124 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
Dc, like, the other readers, broke off increment 30 prior to the achieve-
ment of target state in order to produce increment 31. However, no sooner
had she completed increment 31 than did she backtrack and recommence
increment 30 commencing from the intermediate state where she had
abandoned it. A related example is (6).
(6) beCAUSE they –KNOW that // the ↓VAlue of –↓TERrorism //
w n v (w) (d) (N) (P) (N)
that the value of \TERorism // to –THEM // \IS //... as i was \
w d N P+ N p n V... [c N V
SAying // a MOment or \/TWO ago // it s not ↑SIMply the
V' d N C NUM A #] (N) (V) a+ a d
ACT of \TERror // [T2-Gc-21-22]
N P N #In (6) Gc suspends the completion of increment 21 in order to insert
increment 22 and it is only after the completion of increment 22 that he
returns to increment 21. Dmc in (7) uses a slightly different strategy
when reading the text. She suspends her movement towards target state in
increment 19 by inserting the suspensive subchain as I was saying a moment
or two ago into the middle of her increment. The suspensive subchain does
not discharge her obligation to produce the N element prospected by the
V element is which is only satisfi ed by the production of the elements the
act of terror. The suspensive subchain expands the existing intermediate
state without moving the increment formally towards target state. The
initial state which commences before the production of the fi rst N in the
following increment however, contains the information presented within
the subchain, which has been presented as information the hearer would
have been aware of had she/he attempted to recover the information from
the existing context. Gc by presenting the elements as I was saying a moment
or two ago as an increment projects a context where this information is news
to his hearer.
(7) because ↑THEY \KNOW // that the VAlue of \TERrorism // to
w N V w d N P+ N P
\/↑THEM // /↑IS // as i was SAying a MOment or \/↓TWO ago
n V c n v v' d n c num a
// it s ↑NOT SIMply the ACT of \/TERror // [T2-Dmc-19]
(N) (V) a+ a d N P N #