Network & the ASFLA newsletter

Welcome to the newsletter of the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistic Association (ASFLA) in combination with NETWORK, the newsletter of the International Systemic Functional Linguistics Association. This newsletter is available in a downloadable format (pdf) from the ASFLA or NETWORK websites. Please download and pass on to any interested parties.

Apologies for the delay in getting it out - we had hoped to bring it to you by the end of 2001 - but were thwarted by the intrusions of various other projects. This means some of the pieces written below were written a few months ago (or more...). And apologies for any obvious things we've overlooked in getting it out. Big thanks to all contributors.

We hope the next edition of the newsletter will come out around May/June next year, SO PLEASE SEND US COPY FOR THE NEXT ISSUE, preferably by THE END OF APRIL, 2002. If you feel there are activities which are not represented here - please report on them, and send it to us.

We take this opportunity to thank Geoff Williams for serving as President of ASFLA for the last 5 years, a role he has occupied with enthusiam, energy and insight. The good news is he has resigned to spend more time writing. Thanks also go to our retiring secretary, Katina Zammit for her commitment over a number of years to ASFLA. At the ASFLA AGM, a new President, Kristina Love, from the University of Melbourne was elected, and we thank her for agreeing to take on this role.

2.0 Systemic Functional Associations around the World

2.1 ISFLA

2.1.1 Minutes from ISFC 2001

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, 26 July 2001, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada,

Present: Ralph Adendorff, Ram Das Akella, Anthony Baldry, Felix Banda, Jim Benson, Wendy L. Bowcher, T. Calovini, Keith Carlon, Michael Cummings, Kristin Davidse, Robin Fawcett, Peter Fries, Christopher Gothard, Bill Greaves, Carolyn G. Hartnett, Viviane M. Heberle, Helen Jenkins, G. Kamyab, Hajar Khanmohammad, Gerda Lauerbach, Beverly A. Lewin, Jose' Luiz Meurer, Bernard Mohan, Mick O'Donnell, Janet Ormrod, Maite Taboada, Masa-aki Tatsuki, Carol Taylor Torsello, Paul J. Thibault, Gordon Tucker, Fang Yan, Lynne Young. Apologies were received from Helen Tebble.

Kristin Davidse opened the meeting at 5:40 p.m. with the projection of a transparency of the ISFLA constitution. The agenda was approved.

The minutes of the meeting in Melbourne on 13 July 2000 had been posted at the reception desk. They were approved as posted.

Issue 1 of Volume 8 of Functions of Language has gone to press. Because Editorial Assistant Miriam Taverniers became ill, Lieven Vanderlanotte took over her extensive and much appreciated work. John Benjamins Publishing Company will do the next volume themselves.

Geoff Williams, filling in for Susan Feez during her year in Hong Kong, reported that the Australian account had $AU8511.63, with a further $AU3,000 advanced as seed funding for the current congress. The account has been transferred to the National Australia Bank, University of Sydney branch.

Caroline Stainton sent a report of the British account. It had 1,898.76 Pounds Sterling including interest added after the 1,872.29 reported in June 2000. With the completion of the transfer of 3,448.00 from the 25th ISFC in 1998 in Cardiff, the account will total 5,346.76 Pounds Sterling.

Minutes report that the Melbourne congress lost money because of a change in the teaching week schedule and cannot repay the seed. Robin Fawcett reported that the institute and congress in Cardiff cost 83,627 but brought in 87,077 for a profit of 4.1% of the expenditures, adding 3,448 to the account after providing 30 fees. However, he pointed out that a 10% error would have meant a loss of $8,363. If we need reserves beyond bringing international participants, the question is how much we should keep in reserve.

The current congress has an attendance of 180-185 after an institute with 71 students. Lynne Young recommended adding $1,000 for the technical equipment that people asked for. She reported requests for e-mail access and thought we should provide it. However, she did not advocate providing photocopying, despite requests for it. She said that the seed money might be repaid. We have provided for guests from Romania, South Africa, China, and Canada. Thirty participants received flights and cancellation of fees. Help was offered to two other possible participants, but at the last minute they could not attend. Lynne Young expressed her appreciation for the help of past conference organizers and agreed to formalize the consulting service. Previous and future planning committees should become part of the Executive Committee.

Convenor Geoff Thompson is planning the 2002 ISFL congress to be held at the University of Liverpool, U.K., 15-19 July 2002, with the theme "Systemic Linguistics and the Corpus." Speakers will include Suzanne Eggins, Michael Hoey, Susan Hunston, Christian Matthiessen, Mike Stubbs, and Gordon Tucker. Abstracts of no more than 150 words should include name, title, and institution. They should be sent by 31 January 2002 either by e-mail to <geoff9@liv.ac.uk>, by fax to +44 151 794 2739 (attention ISFC29), or in a hard copy with an electronic version on disk (preferably IBM compatible) to ISFC29, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZR, U.K. Updated information and abstracts will become available at http://www.liv.ac.uk/english/confer/confer/ISFC_2002.html. General information regarding Systemic Functional Linguistics conferences is available at http://www.wagsoft.com/Systemics/Conferences/.

Convenor V. Prakasam is planning the 2003 ISFL congress to be held in Hyderabad, 8-13 December 2003. Ram Das Akella announced that Michael Halliday had been named Honorary Fellow of the Institute 1-6 December.

Convenors Masa-aki Tatsuki, Hisao Kakehi, and Wendy Bowcher are planning the 2004 ISFL congress to be held at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, 30 August - 4 September 2004. The Theme will be "Aiming at Globalization: SF Theory and Linguistic Description." Enquiries may be send to ISFC31, Masa-aki Tatsuki <mtatsuki@mail.doshisha.ac.jp> or Wendy Bowcher <bowcher@u-gakugei.ac.jp>.

Convenor L. Ravelli is planning the 2005 ISFL congress to be held in Sydney 11-15 July 2005.

