Lecture 1 Notes

Chapter 1
Introduction
We are usually unconscious of the important role played by the
particular situation on our choice of language wording.
Indeed, it is by the selection not just of lexical items but also of
grammatical structures that we are able to express different meanings.
In this way we can begin to point to the link between language
wording, meaning expressed and situational context.
A person's emotional outpourings, takes place in the context of a social
situation, that the situation has an impact on the nature and meaning of
the language used and that any account of language must therefore
include reference to that context of use.
In the first half of the 1960s the theory was known as 'scale and
category grammar' (see Halliday 1961). To begin with, attention was
focused largely on grammatical structure alone.
The theory saw the linguistic system as comprising the level of form,
itself made up of lexis and grammar, together with two interlevels,
context and phonology.
Since Hallidy introduced SFL, interest switched to accounting for the
nature of the total system of linguistic meaning available to the native
speaker of a language and for the selection of actual options which a
person makes when using that language on any particular occasion.
These options are thus selected not from the syntax but from the
semantics of the grammar, and they represent the choices of meaning
which the speaker or writer selects and expresses in the context of a
given situation. The options (Paradigmatic/Systemic) are then realized as
elements of the language structure (Syntagmatic), that is to say as the
various component parts of the lexical, grammatical and phonological
form being spoken or written. In this way the grammar had thus become
generative (generated by the context).
The systemic functional framework

Language represents just one of the ways in which we as humans can

behave, that is to say can perform a behavioural act.
Systemic grammar holds that it is a social activity which always takes
place in a context.
The context of situation handles the dimensions of the situation which
have a bearing on the language used and is studied under register.
Related to the contextual dimensions, language is interpreted as
fulfilling a number of different functions: ideational, interpersonal and
textual, in that it enables people to express different types of meanings.
In systemic linguistics the grammar or linguistic system of a language
itself is seen as comprising three levels or strata:
The semantics account for the structure and patterning of the different
components of linguistic meaning of a text and, reflecting the different
functions which language fulfils, are normally seen as constituting the
grammar's generative base. The lexicogrammar accounts through
syntax, morphology and lexis for the wording structure and patterning of
a text, and the phonology accounts for its sound structure and
patterning.
Together the lexicogrammatical and phonological/graphological strata
realize the output from the semantic stratum, that is to say they translate
the meaning of each of the semantic components into discrete
lexicogrammatical and phonological/graphological structures which are
then mapped onto one another.
A text involves the fusion of several different layers of structure, in
which the lexicogrammar and phonology/graphology give linguistic
form to the semantic output.

The semantic generative orientation of systemic grammar thus stands in

sharp contrast to that found in versions of the standard theory of
transformational grammar.
Context of Situation
The situational context surrounding acts of verbal behaviour is studied
through the parameters of register.
Register is, traditionally in systemic grammar, studied in terms of three
parameters: field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of
discourse.
The field of discourse is concerned with the subject matter of the text,
what the text is about, e.g. mountaineering, choral music, gardening, car
maintenance, interior decorating, meteorology.
For example, the text Whip the cream until it is thick relates to the field
of food preparation and concerns the processing (whip) of a food
(cream) for a given period of time (until thick).
The tenor of discourse is concerned with the social status and role of
the various participants and the relationship between them in the
situation. This will be reflected in the degree of formality or familiarity
in the wording of the text.
The mode of discourse is concerned with the language medium through
which the text is expressed. The two primary contrasts are 'spoken',
which people might initially associate with 'spoken to be heard' as in
ordinary conversation, and 'written' which might be most readily
connected with 'written to be read' as with a book, newspaper, letter, email or fax.

The context of culture reflects the social and cultural background in

which the language is set and the participants' understanding of the
prevailing social meanings and cultural values. In systemic linguistics it
is studied under genre, which is concerned with the classification of
types of social behaviour within a given cultural environment and, using
that framework, with the assignment of the function of any given
interaction.
Language Functions and Semantic Stratum
Halliday posits the view that there are essentially three main linguistic
functions which adult language fulfils: ideational, interpersonal and
textual.
Ideational function
Reflecting the field parameter of register, the ideational function of
language is concerned with the communication and interlinking of ideas
and may itself be broken down into the experiential and logical
functions.
The experiential function is the one whereby a speaker expresses the
prepositional content elements of his/her utterance, in other words
communicates his/her ideas.
In operating this function the speaker refers to people, objects and
abstractions, actions, events and states, features and qualities, and
relationships of location, time, manner, reason, etc.

