Transcript Document

Linguistics
The sixteenth week
Chapter 4 Syntax
 4.7
Systemic functional grammar
Key points:
 Systemic

functional grammar
the metafunctions of language
Difficult points:
 Ideational
function of language
Systemic functional grammar
 Systemic
Functional Grammar (SFG) was
first proposed in the work of the British
linguist J. R. Firth. Australian linguist M. A. K.
Halliday made great contribution to the
theory.
three metafunctions of language by Halliday:
 Ideational
function
 Textual function
 Interpersonal function
 The three functions are also called macro
functions.
 Language has 7 micro functions.
(i) Ideational function
 Language
can be used to conceptualize the
world. The linguistic forms can represent our
experience. This is the ideational function
of language.
 This shows the design feature of
displacement and specialization.
(1) The boy kicked the post.
 The
process kicked is described as a
material one------“doing verbs”---run, dress,
climb
 Actor---the boy
 Goal---the post
 Even though the sentence is transformed
into passive voiced one, it remains true.
(2) The man liked the new house.
 The
predicator has to do with feeling and
thinking, any action is internal rather
external---hate, love, know, think,
understand
 Sensor--- the man
 Phenomenon---the new house
Mental verbs are different from
material ones semantically
 ①The
verbs of this kind do not form the
present continuous, such as “the man is
liking the house”;
 ② the verbs of this kind are sometimes
referred to as stative verbs in that they
describe a state or condition as opposed to
material verbs which are dynamic.
(3) child is homeless.
The process is relational in that its main purpose is
to relate the two participants together---be,
become, appear
 Attribute--- homeless
 Carrier--- child--- the person who is in that
condition
 The relational process does not allow its verbs to
form the passive: Homeless was being the child.

(4) The girl laughed.
The predicator is behavioral--- cough, yawn, smile.
 Behavioral verbs have some similarity to material
verbs in that they describe physical actions but
they are different in that the action is not
performed on anything---* “A girl laughed boy” is
meaningless.
 Behaver--- the girl
 Behavioral verb--- laughed

(5) The visitor said “Hello”.
 The
process belongs to a large category
called verbal (言语动词)--- say, report, claim,
question, explain.
 Sayer--- the visitor
 Target--- hello--- the object of the saying
(6) There is a girl over there.
 It
consists of clauses in which there acts as
grammatical subject.
 Holliday terms this process existential.
 Existent--- a girl
Interpersonal function:
 Language
serves to set up and maintain
social and personal relations, including
communication roles such as questioner
and respondent, and to express the
language user’s own attitudes and
comments on the content of an utterance.
This is the interpersonal function of
language.
Textual function:
 Language
makes links with itself and with
features of the situation in which it is used.
This is what enables the speaker or writer to
construct a text, and enables the listener or
reader to distinguish a text from a set of
sentences. This is the textual function of
language.
Assignment
 What
is Halliday’s ideational function of
languge? Explain it with the sentence of
“The man liked the new house.”