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Department of Linguistics

Systemic Meaning Modelling Group

SMMG is a team of systemic researchers at Macquarie University or working in collaboration with researchers at Macquarie. Members of the team are engaged in a range of projects that are all based on the principles of systemic functional theory, founded by M.A.K. Halliday in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and are concerned with modelling various aspects of meaning in a computational environment: "modelling" involves high-level theoretical specification and description, representation using system networks and other modes of representation, and computational implementation. SMMG members at Macquarie are part of SHLRC (the Speech, Hearing and Language Research Centre) and the Department of Linguistics.

This website provides information about the Systemic Meaning Modelling Group(SMMG) research activities and projects, and members; and it also provides resources for anybody interested in using or learning about systemic functional linguistics.

The SMMG members are (in alphabetical order): Dr Alice Caffarel (University of Sydney, Sydney), Dr Marilyn Cross (DSTO, Canberra), Dr Ichiro Kobayashi (Ochanomizu University, Japan), Professor Christian Matthiessen (Macquarie University, Sydney), Dr Elke Teich (Macquarie University, Sydney/ University des Saarlandes, Germany), Dr Kazuhiro Teruya (University of New South Wales, Sydney), Dr Canzhong Wu (Macquarie University, Sydney).

At this site, you will find web pages organized under two main headings. On the one hand, there are pages concerned with SMMG itself, its activities and members; and on the other hand, there are pages providing resources that have been created or compiled by members of the group, resources for all of you who are interested in contributing to, using or learning about systemic functional work. The frame to the left shows the basic organization of this site.

The site has been designed to provide for a range of interests, for example:

  • Readers of the systemic functional newsletter, Network:

You can go to the Network homepage, where you will find up-to-date news about future and past events (conferences, workshops, and institutes), recent publications, new Ph.D.s, research projects, and debates & discussions. You can also go to the Virtual Library, which provides online publications and reference materials. If your interests include teaching systemic functional linguistics or teaching material with the help of systemic functional linguistics, you can also go to the Virtual Classroom, which gives some indication of systemic functional courses in linguistics at Macquarie University.

  • Students interested in, or studying, systemic functional linguistics, either here at Macquarie University or elsewhere:

You can go to the Virtual Classroom to see what courses drawing on systemic functional work are available in Linguistics at Macquarie University, to look at course outlines and to check course materials (such as assignments!) as they are made available. To get a sense of what systemic functional postgraduate students have produced, you can check out Ph.D.s. For additional material, you can also pay a visit to the Virtual Library; in particular, you will find a glossary of systemic functional terms that will be helpful as you begin to read works in systemic functional linguistics. You will also find a bibliography of systemic functional publications. If you want to find recent publications, you can go the the section Recent Publications of the systemic newsletter Network; and to help you plan your next trip, you can visit another Network section, the one on future conferences, workshops and institutes. You can also go to the home page of Linguistics here at Macquarie for further information about courses, programs of study, and research centres.


  • Systemic functional scholars interested in support for research and teaching:

You may want to take a look at systemic functional research tools that we are developing here at Macquarie University. These tools have been designed to support (lexicogrammatical) text analysis, reference grammars and text generation. Systemic functional information sources can be accessed through the Virtual Library --online publications, glossaries and bibliographies; and issues relating to teaching and learning drawing on systemic functional work are the concern of the Virtual Classroom. Various additional items of interest can be found in the systemic newsletter Network. If you are particularly interested in our own research and group of researchers, you can take a look at the Systemic Meaning Modelling Group. You will also find work that is relevant to systemic functional linguistics at the Centre for Language in Social Life (CLSL), the Dictionary Research Centre, the National Centre for English Teaching and Research (NCELTR), and the Speech, Hearing and Language Research Centre (SHLRC).


  • General linguists interested in finding out more about systemic functional linguistics:

You are very warmly welcome! You can take a look at the M.A.K. Halliday's characterization of systemic functional linguistics provided in the Virtual Librarary. If you are wondering about terms in systemic functional linguistics, you may find the systemic functional glossary helpful. It lists systemic functional terms in English with glosses and equivalent terms in Chinese and French where they are available. For a reasonably comprehensive list of works on systemic functional linguistics, you can consult the systemic functional bibliography; and for information about conferences, workshops and institutes dealing with systemic functional linguistics, you can visit the future events and past events sections of Network, the systemic functional newsletter. We also provide an "archive" of debates and discussions relating to systemic functional work -- explorations of issues, critical reviews of systemic work and systemic responses. Research conducted by our group, the Systemic Meaning Modelling Group, is summarized in the Research section of our web site.

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