Rankshifting: What you should have Known
Rankshifting: What you should have Known
Rankshifting or shift in rank is a grammatical process that affects the grammatical elements on the rank scale. The grammatical rank scale refers to the hierarchy of elements of structure starting from the lowest being morphemes, to the highest—sentences, and vice versa. Rankshifting occurs when an element at the top of the food chain is reduced to the level of an element immediately below it or a few steps below it. In other words, it is the process of deranking or reducing an element of structure at a higher rank in the hierarchy of grammatical elements to the rank of an element lower than it.
Grammatical Rank Scale:
Sentence > Clause > Group/Phrase > Word > Morpheme
For example;
a. What you need now
The element of structure above is obviously a clause, a beta or dependent clause. Now check out this other example;
b. What you need now is a cup of coffee.
Did you see what just happened? I just picked a clause which is higher than a group on the grammatical rank scale and brought it down to the level of a group. How is that? If you observe the clause-complex above, you would realize that the clause, "what you need now" is the subject of the structure above coming before the predicator element, is. We already know that only a nominal group—a noun or any element functioning as a noun in a clause or clause-complex—so the fact that a dependent clause is made to function as the subject of the clause automatically makes it a nominal group by function.
How is the dependent clause, "What you need now" a nominal group, functionally? It is a nominal group not just because it functions as the subject of the clause, but also because none of its elements can be removed without rendering it useless. Take for example;
a. What need now
b. You need now
c. What you now
None of the structures above make sense when an element is isolated, and this is because all the elements work together to express a singular meaning—the concept of what you need now—as the subject.
So rankshifting can take place in: Words, and Groups
Words
Clauses can be rankshifted to function as words which form the elements of structure of a group. The structure of a group is (M)H(Q) and a clause can be rankshifted to fit into any of those elements. Take for example;
a. The big book is extraordinary.
Compare with;
b. The book which is voluminous is extraordinary.
In clause (b) a beta clause—"which is voluminous", is inserted into the nominal group at the subject position, right after the headword to function as an element of the nominal group. That is, the clause has been rankshifted to function as a word which is the qualifier element of the nominal group.
Groups
Rankshifting can also occur when groups are made to function as elements of other groups. Remember the structure of a group is (M)H(Q), so whatever group is being rankshifted will fall into the category of (M) or (Q). For example;
a. The book smells nice.
Compare with;
b. The book on the shelf smells nice.
"on the shelf" is a prepositional group, an element directly above words and directly below clauses on the rank scale, and it is made to function as the qualifier (Q) element of another group—a nominal group at the subject level.
So rankshifting is basically the act of demoting a grammatical element on the grammatical rank scale to function at the level of an element below it.
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