The logical function relates the prepositional ideas and elements of

these ideas to each other on an equal or subordinate basis. It thus
encompasses relationships of coordination, subordination, apposition
and modification.
Interpersonal function
The interpersonal function mirrors the tenor parameter of register and is
evidenced in two main ways: through verbal interaction and exchanges

with others and through personal mediation/modulation of the main

idea/content.
Types of Verbal Interaction
Social Interaction
Instrumental Interaction
Informational Interaction
Expressive Interaction
Personal mediation is realized by the use of words like probably
maybe or by the use of terms of reference like to be frank Honestly
Textual function
The textual (or discoursal) function is described by Halliday as the one
whereby language serves as a means to create texts as opposed to merely
isolated and disconnected sentences. It is the function which organizes
the language in a textual corpus in such a way as to give it narrative
coherence (in which the ideas are presented in an acceptably logical
sequence) and message cohesion (in which the wording of a sentence in
a discourse takes account of and is linked to that of previous sentences),
to arrange it as units of information, and to avoid unwanted redundancy.
Through the textual function the speaker is, firstly, able to give a
thematic structure to the elements of the clause content, thereby
highlighting one or other element in first position and giving it thematic
prominence. Compare, for example, the following:
They bought the computer yesterday. (Agent they as theme)
The computer they bought yesterday. (Goal the computer as theme)
Yesterday they bought the computer. (Time yesterday as theme)
Secondly, the speaker organizes the clause content in terms of
information units. Each of these contains an element which is being
presented as new information in respect of previous discourse and may
also contain an element of given information, which is being presented
as being recoverable from previous discourse. Then through the use of
phonological stress, the speaker centres attention on one (or more)
part(s) of each information unit as the information focus.

Thirdly, he/she is able to use pro forma expressions to refer to one or

more elements previously mentioned in the discourse without having to
repeat their information content in full.
Fourthly, through ellipsis a person can omit entirely repeated mention
of those elements which he/she considers to be recoverable from an
earlier part of the discourse, e.g.
I'm not available. Are you___ ?
Lastly, within the textual function, through the resources of conjunction
(a broader concept than 'conjunctions') the speaker can insert words and
phrases to mark different types of cohesive relationships between
clauses and sentences.
The Semantic Stratum
In Halliday's schema, three components are recognized: the ideational
component with its experiential and logical subcomponents, the
interpersonal component with interactional and personal subcomponents,
and the textual component comprising thematic, informational and
cohesive subcomponents.
An important feature regarding the organization of this semantic stratum
is that although each of the components is discrete and distinct in its own
right, they all contribute to the overall meaning and structure of the text.
They are, further, seen as doing so simultaneously, without any sense of
priority being accorded to one or other of the components.
In the sentence John must have worked very hard at his project because
he got a distinction. A crude, first stage analysis may be given as
follows:
ideational: John ... have worked very hard at John's project;
because;
John got a distinction.
interpersonal: giving information:
must.
textual:
selection of John as first element of sentence;
referential (anaphoric) use of his in main clause;
referential (cataphoric) use of he in subordinate clause.

The standard Hallidayan arrangement of the components of the semantic

stratum and their relationship to the components of the register context
can be represented as follows:

The Systemic Orientation

The name 'systemic grammar' is derived from the fact that a language is
seen as being a huge, integrated series of systems networks of meaning
potential.
The situational context provides the semiotic parameters and constraints,
including the interactional purpose of what the speaker 'is doing'
behaviourally in using the language. The semantics accounts for what
the language 'can mean' and, within that, what the speaker 'is meaning'.
The lexicogrammar then specifies the word-form which the meaning
can take, what the speaker 'can say' and, in any one instance, what he/she
'is saying'. What he/she does actually say on any occasion therefore
reflects the way that he/she operates or actualizes the language's
potential. In a broad sense the grammar seeks, through the semantic
networks, to display the meaning potential which the speaker can utilize
and, through the lexicogrammar, to indicate the wording which a given
meaning may take.