Ideational Instantiations: On Purpose

From an ideational perspective, there are two key pedagogical messages about circumstance types. The first and most common is that certain fields or genres or stages use particular types of circumstances to achieve their purposes. This focuses on frequent usage and therefore often results in an exclusive emphasis on the most common circumstance types: Location (time and place) and Manner. Such circumstances can be relatively accessible to the novice learner, answering the distinct probe questions of when, where and how. Yet, even these few categories cover such a breadth of variation that further analytical distinctions have been proposed (^{Dreyfus & Jones, 2008}). This focus is fruitful and likely plays a stronger role in classrooms than may be represented in textbooks. The second pedagogical message is often elided: some circumstance types are rare, both in terms of their usage within texts (once or twice per text) and in terms of the texts in which they get used (fewer genres, certain stages, or particularly niche topics). However, for the apprentice academic writer, insight into how and when to appropriately and strategically deploy these subtypes can be powerful.

Across disciplines: Connecting Features to Purpose

The breadth of circumstance types may seem exhaustive and even esoteric at first glance, with nuanced patterns in usage. These patterns tend to be in two directions: the distinct type (for example, circumstances of Location: place as compared to circumstances of Location: time) or of semantic meanings within type (for example the difference in circumstances of Location between geographic and metaphorical places, or specific and relative time). Identifying these patterns with students helps to elucidate the purpose and emphasis of a text.

An example of this distinction comes from a reading from political science in which official state apologies to First Nations peoples in Canada and Australia are evaluated against ^{James’ (2008)} framework of authenticity (^{Lightfoot, 2015}). In our language course, we analyze the linguistic features that are valued in disciplinary readings such as this to foster students’ participation in academic discourse. In the two excerpts examined closely in this particular lesson, we highlight the frequency, type and position of ranked circumstances within the clause. In terms of type, the circumstances of Location: time build the chronological order of the recount used to introduce the apologies, while examples of Location: place, Manner: means, Accompaniment: comitative, and Cause: behalf situate the apologies in their national and historical contexts. These examples support the excerpt’s function to inform the reader of what happened, without making overt judgements about their merit. The relevance of position will be discussed in the next section on textual instantiations.

On February 13, 2008, [Location: time] Australia’s newly elected Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened his first session of Parliament with his government’s first official act [Manner: means]. With crowds gathered outside and his image broadcast live on television throughout the country [Accompaniment: comitative], the prime minister rose and delivered an official apology on behalf of the government of Australia to the Stolen Generations-the Aboriginal children that had been removed from their homes and families under a century-long forced assimilation program [Cause: behalf]. Several months later, on June 11, 2008 [Location: time], the Conservative prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, stood before Parliament [Location: place] in the House of Commons [Location: place] and delivered a new “official statement of apology” that he said was offered to Aboriginal survivors of Canada’s Residential School system “on behalf of the government of Canada and all Canadians [Cause: behalf]”

After describing when and why apologies were made, Lightfoot then engages in evaluating the authenticity of those apologies. She does this both by explicitly discussing ^{James’ (2008)} criteria, and also implicitly with an expanded repertoire of circumstances. In the excerpt below we see more examples of Location: time and place, Cause: reason, and especially Manner: quality as it shifts from describing when and where this particular apology occurred to evaluating the manner in which it was delivered.

Canada’s 1998 “Statement of Reconciliation” was read by Jane Stewart, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, during a lunchtime ceremony [Location: time] in a government meeting room in Ottawa [Location: place], in response to the final report issued by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples [Cause: reason]. This statement of reconciliation sought to close the book on the historical legacy of Residential Schools, and situated that policy within a wider framework of “racial and cultural superiority” that “led to a suppression of Aboriginal culture and values.” The statement did articulate, albeit briefly [Manner: quality] and in guarded language [Manner: quality], the historic harms of Residential Schools. The statement explicitly [Manner: quality] mentioned the legacy of abuse at Residential Schools and situated such abuse within a larger pattern of colonialism [Location: place], specifically acknowledging a number of historical events, yet neglected to use the words “apology” or “sorry” anywhere in the text. (^{Lightfoot, 2015}, p. 30)

In the excerpt above, we also see a metaphorical use of Location: place; instead of being a physical location, the phrase “within a larger pattern of colonialism” locates this piece of history within a political analysis of the context.

