SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS
SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS
SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS (SFL) and Register
Systemic Functional Linguistics was developed by M.A.K. Halliday
Systemic in SFL refers to a conception of language as a network of systems, or choices, for expressing meaning.
Functional refers to a concern for what language does and how it does it, in contrast to more structural approaches.
SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS (SFL)
Language is functional
Language is construed as a practical means of expressing meanings rather than as an abstract set of relations.
Scholars who influenced Halliday:
Firth gave the notion of language as a set of systems and the importance of context in the interpretation of meaning.
Malinowski, with his emphasis on the relation between language and context, that is, his idea that you need to be in the particular context to understand the meaning of an utterance, and his notion of multiplicities of languages according to situations.
Whorf, who also insisted on how language was influenced by environment.
Hjelmslev, and his notion of language as the level of expression of a higher-level semiotic system.
The functional approach of the Prague school of linguistics, especially with regard to the textual metafunction.
SFL views grammar and lexis (vocabulary) as working together in making meanings: this combination is referred to as lexicogrammar.
According to SFL, meanings are expressed according to three broad metafunctions:
The ideational metafunction is concerned with things (real or imagined) in the world.
It is to do with actions, events and states (referred to as processes), for example, run, occur, be; participants in those processes, for example, he, she, man, car, weather, and the circumstances in which those processes occur, that is, how, when, and where.
Two components of ideational metafunction:
1. the experiential component (to do with experience and understanding of
the world)
2. the logical component (to do with logical relations)
The interpersonal function has to do with relationships between participants, not only in spoken texts, but also in written texts (with regard to how the writer interacts with the reader).
The textual metafunction relates to the construction of text, how it is held together and what gives it texture. The textual function is an enabling function, because the two other functions ‘depend on being able to build up sequences of discourse, organizing the discursive flow, creating cohesion and continuity as it moves along’ (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004: 30).
Another explanation:
The ideational metafunction is that part of the meaning which concerns the way external reality is represented in the text. In informal terms it might be thought of as the content of the message,and is probably what many think of first when they refer to a semantic component. This means that it is intimately concerned with the processes involved, whether they be actions, events or states, the entities involved in these processes, and if mentioned the circumstances within which they take place.
The interpersonal metafunction concerns the relationships that exist between the speaker and his addressee(s), and between the speaker and his message.
The textual metafunction is that part of the meaning potential which makes a text into a text, as opposed to a simple string of words or clauses. It thus involves phenomena such as thematic structure, information structure, and cohesion.
Semiotic and Semantic Metafunctions of Language
To put it simply, field is the subject matter of the text; tenor is the relationship between the author and the audience; and mode is how the text is constructed, particularly whether it is written-like or spoken-like.
Certain linguistic features are more typically expressive of one of the functions than the others
Lexis- ideational meanings
Modal verbs- interpersonal functions
Conjunctions- textual metafunction
Overlap
Pronouns- interpersonal and textual
Certain linguistic features are more typically expressive of one of the functions than the others
Lexis- ideational meanings
Modal verbs- interpersonal functions
Conjunctions- textual metafunction
Overlap
Pronouns- interpersonal and textual
