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Experiential / Ideational Metafunction

The document discusses experiential metafunction and ideation in systemic functional linguistics, focusing on how language construes our experiences of reality through processes like material processes that describe actions, mental processes that describe thinking, and relational processes that describe attributes. It provides examples of how nominal groups typically represent participants in processes and examines the system of transitivity for classifying different process types and how they function in context. Circumstances are also discussed as they provide additional information about processes.

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Toñuko Pegasuko
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66 views17 pages

Experiential / Ideational Metafunction

The document discusses experiential metafunction and ideation in systemic functional linguistics, focusing on how language construes our experiences of reality through processes like material processes that describe actions, mental processes that describe thinking, and relational processes that describe attributes. It provides examples of how nominal groups typically represent participants in processes and examines the system of transitivity for classifying different process types and how they function in context. Circumstances are also discussed as they provide additional information about processes.

Uploaded by

Toñuko Pegasuko
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Experiential /

Ideational
Metafunction
Ideation focuses on the content of a
discourse: what kinds of activities are
undertaken, and how participants in
these activities are described, how they
are classified and what are they
composed of. Ideation is concerned with
how our experience of reality, material
and symbolic, is construed in discourse.
Martin and Rose 2003 p. 66
Who did what to whom under
which circumstances?

What theme/content
is represented?
How?
Patterns of Experience in the Clause

Prepositional phrases, adverbial groups,


nominal groups as CIRCUMSTANCES
surrounding the clause.

Verbal Group as
PROCESS

Most nominal groups


as PARTICIPANTS in
the process

From Butt et al 2003 p.46


Focus on Participants

Participants in processes are realized in the grammar most typically


by nominal groups (and sometimes by prepositional phrases or
embedded clauses.

The current NCLB educational POLICY which will be up for


Reauthorization by the HELP committee in Congress
will be discussed next week

What we talked about needs further consideration


System of Transitivity (process type)

1. Doing
a. Material (encode experience in the real, material world).
b. Behavioral (encode physiological or psychological behavior)

2. Projecting
a. Mental (encode experiences in the inner world of consciousness).
b. Verbal (encode experiences of bringing the inner world outside by
speaking)

3. Being
a. Existential (set up the existence of a sole participant)
b. Relational (encodes relations of being and having between
two participants)
Processes: Their Function in
Context

I felt the wood and decided it Material process (doing)


needed more sanding

I felt that I was at a Mental Process (thinking)


crosshands in my life

I felt tired Relational process (a kind


of being)
Doing: Material and Behavioral
Processes

Material (encode experience in the real, material world).


No restrictions. Anyone/thing can do
arrived, collapsed, works, bolted, bit (Th. 90-91)

Behavioral (encode physiological or psychological behavior)


Needs Consciousness
Sneezed, watched, sang
Projecting: Verbal and Mental
Processes
Thank you for the
delicious food you
bought today for us

She Said

I should get
She thought going now
Being: Existential and
Relational Processes
Existential (set up the existence of a sole participant)
Almost always preceded by there
Are, was, were

Relational (encode relations of being and having


between two participants)
Encode Attibutes/ class memberships or specific identity
Are, was, were, seemed, have, became, felt, belongs to
Circumstances
Type of Circumstance Answers the question Examples

Extent How long? (for) two hours


How Far? (for) two miles
How many times? Five times a week

Location Where? In the yard


When? After dinner

Contingency If what? In case of rain


In spite of rain
In the absence of fine
weather
Cause Why? Because of the rain
What for? For a rest
Circumstances (continued..)
Accompaniment With whom? With a friend
And who else? As well as Henry
But not who? Instead of Michael
Matter What about? About suffering

Role What as? As a clown

Manner How? By car


means What with? With a stick

Quality How?
Comparison Quietly
What like? like a trooper
Angle According to whom? To Mary
According to Luke
Transitivity and Intertexts

Now, were fighting evil around the world. And


one way to fight it here at home is to make sure
every child gets a good education
If you want to fight evil, do some good. You
see, if you want to fight evil, love a neighbor like
youd like to be loved yourself. The great
strength of America lies in the hearts and souls
of our citizens (May 8, 2002, Rufus Kind High School,
Milwakee, Wisconsin).
An Example
CCE cl. 1
The great strength lies in the hearts of our citizens
of America and souls

Experiential

Interpersonal
Declarative mood

textual
Experience + Intertextuality
Experiential grammar is thus important in responding critically to the texts we
encounter in our everyday lives. The words and structures chosen by producers
of texts reveal how they experience what is going on in the world. An exploration
of experiential grammar may reveal a great deal about the worldview expressed
in a text, but also, and perhaps more importantly, we should bear in mind that
we interpret the meaning of what texts say in relation to different sets of intertexts
(Lemke p.37). That is:

if the meaning of any fragment of a text, either a word


or a sentence, is defined to be the contribution of that
fragment to the meaning of a larger unit, then we can
see the pointlessness in trying to circumscribe the
meaning of such fragments in isolation (Lemke p. 55).
If we really want to read these two
texts in relation to one another, to
make them intertexts of one another,
then we need to look to still wider
cultural discourse formations
(Lemke p. 55).
How can a Knowledge of process
types inform my teaching of
Narratives?
Identified target: My focal student needs variety
of process types. S/he uses the same ones over
and over.
As you now knowSFL analysis classifies
processes into doing, projecting, and being.
Genre theory (i.e., Knapp p. 228-229) states for
example that more developed narratives use
grammatical features of recounts (sequencing
events temporally realized though action verbs,
and temporal connectives) but also use
processes that project the inner world of
perception, cognition, emotion, and desire as
thought or speech so that it can be perceived by
others.

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