Similarly, in procedural writing, circumstances play an important role in achieving their purpose. Circumstances were found to form the majority of the word count and provide fundamental contextual detail and precision, in both lab reports for physics and chemistry, and research reports for discourse analysis. A focus on circumstances was useful, for example, in teaching how to write chemistry procedures; these include particular circumstance types, such as exact Locations, Extent, and Manner: means, as well as conditional circumstances to specify hazards, which were then excluded from the observation stage following the experiment. Drawing attention to these different categories of information and their different use in different genres associated with lab work gave students linguistic tools to tackle scientific processes.

Exceptional Usage: In Extraordinary Circumstances

While an analysis of most common types of circumstances enables powerful description, we have found that most of our students’ assigned readings include at least a few of the rarer types of circumstance, and certain genres of writing may use them as well. If we omit these from instruction, we risk omitting details which may support a text achieving its purpose.

As an example of rarer types, we have found circumstances of Role in three distinct fields: political science, linguistics and chemistry. Firstly, we return to ^{Lightfoot’s (2015)} analysis of a Canadian apology for the treatment of Indigenous peoples. In it, we have a condensed version of a recount moving to evaluation; it begins with circumstances (both fronted and clause-final) of Location: time and Location: place, but then deploys Manner: quality and the uncommon Role: guise to make clear the manner and mechanism for colonization; she uses this rare circumstance to make explicit the connection between the stated purpose of the Indian Residential School system to “...continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic” (^{Scott, 1920}) and its abusive practices to do so:

On June 11, 2008 [Location: time], a much more public and formal apology was issued to the former students of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons [Location: place]. In this apology [Location: place] Harper stated, “The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history.” In this statement [Location: place], Harper acknowledged that “very young children were often forcibly [Manner: quality] removed from their homes . . . inadequately [Manner: quality] fed, clothed and housed.” He also noted that, as a tool of assimilation [Role: guise], the schools prohibited the speaking of Native languages and the practice of Native cultures.

Similarly, circumstances were significantly used in a linguistics procedural text on science communication, constituting over 50% of the word count of a single paragraph on data selection in a methods section. The circumstance of Role was important to achieving the purpose of the paragraph and was readily incorporated into students’ own methods sections.

As this is a leading, peer-reviewed journal in the discipline of Computer Science, its articles can be considered as representative, quality articles of this field [Role: guise]. (^{O’Leary, 2019})

Finally, in chemistry, discussion of the circumstances demonstrates how they help texts achieve their purpose. In the excerpt below, the circumstances give methodological details about the experimental processes, and the final Roles of both product and guise concisely present the results of the experiment.

The combined organic extracts were dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate [Location: place], filtered and evaporated to dryness [Role: product] to give eugenol as a light yellow oil (0.97 g, 5.9 mmol) [Role: guise]. (^{The Learning Centre, The University of Sydney, 2012})

These few instances of circumstances of Role demonstrate exactly the affordances of using a full taxonomy of circumstance types for pedagogical purposes, rather than a simplified or abbreviated one. Ignoring or glossing over such uncommon yet powerful examples would miss opportunities to fully engage with and appreciate their critical meanings and logic. In the arts in particular, this risks whitewashing history, as it can be all too easy to gloss over the roles, perspectives and contextual factors that situate uncomfortable histories. By working with a full taxonomy of circumstances and their probe questions, we enable critical reading to not only rely on implicit cultural knowledge but instead scaffold a grammatical basis for tackling texts. This provides the opportunity to draw attention to a meaning which elevates the writing of the discipline by providing necessary detail and analytical lenses.

Textual Instantiations: For Organization and Focus

One of the key criteria for identifying a ranking circumstance is whether it can be moved around the clause without changing the ideational meaning. In the following excerpts from history and sociology articles analyzed in our coursework, the underlined circumstances occur either within the verbal group or in clause-final position. Consider, however, how they might be moved between either of these positions or even to the front of the clause:

So far, most of the running against Chief Justice Allan McEachern’s findings in Delgamuukw v. B.C. has been made by native people and anthropologists. Both groups have, quite rightly, objected to the denigration of native cultures, to the fact that oral testimony was first admitted then dismissed, and to the assertion that anthropologists were largely unreliable witnesses. Lawyers have also commented on the case in print, and will do so in more detail when the argument is rejoined in the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Without wishing to diminish the force of any of these criticisms, I want to look at the judgment from the point of view of an historian [Angle: viewpoint]. McEachern’s “Reasons for Judgment” is a “book” that also ought to be reviewed as a piece of historical writing in its historio-graphical context. (^{Fisher, 1992}, p. 43)

We examine the Idle No More movement within the framework of a relational understanding of social inclusion [Location: place: (metaphoric) location], drawing from both western social theory and Indigenous perspectives in order to take into account relations of power, inequality and discourse as advanced through a relational understanding of social inclusion and exclusion. (^{Wotherspoon & Hansen, 2013}, pp. 22-23)

Thematically, the excerpts build the field of expert analysis and embodied experience through fronting Sayers, Verbiage, and Senser participants (native people, anthropologists, lawyers, the authors and their nominalized findings). It uses circumstances to merely “illuminate” the process from the periphery and introduce new perspectives and frameworks in the rheme to be further developed in the text.