Michael Cummings reported planning for the 2006 ISFL congress. The Americas have had little regional work, but a solicitation brought excellent proposals from both the University of Mendoza in Argentina and Sao Paolo Catholic University in Brazil. The recommendation that was endorsed by the Executive Committee is to have a significant regional meeting first in 2003, when the ISFL congress will not meet until December of that year in Hyderabad, and then to hold the 2006 ISFL congress at the other site. Cecelia Colombi had expressed confidence that Mendoza could host the 2003 regional/international meeting very well, and Jose' Meurer represented Sao Paolo, which will host the 2006 congress. The plan was accepted unanimously, with no abstentions. Other regional meetings are also encouraged.

Another meeting was announced: the 14th Euro-International Systemic Functional Linguistics Workshop at the Department of English Studies, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 24-27 July 2002. The theme is "Issues in Language Description: Rethinking Systemic Functional Theory?" Invited speakers include Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian Matthiessen, and Susanna Shore. Abstracts of 300 words maximum must be received by 31 January 2002. Send queries and abstracts to Carlos A. M. Gouveia, 14EISFL Workshop, Departmento de Estudos Anglisticos, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Cidade Universita'ria, 1600-214 Lisboa, Portugal, e-mail <14eisflw@mail.fl.ul.pt>, phone (+351) 21 792 00 00, Fax (+351) 21 796 0063. The Workshop Webpage is http://www.fl.ul.pt/DEA/14eisflw/Index.htm.

A workshop to be held in Aberystwyth, Wales, 22-27 July, 2002, is titled "The Developing Discourses of Identity and Immigration in Europe" (Workshop 510). It is to be held at The Eighth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas -- European Culture in a Changing World: Between Nationalism and Globalism. The URL of the conference is <www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/issei2002> and the workshop chair is Robert Gould, School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada, <rgould@ccs.carleton.ca> (613) 520-2600, ext. 2123.

Mick O'Donnell offered to establish a website for ISFLA. The site would be located with Doteasy http://www.doteasy.com who provide free sites. ISFLA authorized him to purchase a domain name, http://www.ISFLA.org for $75 for five years and thanked him profusely. The web site will hold information about our organization including office bearers, goals, minutes of meetings, announcements of conferences, etc.

Christian Matthiessen is interested in continuing Network as a web-based newsletter linked to ISFLA, with assistance from Annabelle Lukin. It would be structured for regional news, but local people would have to provide the information.

Because of the need to institutionalize a system of substitutes, Nan Fries moved that chairs be authorized to appoint substitutes from the members present. Bernie Mohan seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Bernie Mohan was named chair of the Nominating Committee to choose new office bearers next year. It was suggested that to avoid feelings of exclusiveness, how people get into office should be publicized. Mick O'Donnell will put this on the web site, and volunteers could be requested on Sysfling.

David Banks is new president of the French Association of Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Thanks were given to Jose' Meurer and Mendoza for their offer and to the Executive Board and Lynne Young for a successful congress.

Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Hartnett, Acting Recording Secretary. Please send any additions or corrections to the minutes to her at <hartnett@compuserve.com>.

2.2 ASFLA

2.2.1 (Outgoing) President's report

As Annabelle Lukin and Christian Matthiessen prepare this newsletter, the first joint ASFLA-ISFC issue, we in Australia are in the final stages of preparing for the Language-Brain-Culture conference. It expands our recent efforts to develop transdisciplinary conversations with colleagues whose scholarly work requires them to theorise language use in their particular fields. For this conference we're delighted to welcome Terrence Deacon from neurobiology, Michio Sugeno from the Everyday Language Computing Project and Iain Davidson from paeleoanthropology. They will be joined as plenary speakers by four SFL scholars whose work has already contributed to our understanding of relations between language, brain, persons and culture: Michael Halliday, Ruqaiya Hasan, David Butt and Christian Matthiessen. A good range of paper proposals have been received from archaeology, psychiatry, primatology, communicative disorders and education, as well as linguistics itself. We are hoping that, parallel to the Children's Language conference in 1999, it will be possible to publish at least one volume of papers based on the conference themes.

The Association continues to respond to invitations to send plenary speakers and workshop leaders to conferences in Pakistan, India and South Africa. John Polias made a second visit to South Africa this year (see Di Kilpert's report), Christian Matthiessen will be speaking at a conference at the Central Institute for English and Foreign Language (CIEFL), Hyderabad, India in January 2002, and, as I write this note, we are hoping it might still be possible for Pauline Gibbons to speak at the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers chain of conferences, despite the complex internal political situation. As well, as a result of a grant from the University of Sydney International Office, we are able to welcome Professor Prakasam from CIEFL to the Language-Brain-Culture conference.

The association is in a good financial position, though this is due to surpluses from conferences rather than to a regular income from membership, unfortunately. We do need to expand membership, so the topic needs to be discussed at the Annual General Meeting in December. One proposal to attract senior Australian members to maintain membership, and perhaps to attract more senior international membership, is to establish a `life membership' category for about $300 for people at or approaching retirement age. We will also be able to evaluate the strategy of encouraging membership by offering discounted rates at the annual conference. Note that ASFLA membership runs by calendar year, so membership for 2002 is about to full due. Please support the work of the association by renewing your membership. There is a form available on the ASFLA website which you can print off and fax (with credit card details) or post with a cheque or money order.

This is my last `presidential' note for the newsletter, as it's time to step down after five years in the role. Katina Zammit, the Association's foundation Secretary, has also indicated that she'll not continue after December. I would like to encourage you vigorously to consider standing for election to the ASFLA executive, either as President or Secretary, or as a state representative. If you are at all worried that distance from Sydney or Melbourne may make it difficult to participate productively, let me assure you that this won't be so. The executive consults regularly and happily by email!

