Department of Linguistics
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a configuration of theory and descriptive methodologies that is being developed to enable researchers to study ways people use language in social life. Its orientation is from meaning , which enables researchers to explore language in two directions: up into features of social contexts, as these occur within specific cultural settings; and down into the language system itself, from semantics (considered specifically as linguistic meaning) through realizations in lexicogrammar and phonology/graphology.
The two distinctive theoretical concepts which provide the basis for a systematic account of context-text relations are instantiation and realization . Particular types of situations of language use are described as instances of the resources of a culture, and texts are described as instances of the resources of a linguistic system. (SFL therefore brings together the Saussurean concepts langue and parole in a relationship of instantiation.) In parallel, texts are regarded as realizations of contexts. That is, they are configurations of language features that result from the pressures speakers experience to mean in relevant ways for particular purposes, and under the constraints of particular kinds of relationships with other people. Where these relationships are asymmetric and discriminatory, SFL attempts to describe and critique the functions of language in social transmission and reproduction.
Meanings are described from four perspectives. There is the familiar idea of language representing experience, but also the ideas of language functioning to enact relationships between people, to create relevant, well-organised text and to provide a sense of logical relationships between events and entities. Each perspective is mapped systematically so that researchers can explore and map the multi-functional role of language in creating and expressing social contexts . Recently, the general model (though not the specific lexicogrammar) has been used to explore other semiotic modalities such as visual images, sculpture, architecture and music.
Drawing on a linguistic tradition in which meaning has been the central focus, systemic functional linguistics was initially developed by Michael Halliday, whose ten-volume Collected Works is being published by Continuum Press. The most widely used descriptive resource is his An introduction to functional grammar , the third edition of which is co-authored with Christian Matthiessen, who is Professor of Linguistics at Macquarie University. The study of SFL was initially developed at Macquarie University by Ruqaiya Hasan, whose multi-volume Collected Works is being published by Equinox. An extensive bibliography of SFL research and theory is available at www.wagsoft.com/Systemics/Print/index.html.
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