In a Theme analysis, fronted circumstances are identified as marked topical Themes: marked because they are atypical, and topical because they often signal key information about the topic of the clause. In the context of academic writing, the major considerations are choosing what to emphasize in Theme position, and building or shifting focus through Theme patterns. Fronting or thematizing circumstances does change textual meanings by providing greater emphasis through the new point of departure for the clause as “marked [circumstantial] Themes indicate that these clauses, together, are doing something significantly different from immediately preceding clauses” (^{Eggins, 2004}, p. 320). As such, it is an extremely practicable tool for students and particularly language learners for building cohesion.

In the examples above, moving these circumstances to Theme position would shift the focus to these analytical lenses. This, in turn, might risk limiting engagement and discussion prematurely if the reader is put off by the prominence of such a lens. In the next excerpt, fronting the circumstance serves that very purpose of deliberately framing a (limited) perspective. It articulates a ‘mainstream perspective’ as a distinct position no longer to be assumed and left unsaid, and in contrast with the subsequent thematized participant and their lived experience:

From mainstream perspectives, the era of colonialism may have ended between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, when former British colonies such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia were granted independence. Indigenous peoples, though, remained under colonial rule. (^{Wotherspoon & Hansen, 2013}, pp. 28-29)

At both a clause level and at larger staging levels, patterns of marked topical Themes are fundamental in helping texts achieve their purposes (^{Humphrey et al., 2012}; ^{Eggins, 2004}). In the chronological recount from ^{Lightfoot (2015)} discussed earlier, the fronted circumstances of Location: time set up the chronological sequence, thus providing a linear flow through disparate events separated by geographic and political location. In that descriptive section, the fronted circumstances provide emphasis on the time. In comparison, the analytical section includes more circumstances near the process and at the end of the clause, shifting Thematic meaning to the participants and thus returning circumstances to their peripheral role in ‘augmenting’ the process.

While fronted circumstances of Location are particularly clear in historical and geographic texts, highlighting their position in the clause is also useful for other types, as well as highlighting when not to front them. ^{Chen (2016)} observes through corpus analysis that circumstances of Angle: source are usually Thematized in Chinese, while in English they are equally likely to be in final position in the clause as at the front. As Chinese-speaking students form a significant proportion of our students, this insight is useful and valuable in our teaching context by highlighting where interlingual interference could take place. Having access to both the experiential meaning of ‘Angle: source’ and the textual meaning of ‘marked topical Theme’ provides a metalanguage for encouraging students to make more informed decisions of when and how to use these particular circumstances.

Interpersonal Instantiations: In Relation to One Another

Circumstances can also play a role in the interpersonal metafunction: while at the lexicogrammatical stratum we could consider their role as circumstantial adjuncts in the Mood system, we wish to shift to the discourse semantics stratum, and in particular focus on the Appraisal system (J. R. ^{Martin & White, 2005}). Here, interpersonal relations can operate across constituent categories, drawing meaningful connections. At the same time, this can make them difficult to teach to novice writers, as any and all grammatical categories can be considered. We propose that focusing on relevant circumstantial types can provide an accessible starting point for students to enhance critical reading and writing by adding an interpersonal lens to the established experiential meanings. Certain circumstances have distinct interpersonal meanings and thus provide a point of focus for teaching; here we show briefly how circumstances are used in evaluation (Attitude and Graduation) and in expanding or contracting the dialogic space (Engagement).