It is often remarked that SFL people seem to be a particularly supportive, though robustly critical, community. One of the real privileges of being President is that one sees this feature operating across so many aspects of the Association's work. During the last few years I've very much appreciated the generous support of Annabelle Lukin, Len Unsworth, John Polias, David Butt, Maria Couchman and Katina Zammit, together with all members of the Executive.

2.3 Newly formed North American Systemic Functional Linguistics Association

The members of the International Systemic Functional Association executive committee from N. America (Michael Cummings, Nan Fries, William Greaves, Carolyn Hartnett, Bernie Mohan, Peter Ragan and Lynne Young) have proposed establishing a North American Systemic Functional Linguistics Association following the very successful Systemic Functional Congress in Ottawa in July, 2001. We plan to meet and organize at AAAL [American Association of Applied Linguists] in Salt Lake City.[April 6-9] [www.aaal.org] The NASFLA meeting will be Monday, April 8 [from 7:30-8:30 pm]. Annual dinner will probably follow. Agenda: Constitution, election of officers, establish web page, and appoint newsletter chair. Membership is free. To join, contact interim secretary Nan Fries <Fries1ph@cmich.edu> Names with N. American address on the international mailing list were contacted and the response has been VERY positive. We have even been approached by another professional organization asking us to meet with them.

Until Salt Lake City, Michael Cummings, Interim Coordinator, Nan Fries, Interim Secretary

2.4 Report from the Systemic Functional Linguistics Association of Nigeria (SYSFLAN)

Gbenga Ibileye SYSFLAN Secretary, Department of English, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

The Systemic Functional Linguistic Association of Nigeria (SYSFLAN), which was formed in 1998 at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria has been striving to engender a spirit of revival in SFL which had been on a downward trend in the country.

In 2000, SYSFLAN hosted a well attended workshop on 25th and 26th October on the subject Lexicogrammatical resources for Text Analysis, where three eminent scholars namely:

Professor E.B.Ajulo, University of Jos Plataeu State, Dr. T.Y.Surakat and Mr. E.S. Akerejola taught on the theory and application of SFL to diverse areas of human interests.

SYSFLAN, which presently has its firmest roots in the northern part of Nigeria, has commenced an effort to extend the frontiers of SFL to the southern part of the country. For this purpose, it is planning a national conference for October 2001. Effort is being made to fish out scholars who have done any research work on the area, across the country.

SYSFLAN appreciates the support it has received from the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistic Association (ASFLA), as well as those of some individuals in that continent, Europe and America. ASFLA has graciously coordinated the donation of books to the SYSFLAN library, which is now about 18 books rich. With the benevolence of future donors, we hope that this will develop into SFL research center in the nearest possible future.

2.5 Newly formed French SFL Association

3.0 Conferences, Workshops and other events

3.1 Translating Worlds, February 2002, University of Sydney

3.2 14th Euro-International Systemic Functional Linguistics Workshop - 14ª Workshop Euro-Internacional de Linguística Sistémico-funcional

3.2.1 CALL FOR PAPERS / CONVITE À PARTICIPAÇÃO

The aim of the workshop is to promote a forum of discussion on theoretical aspects based on the description of as wide a range of languages as possible, so that we may have the opportunity to systematize and/or theorize on the "application" of systemic functional linguistic descriptions to various languages. The organizers will accept contributions dealing with any issue in language description, but papers addressing typological generalizations or descriptive aspects of different lexicogrammatical systems (any language vs. English, for example) are particularly welcome. Papers must be related in any way to the general framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics, or to some other framework used in comparison to or contrast with Systemic Functional Linguistics.

O objectivo da workshop é promover um forum de discussão sobre aspectos teóricos, a partir da descrição do maior número de línguas possível, para que possamos ter a oportunidade de sistematizar ou teorizar sobre as "aplicações" das descrições da Linguística Sistémico-funcional a várias línguas. A Comissão Organizadora aceitará contribuições sobre qualquer aspecto de descrição linguística, mas serão particularmente bem vindas comunicações em torno de generalizações tipológicas ou de aspectos de descrição de sistemas lexicogramaticais diferentes (qualquer língua vs. inglês, por exemplo). As comunicações deverão estar relacionadas com o quadro teórico da Linguística Sistémico-funcional, ou com qualquer outro quadro teórico, desde que usado em comparação ou constraste com o da Linguística Sistémico-funcional.

3.2.2 Organizing Committee / Comissão Organizadora

3.2.3 Abstracts / Resumos

Papers will be timetabled at half-hourly intervals with 20 minutes for presentation and ten minutes for questions and discussion. Workshops will last an hour including questions and discussion. Proposals with an abstract of 300 words maximum should be sent either by e-mail or post to Carlos A. M. Gouveia at the address below. The deadline for submission of abstracts in any form, including e-mail, is 31 January 2002. Notice of whether your paper is included will be sent by 31 March 2002.

As comunicações terão a duração de meia-hora, com 20 minutos para a apresentação e 10 minutos para perguntas e discussão. As workshops durarão uma hora, incluindo o período de questões e de discussão. As propostas de comunicação, com um resumo de, no máximo, 300 palavras, deverão ser enviadas, por correio-electrónico ou por correio normal, para Carlos A M. Gouveia, para o endereço abaixo. O prazo limite para recepção de resumos, inclusive por correio-electrónico, é 31 de Janeiro de 2002. A aceitação será transmitida aos interessados até 31 de Março de 2002.

3.2.4 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

3.2.5 Queries / Dúvidas

If you have any queries, please contact the Organizing Committee at the above address.

Para a resolução de qualquer dúvida, é favor contactar a Comissão Organizadora usando o endereço acima.

3.3 ISFC 29: Systemic Linguistics and the Corpus

This is the first call for papers - we very much hope that you will consider submitting a proposal. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31st January 2002.

