Systematic Functional Linguistics
Texts are viewed by SFL’s as being multi-functional. Halliday (2014, p. 83) stated that there are three main kinds of meaning “embodied in the structure of a clause."
These three clause symptoms or metafunctions were:
Table 10.1 Painter (in Burns &
Coffin, 2013, p.177)
In Summary:
1. Ideational: (experimental) meaning about the world: expressing what is going
on, content of what is being talked about, concerns with the natural world,
with clauses and representations:clause as representation, system of
transivity, structure of process + Actor + Goal-(clauses as representation)
2. Interpersonal: meaning between speakers: Constructing the relationship between
speaker/writer and address, expressing stance
(MOOD-declarative/interrogative/imperative, MODALITY- degrees of obligation eg.
Should, must, POLARITY-positive/negative, VOCATION-terms of address sir,
PERSON- ist, me, us, SPEECH FUNCTION- statement, question, answer, command,
ATTITUDE-unfortunately: clause as exchange, system of MOOD, structure Subject(clauses
as exchanges)
Interpersonal was believed to be the social relation between
someone who has knowledge about something and someone who doesn’t. One, the
writer, has power in relation to others, the reader. The writer is in the role
of informing, advising and warning. In the news articles viewed, the journalist the informer, has power over the reader.
3. Textual: which means according to Martin ( in Burns and Coffin, 2013, p. 154)"meanings relating to pieces of text to each other and their content." Creating coherence: making links with co-text and context THEME-ordering of elements eg. This, I don’t need, INFORMATION FOCUS- phonological level-placement of stress, REFERENCE, CONJUNCTION-linkers of time, causality, contrast, focuses on how language is structured to create coherent texts: clause as a message, system theme, structure theme^Rheme(clauses as messages)
According to Fairclough (2003, p.26), Systematic Functional
Linguistics (SFL) view texts as simultaneously having ‘ideational,’
‘interpersonal’ and ‘textual’ functions” in whole and parts of texts. Halliday
(1978, 1994, in Fairclough, 2003, p.27), stated that texts represent the
physical, social and mental world and “enact social relations between
participants in social events and the attitudes, desires and values of
participants” connecting the parts of texts together.
Fairclough (2003) stated that when analysing texts
look at Action (interpersonal), Representation (ideational) and Identification
in relation to the vocabulary and grammar. These three aspects of meaning according to Fairclough (2003), are related. Their relation is to the persons in the event, to knowledge, to others
and to themselves.
According to Martin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013) these three systems matched up with register groups:
Field-ideational-what is going on, what people are doing eg tennis, education
Tenor-interpersonal-the interactants, roles and relations,
the way you relate to people when doing what you do-status
Mode-textual meanings- the channel and medium of
communication eg. writing
Figure 10.1 Painter(in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p. 178)
According to Martin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.154), “this correlation between register categories and functional components in the grammar.... allows you to look at grammatical choices and to understand the contribution they are making to the contextual meaning of a sentence." These grammatical choices are made by the author which impacts the meaning of the sentence.
Systematic Functional Linguists view language as choices of systems.
According to Martin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p. 154), these choices include:
Grammatical Choices such as:
Voice: active/passive
Mood: distinguishing statements from questions and
exclamations
Theme: the way speakers order constituents in a clause
The context of the text and culture leads to an understanding of the meaning of what the author is writing.
According to Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013) SF linguists believe that the structure of a text changes over time in a particular culture, due to its purpose or function. A text has different parts involving participants with differing social purposes. SFL register analysis according to Halliday (in Burns & Collins, 2013) includes the field of a spoken or written text. This is the cultural activity or subject matter that the writer is concerned with. The tenor as Halliday advocated (in Burns & Collins, 2013) is the social relations between the speaker and listener. They are either of equal status, or one of them is more powerful than the other. It includes the role of instructor and whether the tone is familiar or distant or written in a formal or informal style. The mode according to Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.175), “refers to the medium of communication…whether it is spoken or written” and the medium of communication whether in print, email, on the internet, and so on. The effect of physical distance also has an impact on the mode. The writer of a news article for instance, is at a physical distance from the readers. The writer may live in a different country from the reader. Painter in (Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.175) states that “genre and register are needed to give the most useful and revealing account of how we use language differently in different situations.”
Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p. 176) states that “SFL models the language as sets of related choices or options, each of which is called a system."Language is not viewed as a set of rules. For instance, the choice of active voice eg. The girls ate the chocolate which has the subject first (the girls), then the verb (ate) and lastly the object (chocolate), compared to the passive voice of, the chocolate was eaten by the girls which has the object (chocolate) first, the verb second (was eaten) and the subject last (the girls). The verb (was eaten) in the passive voice acts on the subject (the girls). These are different ways of placing information in a clause. These options are within the grammatical system of MOOD.
The active voice is also used in the two news articles chosen.
For example:
In Article 1:
"The declaration bans people.." the subject (declaration) is followed by a verb (bans) and then the object (people)
In Article 2:
"Others said the curfew was unfair", the subject (others) is followed by the verb (said) and the object is (the curfew).
A text shows language being used and the options of the chosen words and structures to form that text. According to Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.177), MOOD relates to interpersonal meaning, “to the speaker’s stance, towards both the topic and the address.”
Martin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.155) notes, that “genre is a staged, goal-orientated, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members of our culture." This may include activities such as telling a story, writing a letter or shopping. Furthermore, according to Martin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p. 155), ”virtually everything you do involves your participating in one or another genre." Genre makes meaning by shaping register.
Figure 9.2 Martin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p. 156)
Language, register and genre
Malinowski (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.163)
argued “you cannot understand a text unless you know something about the
context in which it occurs” which is a social one. People do things with their
lives (field), interacting with others (tenor) communicating (mode.) People
engage in purposeful goal-orientated activities (genre).
The interpretation of social context includes genre (context
of culture) and register (context of situation).
Article 1:
Article 2:
Burns, A., & Coffin, C. (2013). Analyzing English in a global context: A reader. Taylor and Francis.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.
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