Process and pattern interpretations 165sen as predicate); (21a) is formulated within standard static FG grammar
(with a traditional Foc introduced at the pragmatic function assignment
level); (21b) is a representation of actual processes leading to the expres-
sion concerned on the basis of a unitary (though complex) Whiteheadian
prehension:
(21) a. DECL E1: [X 1 : [HABIT e 1 : mamu:k (d1x 1 :1p(x 1 ))Ag (hu:ak)TimeFoc (e 1 )]
(X 1 )](E 1 )
b. DECL ((hu:ak)Foc? (HABIT mamu:k (1SG)Act))
The representation in (21b) should be understood as being embedded in a
specific discourse-pragmatic background which articulates the embedded
proposition into a focal part (in the broadest sense) and a presupposed part
(i.e. as the source of the focal marking on hu:ak ‘early’). This corresponds
to an outer Whiteheadian prehension of the concept ‘early’ applied to (i.e.
qualifying) an inner proposition consisting in turn of an ‘indicative’ pre-
hension of the subject I and a ‘conceptual’ prehension of the predicate
work. The articulation of the predicative structure reflects the higher (or
rather outer) level choice: the two form an indivisible unitary actual occa-
sion of language use and cannot be separated in either time or space. The
sum, when coupled to an appropriate illocutionary intention (here simpli-
fied to ‘DECL’), corresponds to a Whiteheadian judgment.
Note that the features of the discourse-level trigger which cumulatively
assign Focus are not ‘emic’ elements of any finite system of contrasts but
simply a collection of relevant presuppositions and communicative inten-
tions, whose weighted effect is to incite the choice of early as main clausal
predicate (the question mark on the feature is meant to leave open the ques-
tion whether it is the same Foc as in 21a). I assume that also the ‘telic’
affix -a is introduced by percolation from the outer discourse level, func-
tioning as it does to indicate that the predication as expressed does indeed
represent one unitary clause (the speech chain is thus modulated to reflect
the propositional structure). This affix would be difficult to introduce at all
in the static FG model (as in 21a), since its packaging function is purely a
matter of discourse management.
In contrast to (21a), representation (21b) reflects the selection of early
as the basic predicate right from the start. In (21a) this choice would have
to be suspended until the operation of higher levels of the model closer to
the word-ordering expression rules – up to that point work would have to
be regarded as the basic predicate selected to correspond to the given SoA