Please spread the word to any colleagues, friends, and students (those are not intended as mutually exclusive categories) who might be interested. We have a simple poster If you would be willing to print it out and display it somewhere, just let me know.

3.4 ASFLA 2002: Perspectives on Semantics from SFL.

Conference convenor: Annabelle Lukin, Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, alukin@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au

Within SFL, a variety of models for the description of the semantic stratum have been proposed. These include Hasan's Message Semantics, Cloran's Rhetorical Units', Martin's work on Discourse Semantics in English Text and the more recent Appraisal Systems, Butt's Semantic Cycles, Matthiessen's RST, and Halliday and Matthiessen's work on Element-Figure-Sequence. Work on phonology in relation to semantics has also been important within SF linguistics. There is widespread agreement that work in this area lags behind our descriptions of grammatical systems, although the semantic orientation of these systems -- e.g. the systems of THEME, MOOD and TRANSITIVITY -- will enable us to take the description of semantics much further than it has traditionally been taken.

The 2002 ASFLA conference will be one of a number of opportunities being planned for discussions and debates on modelling semantics. There will be plenary talks, parallel papers and workshop presentations on different aspects of semantics. As well, we would anticipate having papers on the usual diverse range of topics which reflect the great variety of questions and problems to which SF theory has been applied. Keep an eye on the ASFLA website for details: http://homepage.mac.com/asfla/index.htm

We are interested in receiving abstracts of approx 300 words. Please send to naomicarter@ozemail.com.au Closing date for abstracts is March 30th, 2002.

Immediately following this conference, there will be two weeks of linguistics workshops, under the umbrella of the Australian Linguistics Institute (ALI), also at Macquarie University. For more information, see the webpage of the Macquarie Dept of Linguistics, www.ling.mq.edu.au

While you're there, don't miss the chance to read the Department's newsletter, called LingLine. Under the editorship of Tessa Green, LingLine provides a very comprehensive source of news about matters linguistic.

3.5 On the Importance of Bringing Ernest: two lectures by Emeritus Professor M.A.K. Halliday - rescheduled to 16th Feb, 2002.

The Centre for Language in Social Life, at Macquarie University, is raising funds to bring a Nigerian linguist, Ernest Akerejola to Macquarie to take up a Ph.D. scholarship. Professor Halliday agreed to present two lectures as a fund raising event. Due to a sudden illness, the event was postponed and will take place on Feb 16th, 2002. Please visit the ASFLA website, or contact alukin@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au for details.

3.6 The 4th Malaysian International Conference on English Language Teaching (MICELT)

Sub themes include: Language learning policies; Technology in language learning and teaching; Professional and teacher development in ELT; The language learner; Classroom practice; Literature in ELT.

Proposals of not more than 250 words with a title not exceeding 15 words should be received by 28 February 2002. Proposals can be sent to arshad@educ.upm.edu.my <mailto:arshad@educ.upm.edu.my> or sherry@educ.upm.edu.my <mailto:sherry@educ.upm.edu.my>

4.0 Past events

4.1 ISFC 2001, Ottawa, Canada

By Maria Couchman, Centre for Language in Social Life, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University

Sunday July 22 ,4.00 pm North American Eastern Daylight time and systemicists and critical discourse analysts from around the world began to gather outside the Carleton University Art Gallery.

It was a hot and humid day in Ottawa (so humid in fact that a group of intrepid linguists had been thwarted in their Sunday plans to hot-air balloon through the Ontarian skies over Ottawa!) and most of us were very grateful for the air-conditioned comfort in which we completed our conference registrations.

Armed with conference goodies and name tags, we moved through to the art gallery and, surrounded by the gallery's serenity and beautiful art, the official welcome cocktail party launched ISFC28. Scholars and students sipped wine and juice, greeting old friends and familiar faces with the same enthusiasm as they made new acquaintances. Conversations ranged from excited discussion about the forthcoming conference and the session scheduling to travel tales from those of us who had made the journey to Ottawa from various corners of the world. As we nibbled and sipped our way toward 6 o'clock, discussion turned to likely dinner venues. Our group gratefully accepted the willingly offered advice of Lynne Young and we bussed up to the lively By Market area in downtown Ottawa.

This area overflows with hundreds of restaurants, all with seating spilling onto the wide pavements. We were truly spoilt for cuisine choice. With our group being comprised of the usual mix of vegetarians and meat-eaters, we headed for our favourite cuisine - Vietnamese -- and were not disappointed with the platters of fresh spring rolls and our bowls of steaming pho (not to mention the Canadian beer that washed it all down!). Tired from our travels that first night, many of us chose to retire early, and we headed for our surprisingly comfy beds in the Stormont/ Dundas resident complex.

We rose early and headed for the University Commons, where, with a selection ranging from a North American style cooked breakfast and coffee to chocolate donuts and blue fizzy drink, we were once again spoilt for choice. From there, we walked the ten minutes to the Alumni theatre, delightedly (for the Australians anyway!) sharing our journey with resident chipmunks, ground-hogs and squirrels. After a short opening address by Ian Pringle and Lynne Young, Michael Gregory kicked off the plenaries with an interesting recapitulation of Phasal Analysis. And that's when the easy part ended.

With up to nine parallel sessions running throughout the allotted paper session times, there were a huge number of interesting presentations to listen to but, unfortunately, a huge number to forego. Time and time again I was reminded of the drawbacks of only being able to be in one place at one time. Ed McDonald, though, came up with a creative solution to this problem. In his Friday presentation, his voice was heard to soar through adjoining rooms, leaving those of us who had somewhat regrettably been attracted to other choice temptations in the same timeslot with a sense that we hadn't missed out altogether on another of Ed's renowned multi-modal presentations !

