The Taxis Relations of Clause Complexing in the Editorials of The Daily Graphic

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of taxis relations of clause complex in editorial writing to match the length which seems not longer than a page. The problems discussed are: the hypotactic and paratactic clause complexes in ten editorials spanning January 2014 to March, 2014, and the realization of those clause complexes through the use of conjunctive devices in the lexicogrammar. The theory of Systemic Functional Grammar which opines that the taxis can be of two kinds parataxis and hypotaxis, suggested by Halliday (1994), and Halliday & Matthiessen (2004) underpins the discussion. This study adopts a qualitative approach as it investigates 10 purposively sampled editorials of the Daily Graphic. A first step of the analysis explores the choice of the hypotactic vs. paratactic clause complexes in the editorials while the second step also reveals the use of conjunctives to realise the choice of a particular clause complex structure. The results reveal that the clause complexes are of both parataxis and hypotaxis in the editorials but hypotaxis dominates parataxis, as the writers do not depart from the dominant use of hypotaxis in all the ten editorials. The realization is relatively excellent as the choice among parataxis and hypotaxis characterizes each relation between clauses (each nexus) within a clause complex.

Keywords: Clause Complexing, Taxis, Parataxis, Hypotaxis, Conjunctives

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/99-02

Publication date:October 31^st 2023