elided Agent:

(2) Unpacking the metaphorical Agent:

B.

Here, despite the fact that adults are killing children in a refugee camp, no agency whatsoever is construed.

Halliday (2003 [1993]: 215):

… it is precisely in the "reporting" of pronouncements and speeches on the one hand, and of massacres, terrorist acts and nuclear disasters on the other, that linguistic analysis most clearly reveals the opposing ideologies that are being promoted in different organs. Construing events as news is a highly political act.

Theme In Clause With Mood Ellipsis

The snake — thought to be python measuring around 10ft — constricted the crocodile to death, before dragging it to shore and eating it whole

and	eating	it	whole
	Predicator	Complement	Adjunct
	Residue
structural Theme	Rheme

Clause Complex With Ellipsed Subject

Canterbury Cathedral	was	founded	in AD597	and	Ø	is	the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion
1				+2
Theme	Rheme				Rheme
Goal	Process		Location		Token	Process	Value
Subject	Finite	Predicator	Adjunct		Subject	Finite	Complement

Reasoning:  Ellipsis marks elements as textually non-prominent, whereas Theme marks elements as textually prominent.  Therefore, ellipsed elements do not function as Theme.

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 563):

Ellipsis marks the textual status of continuous information within a certain grammatical structure.  At the same time, the non-ellipsed elements of that structure are given the status of being contrastive in the environment of continuous information.  Ellipsis thus assigns differential prominence to the elements of a structure: if they are non-prominent (continuous), they are ellipsed; if they are prominent (contrastive), they are present.  The absence of elements through ellipsis is an iconic realisation of lack of prominence.