Other plenaries included the celebrated Norman Fairclough talking about language in the new capitalism. For those of us who had only heard of him or read his work, listening to him was quite a treat. Kristin Davidse presented some invaluable insights into the grammar and her warmth and meticulous approach to her topic made this a plenary to remember. Fran Christie's talk on the realization of authority in classroom discourse was fascinating. Her research is based on the work of Basil Bernstein and, apart from being brilliant, it seemed very appropriate to have at least one paper so distinctly Bernsteinian at the first ISFC following the great man's death. Jay Lemke wowed us with his insights into textuality and social control. I'd never heard Jay speak before and I was stunned by his ability to handle the complexity of his argument without so much as a glance at notes. And on Friday morning we were treated to Ruqaiya Hasan's plenary. I often think it must be difficult being Ruqaiya. All her brilliant past ideas, writings and presentations mean that she carries a burden of expectation from us all everytime she stands to talk to us. But, once again, she didn't disappoint. Her talk was engaging and thought provoking and, since my return, I for one, have thought about it often and used her ideas to give me a new perspective on my own thoughts.

But I have other highlights too - breakfast with the Savage-Rumbaughs who came to Ottawa to contribute to the workshop on bonobo-human discourse -- hearing, for the first time, the divine Peter Fries present an equally divine paper on what makes a text coherent -- sharing, with other Macquarie friends, a cup of tea made with real boiling water from the ever-generous and much-treasured Rhondda Fahey's real kettle -- walking, during the long, light, balmy evenings along the beautiful Rideau canal headed either for dinner with friends in the Glebe or Market areas of Ottawa or headed nowhere in particular but thinking and chatting over the day's events - the sense of pride in seeing colleagues present their work, sometimes for the very first time - Thursday night's conference dinner where the night began with great hilarity when we were all ushered onto yellow school buses (just like the movies!!) and ferried to the magnificent Ottawa Arts Center. The laughter and hilarity continued through the night, ending (at least for those of us in the Hood-Martin party!) in the early hours of the following morning -- and so many, many more things besides.

None of this would have been possible though, without the wonderful organizational abilities of Lynne Young, Diane Wastle and the hard-working and ever-available band of Carleton University helpers. We ate well, drank well, slept comfortably, were expertly directed to various areas, sights and attractions of Ottawa and the conference ran smoothly and seamlessly. Having never been involved in the staging of such an event myself, I was in awe of the skills and dedication of these amazing people. And I'm sure my awe and appreciation is shared by all my fellow conferees.

During the week of ISFC28, I learnt so much and I have so many wonderful memories of my time in Ottawa. Despite the huge effort of preparing to leave three children mid-thesis and head half-way around the world to be exhausted by a week of conferencing, I have come back inspired and refreshed, enthusiastic and definitely smarter than I was before I left Sydney 3 weeks before. In fact, I've already started plotting how to get to ISFC29 in Liverpool next year!

4.2 The 13th Euro-International Systemic Functional Workshop and the inauguration of L'Association Française de la Linguistique Systémique Fonctionnelle

Held in France for the first time, the Euro-International Systemic Functional Workshop attracted linguists worldwide interested in text and texture. Peter Fries gave the first plenary on the factors influencing the perception of coherence. A perfect start to a conference which brought together linguists working in English on different languages, as well as linguists working in French on English and other languages. This engendered many discussions on possible French translations of the systemic metalanguage. The development of a French-English glossary of systemic terms has now become one of the project of the French Systemic Functional Linguistics Association which was inaugurated by David Banks on the last day of the 13th EISFW. For more information on AFLSF (Assosciation Française de la Linguistique Systémique Fonctionnelle), go to:

4.3 Systemic Week

The School of Foreign Languages, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou, China, held a systemic week from December 10 to 14, 2001. Internationally well-known systemic functional linguists Professor/Dr. J.R. Martin and Professor/Dr. Mohsen Ghadessy, and Chinese active systemic linguists Professor/Dr. HUANG Guowen, and Professor/Dr. ZHANG Meifang spoke on issues covering the theories and practice of systemic functional linguistics.

4.3.1 Notes on the speakers

J. R. MARTIN is Professor in Linguistics (Personal Chair) at the University of Sydney. His research interests include systemic theory, functional grammar, discourse semantics, register, genre, multimodality and critical discourse analysis, focussing on English and Tagalog --- with special reference to the transdisciplinary fields of educational linguistics and social semiotics. Professor Martin's publications include English Text: system and structure , Benjamins, 1992; Writing Science: literacy and discursive power (with M A K Halliday), Falmer, 1993; Working with Functional Grammar (with C Matthiessen & C Painter), Arnold, 1997; Genre and Institutions: social processes in the workplace and school (Edited with F Christie), Cassell, 1997; Reading Science: critical and functional perspectives on discourses of science (Edited with R Veel), Routledge, 1998. He is currently editing papers for Benjamins on functional language typology (with Alice Caffarel & Christian Matthiessen) and history discourse (with Ruth Wodak), a special edition of Text on evaluation (with Mary Macken-Horarik). He is also preparing a book on discourse semantics for Continuum (with David Rose). Professor Martin was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1999.

Mohsen GHADESSY is a foreign expert in the English Department of Zhongshan University, China. He received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Austin in Texas in 1972. He has been teaching linguistics/applied linguistics courses in Iran, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei, and Guangzhou. Dr Ghadessy's papers have been published in a number of international journals. He has edited four books on topics in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Registers of Written English (1988, Pinter), Register Analysis (1999, Pinter), Thematic Development in English Texts (1995, Pinter), and Text and Context in Functional Linguistics (1999, Benjamins). His current research interests include register and genre analysis and universal features of translated texts.

