Systemic Functional Linguistics & Grammar

1.    How is systematic model of language strata?

Hallidayan Functional Theory of Language. Halliday (1994) points out that, in order to make sense of a text, "the natural tendency is to think of a text as a thing—a product" while "seeing the text in its aspect as a process”. Analysist of the different aspects of the language.

a.    Context of culture (Why-Genre/Purposes)

Context of culture is about genre (text types). It is general framework that gives purposes to interactions of particular types adaptable to the many specific contexts of situation that they get used in.

b.   Context of situation (What is going on?-Register)

Context of situation discusses ‘what is going on?.’ It concerns to social envioronment & functional organization of language. It is about register. Register is the language associated with a given situation type. Context of situation presents three register variables.

·         Field (Who): it refers to the subject matter and it probes questions such as: what is happening, to whom, where and when, why it is happening, and so on.

·         Mode (What): It refers to the social relation existing between the interactants in a speech situation. It it refers to the social relation existing between the interactants in a speech situation. It includes relations of formality, power, and affect (manager/clerk, father/son). Tenor influences interpersonal choices in the linguistic system, and thereby it affects role the structures and the strategies chosen to activate the linguistic exchange.

·         Tenor (How): It describes the way the language is being used in the speech interaction, including the medium (spoken, written, written to be spoken, etc.) as well as the rhetorical mode (expository, instructive, persuasive, etc.).

c.    Language

Language is a meaning making system and it may be influenced by culture and context. There is the stratafication in language. It is called semiotic system. Semiotic system consists of meaning (discourse / semantics), words and structures (lexico – grammar), sounds /letters (phonology/graphology)

For example:

2.    How is strata within language?

Language strata works with three levels of analysis within language as based on SFL framework. They are as follows:

a.    Semantics

Semantics studies how the text is organised as a system of meanings. It is the study of word meanings and the ways in which word are related to one another in our mental lexicon. Thus, semantics is the linguistic study of meaning.

b.   Grammar

Grammar studues how the sentence is structured into units of words and phrases.

c.    Phonology

Phonology studies how the text is organised as a system of soundings (phonemes, tone units, turns, etc.). It defines the sound systems of different language and the study of such systems generally.

d.   Graphology

Graphology studies how the text is organised as a system of written symbols (characters, sentences, paragraphs, etc.)

3.    How is lexico grammar?

a.    Lexico grammar (Word Structures)

SFL is an approach to linguistics that considers language as a system.  The label "Systemic" is related to the System  Networks used in the description of the Lexico grammar of human languages. Lexico grammar concerns the syntactic organization of words into utterances. It is a level of linguistic structure where lexis, or vocabulary, and grammar, or syntax, combine into one. It is called “Lexico-grammar” to emphasise that it is words and their combination that makes sentences. For example:

4.    How many areas is systematic grammar broken down into? Explain each of them

Grammar is represented as a graph called a system network. This comprises and systems (curly braces) or systems (straight vertical lines), realisation statements (in italic). Systemic Grammar breaks down into three main areas:

a.    Transitivity grammatical system that aims to describe the option of representational/ideational meaning. In order to talk about language used to express experience need the following metalanguages: (1) processes: what kind of event is being described, e.g., material, relational, projecting. (2) participants: the entities involved in the process, e.g., actor, agent, carrier, goal, sayer. (3) circumstances (cause, location, manner, accompaniment): the adjuncts of the clause, specifying when, where, why, etc.

b.    Mood grammatical system that relates to interpersonal meaning. Mood block = subject + finite. Predicator = verbal group – finite. Adjunct = circumstances. Complement = other nominal group, that complete argument. Residue = predicator + complement + adjunc

c.    Theme grammatical system that captures the organization of message. It means that what the message is concerned with the point of departure for what the speaker is going to say. There are types of theme, they are topical theme, textual theme, interpersonal.

5.    What does semantic strata comprise of? Explain each of them

In semantics, the speaker does not choose between forms but between meanings. However, systemic semantics includes what is usually called ‘pragmatics.’ Semantics strata is divided into three components. They are into ideational semantics, interpersonal semantics and textual semantics.

a.    Ideational semantics studies the representation of the ideational content (of clauses, or of whole texts). It is initially about the prepositional content.

b.    Interpersonal Semantics studies speech functions.

·         Sentence level: speech acts (called ‘speech functions’)

·         Discourse level: Organisation of sequences of speech-acts into exchanges, turns, etc. Also, analysis of evaluations in text (Appraisal theory)

c.    Textual Semantics studies how the text is organised as a message:

·         Generic structure: the staging of a text, e.g., as introduction, body, conclusions

·         Rhetorical structure: organising of sentences as facilitating others (e.g., evidence, example, result, etc.)

·         Thematic progression: how the selections of themes throughout a text are organised to help the reader understand what the text is about.

6.  What does this picture mean?

SFL is descriptive. So, there are no right or wrong. Genre (text types) is represented through language. Language is a meaning making system (semantics, grammar, phonology, graphology) and it may be influenced by culture and context. Context of culture is about genre (text types). While context of situation is about main idea (field, tenot, mode). Therefore, there are context of situation, semantic strata, and SFG in a text. Context of situation is about field, tenor, and mode. Semantic strata is about textual, interpersonal, ideational. SFG is about theme, mood, transitivity. In conclusion:

Genre (text types) is represented through language (semantics, grammar, phonology, graphology).
	Context of situation	Semantic Strata	SFG
Start	Mode	Textual	Theme
Middle	Tenor	Interpersonal	Mood
Finish	Field	Ideational	Transitivity

What does this picture mean?

SFL is descriptive. So, there are no right or wrong. Genre (text types) is represented through language. Language is a meaning making system (semantics, grammar, phonology, graphology) and it may be influenced by culture and context. Context of culture is about genre (text types). While context of situation is about main idea (field, tenot, mode). Therefore, there are context of situation, semantic strata, and SFG in a text. Context of situation is about field, tenor, and mode. Semantic strata is about textual, interpersonal, ideational. SFG is about theme, mood, transitivity. In conclusion:

Genre (text types) is represented through language (semantics, grammar, phonology, graphology).
	Context of situation	Semantic Strata	SFG
Start	Mode	Textual	Theme
Middle	Tenor	Interpersonal	Mood
Finish	Field	Ideational	Transitivity