Language, Context and Text - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2023

Abstract

Michael Halliday’s and Ruqaiya Hasan’s estates have been found to include a large amount of unpublished materials: draft papers, research notes, photographs, comments on student papers and so on. They comprise important elements of their legacy and a potential research resource. In this paper we outline a project to preserve and digitise these materials and to make them readily available internationally. The project is being carried out under the auspices of, and with the support of, the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Inc. (ASFLA).

Abstract

In this paper we revisit the association of types of structure with modes of meaning in systemic functional linguistics (SFL). Focusing mainly on nominal group grammar, we argue that the association of experiential structure with non-recursive systems realised by multivariate structures and logical structure with recursive systems realised by univariate structures needs to be relaxed – in recognition of dependency structures consisting of two elements in a head/dependent relation. We refer to such structures as subjacency duplexes and explore their potential for the analysis of what are often dismissed in SFL as structure markers – adpositions, linkers and binders in particular.

Abstract

This paper presents a text-based comparative study of the construal of entities through nominal groups in Lhasa Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese. It approaches the grammatical description of nominal groups from the ideational and textual perspectives, and gives priority to the perspective “from above”, taking as point of departure the discourse semantic systems of ideation and identification. From the perspective of ideation, the comparison focuses on the classification, description and quantification of entities. From the perspective of identification, the comparison focuses on the presentation or presumption of entities in discourse, and the determination and qualification of them. In terms of grammatical realisations, the nucleus function of a nominal group, Thing, enters into multivariate structures with a range of pre- and post-Thing functions. However, configuration and realisation of the functions are language-specific. This study makes explicit structural consequences of systemic choices in nominal group grammar, and attends to the problem of structural markers, drawing on the notion of “subjacency” structure proposed in Martin et al. (2021) and Martin and Doran (this issue).

Abstract

This study aims to illustrate a systemic functional framework for analysing the change of constructions which are inherently form-meaning correspondences. The study first discusses the value of systemic functional linguistics (hereafter SFL) to solving the perceived problems arising from the theoretical model of grammaticalisation. The dominance of grammaticalisation theory in historical linguistics has led some to equate grammaticalisation with language change. However, a systematic exploration of the semantic change is frequently lost in the literature on grammaticalisation. SFL, since its beginning in the early 1980s, has become a leading linguistics school in dealing with semantic and lexicogrammatical changes and the mapping between meaning and form. This study proposes a framework in which SFL theories allow us to address the critical issues in construction change, hence providing mechanisms for the diachronic analysis of both semantic and lexicogrammatical changes. On the basis of the framework, this study focuses its analysis on the change of resultative constructions (hereafter RCs) in Old Chinese and Old English. The diachronic analysis shows that new constructions emerge through a cycle of language change in which the interaction of semantics and lexicogrammar plays a central role. In addition, semantic condensing and compacting are critical steps in the creation of new constructions.

Abstract

This paper reports on the adaptation of Sydney School genre pedagogy’s Teaching Learning Cycle for the design of a workshop that aims to encourage disability support workers and their managers to think more expansively about the people with intellectual disabilities they work with and support. The paper introduces the pedagogy and its theoretical underpinnings as well as the two fields of knowledge that are drawn on in the workshop: person-centred care and positive behaviour support. It then details the design and implementation of the workshops and finishes with some evidence of the workshop’s initial impact on workers and the disability organisation’s support of people living with disability.

Abstract

This corpus assisted investigation of the auxiliary verb will examines the various modalities and functions realised in the register of political briefings given by Scottish (Holyrood) and United Kingdom (Westminster) representatives throughout the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.

A trinocular approach is taken to consider the lexicogrammatical environment of will (from around), the discourse semantics of will (from above) and the relationship between contraction and meaning (from below).

Our trinocular approach with a focus on will as a highly frequent item with great meaning potential has enabled us to gain insights about the nature of how politicians used modality to persuade, organise and empathise within coronavirus media briefings and thus shape their public personas as leaders.

Abstract

This paper focuses on some language resources for graduating points of view in written Spanish language in the field of history. The analysis is framed in systemic functional linguistic theory, a multifunctional theory of language (Halliday with Matthiessen 2014), and focuses on the appraisal system, which organises interpersonal meanings at the stratum of discourse semantics in language (Martin and White 2005; Martin 2019; White 2021). In particular, it considers the coupling and necessary complementarity of graduation and engagement subsystems, as part of the appraisal system, for building intersubjectivity in texts. To achieve this purpose, the analysis explores the role of the Spanish lexicogrammatical system of modality (modalisation and modulation) in the construction of dialogicity in historical documents.

Abstract

The paper argues for a semiotic – in fact, a grammatical – origin to a profound dimension of the human psyche: William James (1890, 1920[1892]) observed how there were far reaching effects from what he characterised as the “duplex self”. This ME/I relation requires cohesion, or co-ordination, much as first suggested by Hughlings Jackson and Théodule Ribot in the mid nineteenth century. The analysis of grammatical equations (identifying clauses) by the functional linguist M. A. K. Halliday can be called upon to show how many important relationships are enfolded in the apparently simple syntax of BE, and of some other cognate verbs. Through detailed exemplification, the paper shows how a double narrative of the “self” is an inevitable consequence of the first person taking on different combinations of grammatical address. This semiotic aspect of the psyche is also discussed in relation to bilaterian or “doubles” in a number of human sciences.

This article reviews Multilingual contributions to writing research: Toward an equal academic exchange

This article reviews Modelling paralanguage using systemic functional semiotics: Theory and application

This article reviews The linguistics wars: Chomsky, Lakoff, and the battle over deep structure