HUANG Guowen received his MA in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in 1986 at Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages. He received his first PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh in 1992. He went to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to work on a bilingualism project, where he was employed as a Research Associate until early 1994. Then he worked as a tutor at the University of Wales, Cardiff, where he received his second PhD in Systemic Functional Linguistics in 1996. He came to Zhongshan University to take the position of Professor of Linguistics in 1996 and became Dean of the School of Foreign Languages in January 2000. He published extensively both home and abroad. His papers appear in journals such as Languages Sciences, Social Semiotics, Interface --- Journal of Applied Linguistics. He also published a number of book chapters, which appeared in Language in a Changing Europe (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1995), Meaning and Form: Systemic Functional Interpretations --- Studies for Michael Halliday (Norwood, NJ: Ablex 1996). He wrote and edited a number of books. He serves as editorial/advisory committee members for several journals, including Social Semiotics (Carfax, England). His main research interests are in systemic functional linguistics, discourse analysis and translation studies.

ZHANG Meifang is Professor and Head of the English Department of School of Foreign languages, Zhongshan University. She graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages, Zhongshan University in 1977. During the years of her teaching profession at the University, she spent one year (1981-1982) in the University of Hong Kong furthering her studies in English literature and translation studies, and then three years (1984-1987) on-the-job studies of the M.A. courses in Applied Linguistics at Zhongshan University. She went to Hong Kong to start her PhD research program in 1996 and received her PhD degree in Translation Studies from Hong Kong Baptist University in 1999. She published widely in both English language teaching and translation studies. Her major publications include English Writing: a course book.( 1992.), A Practical English Dictionary for Chinese Learners. (co-author,1997.),ÅsÕºÀ?,¤Á"8°(Translation)£®Silver Lights£¨1997.£©, The Oxford Children's Encyclopedia (co-translator, 1998), and English/Chinese Translation Textbooks in China (2001) .She is currently working on Discourse Analysis and Translation Studies. Her main research interests include Translation studies, discourse analysis, and applied linguistics.

4.4 United Kingdom Reading Association Conference, Canterbury, July 2001

UKRA holds a large annual conference, largely organised around professional educational issues. The 2001 conference in a college adjacent to Canterbury Cathedral, included plenary papers from psychologists, educational administrators and evaluators, and the children's author Anthony Browne. It was very much a broad-church professional and theoretical occasion! I was asked to talk about the research with six-year-olds in the children's grammar learning project in Sydney. (This was work completed collaboratively by Patricia Gonzales, Joan Rothery and me at St Paul's School, Dulwich Hill, complementary to the project with Ruth French based at Haberfield.)

It was an interesting conference, which seemed to indicate a sea-change in British thinking about language structure in early literacy curricula. Whereas there had been vigorous professional resistance to explicit teaching about language structure, at this conference there was real enthusiasm for what is being achieved through the curricula changes produced by the National Literacy Strategy and, as importantly, the professional development work of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. It was quite amusing to hear people arguing the need for three complementary views about language development - learning language, learning through language and learning about language - though also remarkable to notice the invisibility of the origin of the ideas.

The enthusiasm of literacy consultants was also refreshingly critical. They were vocal in criticising papers which simply used old arguments to dismiss explicit teaching, or which advanced unfocussed and naïve critique of schematic structure descriptions. They were equally vocal in pressing to expand structure descriptions used in the National Literacy Strategy and to develop more subtle curricula and pedagogy. Currently there is an over-determined requirement to treat particular genres at specific stages in highly specific ways.

The National Literacy Strategy descriptions of clause structure are articulated through traditional grammar, so there are obvious practical difficulties for teachers in talking about register patterns. However, it was encouraging to see people's responses to images of the six-year-old's work with SFG, and the indicative evidence of the learning outcomes. The conference organisers are hoping to arrange follow-up discussions with other SF linguists, perhaps through further conference plenaries and through summer schools.

4.5 Workshop/Conference on the Application of Systemic Functional Linguistics in Educational Contexts

Held at the Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, 25-29 June 2001

This workshop was a follow-up to the one organised last year by Mike Hart at the Department of Applied Language Studies, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 3-7 July 2000. That workshop, presented by John Polias of the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment, was organised for the purpose of developing an awareness of SFL in South Africa and its application in educational contexts. Feedback was extremely positive, and there was demand for a repeat. This year, Laurence Wright, Director of the Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, provided the venue, and I was able to obtain funding from two sources: from ASFLA, who generously funded John a second time, and from the National Research Foundation, South Africa, who paid for our guest speaker, Geoff Thompson, from the University of Liverpool.

Thirty-eight delegates attended the workshop, and eight presented papers during the two conference afternoons. The wide range of knowledge of SFL amongst the delegates (ranging from none at all to pretty extensive) presented quite a challenge to John. The majority of the delegates were lecturers and researchers, from university departments and technikons all over the country. There were also two representatives of the Molteno Project, a non-profit organisation which has been training primary school teachers in South Africa since 1975. Also attending were eight members of the Language Curriculum Working Group currently engaged in rewriting the Languages learning area for the streamlined South African Curriculum 2005. We also sponsored one enthusiastic undergrad student from the Department of English Language and Linguistics at Rhodes.

John presented the workshop with his usual combination of energy and enthusiasm, knowledge and skill. I was particularly impressed with the way he had made improvements on a course that I thought was pretty near perfect when I attended it in Pietermaritzburg last year. His teaching is as good as it is because it is constantly evolving, and is backed up by meticulously prepared handbooks, overheads and CD ROM material. His style is appropriate for this kind of group, and he gets the proportion of teacher-talk and hands-on work just right.

Having Geoff with us as well was a big plus. Besides giving a useful and stimulating introductory talk, he interacted comfortably with John during the workshop, provided additional information and answers where needed, and took some of the pressure off John during informal tea and lunch time discussion. He also presented a short session on Appraisal, and he and John took part in a panel discussion which provided an opportunity to discuss issues in South African education and to follow up on questions that arose during the workshop.