Interrogating the circumstance Angle: viewpoint can demonstrate critical perspectives; see, for example, the following excerpt and subsequent explanation to students from our teaching materials:

In 1982, Canada ratified its new constitution. In Section 35(1) it provides constitutional protection for “any existing Aboriginal right.” However, from an indigenous perspective, the constitutional protection, while valuable, does not go far enough since it only protects the rights secured up until that point in history. (^{Lightfoot, 2010}, p. 100)

The explicit articulation of perspective highlights Indigenous peoples’ opinion that the Canadian constitution’s protection for “any existing Aboriginal right” is insufficient, in contrast to an assumption that the Canadian constitution does enough to secure title to traditional lands. (^{Walsh Marr, 2020})

Such teaching materials highlight these circumstances to draw students’ attention to how authors position themselves and their claims, how they attempt to establish their authority and alignment with the reader, and any assumptions about their reader. Specifically relevant to a discussion of the circumstance Angle: source, J.R. ^{Martin and White (2005)} state,

it is possible for attributed material to be implicated in the alignment strategies at work in the text. These are mechanisms by which the reader is covertly positioned to regard the attributed material as either highly credible and warrantable, or alternatively, as dubious and unreliable. High credibility can be implied via the use of sources who have high status in the field… or as Hood 2004 has observed, via the assembling of a multiplicity of sources in support of the attributed material. (p. 116)

Contextualized examples such as the following demonstrate how circumstances can differentiate the source of authority within a text; we task students with deciding whether these indicate alignment and solidarity (pp. 114-115), or acknowledge but distance (p. 113) the author from the source:

Nevertheless, it [UNDRIP] does now form part of the international human rights consensus, and according to a UN press release, represents a “major step forward towards the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all . . . [through] . . . the General Assembly’s important role in setting international standards.” (^{Lightfoot, 2010}, pp. 86-87)

The Indian Act identifies those Indians with “status” as distinct from those without it. According to the Indian Act, only status Indians are eligible for benefits or exemption from taxation. Once status is lost, it cannot be regained. Status can only be retained by living on a reserve. The Act is widely criticized by First Nations and Inuit, but especially by Métis and urban Aboriginal peoples. (^{Lightfoot, 2010}, p.100)

The analysis of underlying positioning achieved by certain circumstances extends to Accompaniment: comitative:

Without legal authority or foundation, in the 1880’s Canada instituted a “pass system” that was intended to confine First Nations people to their reserves. (^{trc, 2015}, p. 1)

It further extends to Location: place to situate a statement or analysis:

New Zealand is willing to make legal and policy moves in indigenous rights within the framework of the Doctrine of Discovery interpretation of reconciliation, but it always remains solidly within this framework. (^{Lightfoot, 2010}, p. 96)

The examples above answer the circumstance probe questions (in order): From what perspective? According to whom? With what (authority)? Where (within what framework/ideology)? They are critical questions to ask, and can also serve as a checklist for students to ask of texts that don’t explicitly articulate such contextual information, allowing them to uncover missing information, assumptions and/or biases. This useful access point provides structures for strategic integration into writing and gives access to interpersonal meanings in addition to the ideational ones.

As we have demonstrated, circumstances provide a wealth of information, both in their frequency and commonality, and in their rarity and exceptionality. Accessing this information provides important insight for students in engaging with critical reading, as well as important strategies for adding detail to writing. Circumstances also provide an important tool for building flow in a text through their use as marked topical Themes, both by connecting clauses to previous information in a text as well as by strategically choosing what to emphasize in Theme position. Finally, circumstances can also provide a lens for examining interpersonal positioning by providing questions for identifying perspectives as well as emphasizing how dialogic space may be expanded or contracted. Thus far, however, we have only considered ranked circumstances; there is a broader range of circumstantial meaning that can be used to enhance teaching.

Circumstantial Information: For Clarity of Meaning, Not Complexity of Form

^{Dreyfus and Bennett’s (2017)} extended discussion of circumstantial information complicates yet enhances our comprehension of circumstances. They expand the discussion of circumstantial information at different strata of language, moving beyond the formal manifestations of circumstances to downranked prepositional phrases functioning as post-modifications within noun groups, and scaling up to dependent clauses. This movement of information across formal grammatical constituents is a key component of introducing grammatical metaphor to novice writers.

The specific form of grammatical metaphor known as nominalization is an important feature of scholarly texts (^{Liardét, 2018}). Nominalization shifts processes into nouns, serving to ‘pack up’ information into denser lexical bundles. Nominalized as a phenomenon, a process can now not only be held in a more stable form, it can be further described and analyzed with pre- and post-modification. Prepositional phrases previously functioning as circumstances around a process might now become part of the nominalization, often as a pre-modifying adjective, classifying noun, or post-modifying prepositional phrase as shown below:

From an Indigenous perspective, people relate to land in an intimate way.

Indigenous beliefs centre intimate relations to land.

The beliefs of Indigenous people centre intimate relations to land.

