190 J. Lachlan Mackenzie
- Some examples
Let us conclude by sketching out a couple of examples of how things might
work.
If I feel hunger, I can conceive of grapes as something I want. Under
certain circumstances, for example if I am surrounded by willing slaves, it
will be sufficient for me to utter a complex act with a single and inevitably
Focused subact of reference:
(6) Grapes!
to be analysed at the interactional level as (7)
(7) (M 1 : (request A 1 : (SA1:1: (R: GRAPES)Foc)))
Here only that part of the lexicogrammar is involved that deals with
subacts of reference. The lexicon offers the countable noun GRAPE and the
declarative grammar (of English) requires that the referential subact be
specified for at least definiteness and number; the expression rules react
appropriately to the operators indefinite and plural. The operator request
triggers the appropriate intonation contour. The rest lies with the interpre-
tive abilities of my slaves.
Under less utopian circumstances, I will have to devise a strategy to
achieve my purpose. The focal reference to ‘grapes’ now appears in the
context of this overall strategy. Let us assume that the strategy I have se-
lected is one of moderate politeness, and is associated with the formula
Can I have .... This kind of unit is reminiscent of the expression of simplex
acts in being a ready-made formula, probably learned and stored as such
(cf. Nattinger and Decarrico 1992). The following representation suggests
itself, where the Move takes the operator pol for politeness:
(8) (pol M 1 : (request A 1 : (SA1:1: (R: GRAPES)Foc)))
This is passed directly to the expression rules, which fit the two elements
Can I have and grapes, the latter (only) having passed through the repre-
sentational component, into an acceptable template:
(9) Can I have grapes?
This example is a good instance of how any one utterance can contain a