4.6 Discourses on Discourse (AILA Scientific Commission on Discourse), hosted by UTS, Macquarie University (NCELTR, Dept of Linguistics, and the Centre for Language in Social Life), and NSW AMES

4.7 Language-Brain-Culture (ASFLA 2001 - December), hosted by ASFLA and the Centre for Language in Social Life

5.0 New Systemic Functional Ph.D. theses

5.1 Wu Canzhong, Macquarie University

This thesis is concerned with modelling linguistic resources, and the central goal is to build a theoretical model and realize this model computationally in the form of a resource development system. The system is based on systemic-functional theory and draws on insights from computational linguistics and corpus linguistics. It is intended to serve as an environment for assisting as an amanuensis in doing systemic research, and is thus called SysAm.

SysAm aims to open up bottlenecks in both linguistics and computational linguistics. Both areas of research have been greatly hampered by the inability to carry out automatic or semi-automatic analysis of large volumes of text, and by lack of integration of automatic and manual analysis in analysis systems. On the one hand, SysAm provides tools for doing automatic low-level text analysis (SysConc) and high-level manual analysis (SysFan) at the instantial end of the cline of instantiation, and on the other hand, it provides tools for developing and managing linguistic systems at the potential end. These tools, together with other components of SysAm, constitute an integrated environment for the development of linguistic resources.

In Chapter 1, I look at the various demands for linguistic resources in both natural language processing (NLP) and other areas, and stress the need for an integrated resource development environment, and a theoretically comprehensive model. In Chapter 2, I introduce systemic-functional theory as the general dimensions for organizing the linguistic resources and differentiating the SysAm tools. In Chapter 3, I describe the development of linguistic resources in SysRef, and illustrate how the resources are partitioned and indexed to meet different consumer demands. In Chapter 4, I focus on the manual analysis of textual instances with SysFan, illustrating how the analysis results can be interpreted and visualized in the system. In Chapter 5, I discuss the major functions of SysConc, a concordance program that is specifically geared to systemic-functional research, but may also be used as a corpus tool for extracting linguistic patterns from the corpus. In Chapter 6, I explore SysAm as an integrated resource development workbench, showing the move along the cline of instantiation „ from the systemic potential to the textual instance or from the textual instance to the systemic potential.

The research is significant in both the theoretical and practical spheres: on the one hand, it serves as the starting point for future long-term work on large-scale linguistic descriptions based on an open corpus, and on the other hand, it creates an online resource urgently needed for a variety of applications ranging from educational research applications to computational research applications.

5.2 Maite Taboada , Departamento de Filología Inglesa , Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Collaborating through Talk: The Interactive Construction of Task-Oriented Dialogue in English and in Spanish

The present thesis is a study of connexity and coherence at all levels in conversation. Both inter-turn and intra-turn relationships are studied in a bilingual English-Spanish corpus of task-oriented conversations between dyads of two speakers each. The interlocutors have two conflicting agendas that cover a two to four week period, and are told to agree on an appointment within those two to four weeks. The speakers try to find a date on which they are both free to meet. I considered these conversations as texts, and thus set out to explore the discourse characteristics that hold them together.

The main framework of study is the analysis of speech genres (Bakhtin 1986). These conversations are an instance of a genre, as a "staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members of our culture" (Martin 1984, p.25). As such, they are divided in clear stages, the main three of which are: Opening, Task Performance and Closing. For these stages to be distinguishable, they need to contain different patterns of linguistic realizations. The linguistic and discourse characteristics studied include: Thematic Progression, Rhetorical Structure Analysis and Cohesion. These three types of analysis are unified under the textual metafunction of language, in the Hallidayan tradition. Halliday and Hasan (1976, p.29) divide the textual metafunction into structural and non-structural components. The structural one, at the clause level, is the thematic structure of the clause. The non-structural one is cohesion. One of the elements of cohesion is conjunction, which I represented here not through Halliday's and Martin's conjunctive relations, but through a similar theory, Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann and Thompson 1988).

This study is, then, one of text, textual metafunction and texture in a spoken genre. The study shall shed light onto how two speakers create a text interactively. The second goal of this work is to find out whether--and if so, how--that process is different in English and in Spanish.

The tools used stem from traditions in the analysis of English. Some of them have been applied to other languages, sometimes not without controversy about their suitability. I have, consciously, avoided adaptations or reformulations of the original theories. One obvious reason is that the methods needed to be constant, if any rigorous comparison between the results for the two languages was to be carried out. The other main reason was that I decided to explore a possible English bias in those theories. By applying exactly the same types of analysis, we shall discover the suitability of the methodologies for the analysis of Spanish.

The research questions for the study are summarized in: (1) corpus-based characterization of a dialogic genre consisting of scheduling conversations; (2) compilation of a body of analysis tools for generic analysis; (3) application of English-based analyses to Spanish; and (4) comparisons between English and Spanish text-building strategies.

I describe the results of the three types of analysis: thematic realization and progression, rhetorical structure, and cohesion. The description covers the English and the Spanish data, with comparisons between the two. Finally, I provide a computational modeling of the structure of the dialogues, divided into stages and speech acts found in each of the stages. The computational model is based on the generic structure of the dialogues. It formalizes the sequencing of stages, and the sequencing of speech acts within those stages. The complete characterization of the stages is used throughout the study, in order to delimit the stages as units in the conversations within which I will explore the different phenomena.

Bakhtin, M. (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Halliday (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold (2nd. edition).

Mann, W. C. and S. A. Thompson (1988) Rhetorical Structure Theory: Toward a functional theory of text organization. Text 8 (3). 243-281.

Martin, J. R. (1984) Types of writing in infants and primary school. In Unsworth, L (ed.) Reading, Writing, Spelling. Sydney: Macarthur Institute of Higher Education. 34-55.

5.3 Juliet F. Mar, Macquarie University, Sydney

This study investigates the meaning-making resources of Christian group prayer, showing what and how this discourse can mean. Claims about the sort of context that is encoded in such texts are based on detailed analyses of the linguistic choices which are made in a corpus of actual prayers. In doing so, it explains and demonstrates both theoretical and practical aspects of register analysis within a Systemic Functional Linguistic framework.