Highlighting grammatical metaphor as a phenomenon allows for analysis of language features used to construct meaning; close attention to how ideational meaning can be represented congruently or metaphorically across formal grammatical categories facilitates enhanced paraphrasing skills (^{Walsh Marr, 2019}). Grammatical metaphor is also an aspect of ^{Dreyfus and Bennett’s (2017)} argument for the recognition of circumstantial information, contextual information that can be packed up metaphorically into pre- and post-modifications within noun groups, or expanded into dependent clauses. They focus on how circumstantial meaning manifests across a spectrum of possible instantiations, expanding the range of units of analysis. This allows us to access broader meanings, regardless of their grammatical categories, and to deploy the probe questions to interrogate context.

For example, from ^{Lightfoot (2015)}, we show our students how circumstantial information can manifest across various forms (followed by the relevant probe questions):

Post-modifiers in noun groups: “…a lunchtime ceremony in a government meeting room in Ottawa” (Where?)

Pre-modifiers in noun groups: “The 1998 Canadian “apology”…” (When? Who for?)

Dependent clauses: “… because an apology has been offered.” (Why?)

Reduced/Non-finite clauses: “Given the notable recent increase in the number and prominence of state apologies to Indigenous peoples, coupled with debate among Indigenous peoples over the intent, sincerity, and outcome of these apologies, it is appropriate to assess the value of state apologies to Indigenous peoples in comparative perspective.” (Why?)

In identifying and manipulating forms, we categorize ranked circumstances in relation to metaphorical and expanded circumstantial information. This delineation of form serves to clarify ranking circumstances, and more importantly, the meaning of the information in play. This provides a more comprehensive, inclusive approach to texts; in casting a broader analytical lens, we see more of the contextual information included and gain a better comprehension of meaning.

Table 3 shows an excerpt separated by clauses and connected to type of circumstantial information through probe questions. The form of the circumstantial information in the clause is indicated in superscript as follows:

We point out how in 2, 4, and 7 the multiple probe questions indicate cascading post-modification, and confirm the focus of the additional information (head noun or process). This approach risks labeling almost anything as circumstantial information. However, at this point we are tasking the students with answering specific probe questions, not doing an analysis of all potential circumstantial information that may be contained in an excerpt. Our subsequent tasks bring students’ attention back to pragmatic application to their academic literacy and performance.

To practice their lexicogrammatical flexibility (in service to paraphrasing), students are tasked with rendering the circumstantial information into ranking circumstances in the form of prepositional phrases; first with dependent clauses:

using this new Indigenous-specific framework

then shifting the verb to preposition:

with this new Indigenous-specific framework

and finally paraphrasing the noun group within the prepositional phrase:

with ^{James’ (2008)} Indigenous-informed criteria

This formula for paraphrasing breaks down the otherwise nebulous process into manageable pieces through labelling the discrete components and the shifts they can make (^{Walsh Marr, 2019}). It also demonstrates to students the underlying meaning that prepositions carry-a topic typically neglected.

Probe questions are useful as catalysts for both analyzing and drafting texts. For critical reading, probe questions serve to interrogate the type of contextual information manifest or missing from a text. The task of identifying what type of information is included is the first step. A further analytical task is to ask about circumstantial information that may be embedded, assumed, or omitted; referring to probe questions such as “When?”, “Where?” and “What about?” can establish background information for a more comprehensive initial understanding. Deeper analysis can be facilitated by looking for “How?”, “Who for?”, “According to whom?”, and “From which perspective?”. When this type of circumstantial information is investigated, it can shed light on biases, enabling students’ critical engagement with texts and facilitating their own writing. One task to aid in the development of these skills is to provide a text with only simple participants and processes and see what questions emerge; this helps students appreciate the role of contextual information that circumstances (and circumstantial information) typically provide. Another task is to give different groups of students the same image, but give each group a different writing prompt with circumstance probes typical of the genre. Thus, a description includes circumstances about time, duration, Location, Manner of occurrence, any tools or instruments involved, and comparison to other events; an explanation includes conditions, reasons and consequence of its occurrence; and a recommendation prompts students to include circumstantial information about the purpose and beneficiaries of those recommendations as well as consider various viewpoints on those recommendations (^{Tervit & Walsh Marr, 2019}).

Probe questions can also be used as catalysts for text revision, as enhancement through meanings of location, manner, cause and contingency can be expressed either through conjunctions or circumstances. Using these probe questions to interrogate and revise a text “can be thought of as a ‘next step’ in developing circumstantial meanings” (^{Eggins, 2004}, p. 283), giving emerging writers scaffolds to consider what additional information could and should be incorporated. Prompting students to address particularly manner, cause, and contingency facilitates a more comprehensive, satisfying text.