Findings are based on a corpus of approximately one hundred group prayers, which were collected especially for this study from Christian groups located in the city centre and Eastern Suburbs regions of Sydney. Eight major Christian denominations are represented: Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Churches of Christ, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Salvation Army and Uniting. At least three different congregations from each of the eight groups were visited, and a number of prayers were collected from each congregation. The settings were varied, and ranged in formality from public church services attended by over two hundred people to informal prayer meetings held in private homes with fewer than five in attendance. The corpus thus contains both set, liturgical prayers and free prayers (pre-planned and spontaneously uttered).

The study consists of two parts. Part I examines prayer from the perspective of the INSTANCE. It provides a detailed description of one petitionary prayer text from each of the denominational groups. We look at the particular grammatical choices made in the text and suggest the semantic orientation that is construed thereby, with particular attention to interpersonal meaning and the Tenor being constructed. The lexicogrammatical systems investigated are: Mood, Modality, Vocatives, Transitivity (process type and participant realisation) and Thematic patterns. System networks - both lexicogrammatical and semantic - are employed for displaying the abstract potential which underlies the instantial choices, and are refined with each successive text analysed. Part I uncovers emerging evidence as to how different groups access the potential in different ways. Part II examines prayer from the perspective of the SYSTEM, engaging with the abstract potential that underlies the instance. It takes into account all the texts in the corpus, with particular attention to the realisation of the Request move. Probabilities are investigated and proposed for the lexicogrammatical choices identified in Part I. The shift in perspective from the instance to the system emphasises consistencies in semantic variation across the denominational groups, and demonstrates that the texts collected do constitute a single register.

This study demonstrates the power of the Systemic Functional Linguistic theory in modelling the relationship between language and context. It shows not only how language adapts to unusual contexts - such as speaking to an invisible and omnipotent addressee - but also how unusual contexts are construed by particular ways that language is used. Since this study is oriented towards interpersonal meaning and Tenor, further research could be carried out which focuses on the Field and Mode of prayer. Alternatively, comparable studies could be carried out on private prayers, or prayers from other religions, for the purpose of comparison with the worldview(s) (in particular, the nature of the addressee) construed in public Christian prayers.

5.4 Sophie Arkoudis, University of Melbourne

This thesis investigates the epistemological authority of an ESL teacher in science education. The state of Victoria, Australia, reflecting a world-wide trend in English speaking countries, has adopted a policy of mainstreaming ESL within the secondary school context. One of the ways this policy has been implemented in government secondary schools in Victoria is by ESL specialists and mainstream teachers jointly planning the curriculum. There has been very little research into how an ESL and a mainstream teacher actually negotiate pedagogic understandings when planning together. This thesis explores the planning relationship with a view to enhancing policies of mainstreaming.

The central data in the study are the two planning conversations of two teachers, one on the topic of genetics and the other on motion. The conversations are analysed by using positioning theory and appraisal theory within a critical realist framework. It is argued that positioning theory, with its focus on personal identity formation, offers an analysis of agency and structure, but not of the language used in the conversation. Appraisal theory, with its focus on the linguistic resources used by the teachers to negotiate meaning, allows for a detailed linguistic analysis which assists the positioning analysis. The analysis offers insights into how the teachers maintain and sustain their planning conversations, within a secondary school context.

The analysis of the planning conversations reveals overwhelmingly the difficulties and sources of tension that can emerge in a planning relationship between a science specialist and an ESL specialist, even when they enjoy a good working relationship. There are genuine dilemmas and difficulties in attempting to bring together the different and competing epistemological assumptions of the two teachers, who come from very different disciplinary discourse communities. It is argued that the attempt by the two subject specialists to work together and 'fuse their horizons' is difficult. This is partly because the two discourse communities they represent are very different, and partly because one such community - namely science - enjoys considerably greater power in the working relationship.

Overall the findings of this thesis indicate the considerable difficulties in the way of achieving successful mainstreaming of ESL in the secondary school context. The policy directives about mainstreaming have assumed that it is a simple process of the ESL teacher sharing teaching strategies with the mainstream teacher. The study will demonstrate that negotiating pedagogic understandings is a profound journey of epistemological reconstruction, the nature of which had not been anticipated by the policy makers. This is because the two teachers' views of language and teaching are negotiated through their subject disciplinary prejudices and biases. The study offers a model that theorises the personal professional development project implicit within the mainstreaming of ESL policy.

5.5 Anne M. McCabe, Aston University, 1999

This research project compares published history textbooks written for upper-secondary/tertiary study in the U.S. and Spain using Halliday's (1994) Theme/Rheme construct. The motivation for using the Theme/Rheme construct to analyze professional texts in the two languages is two-fold. First of all, while there exists a multitude of studies at the grammatical and phonological levels between the two languages, very little analysis has been carried out in comparison at the level of text, beyond that of comparing L1/L2 student writing. Secondly, thematic considerations allow the analyst to highlight areas of textual organization in a systematic way for purposes of comparison. The basic hypothesis tested here rests on the premise that similarity in the social function of the texts results in similar Theme choice and thematic patterning across languages, barring certain linguistic constraints.

The corpus for this study consists of 20 texts: 10 from various history textbooks published in the U.S. and 10 from various history textbooks published in Spain. The texts chosen represent a variety of authors, in order to control for author style or preference. Three overall areas of analysis were carried out, representing Halliday's (1994) three metafunctions: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual.

The ideational analysis shows similarities across the two corpora in terms of participant roles and circumstances as Theme, with a slight difference in participants involved in material processes, which is shown to reflect a minor difference in the construal of the field of history in the two cultures. The textual analysis shows overall similarities with respect to text organization, and the interpersonal analysis shows overall similarities as regards the downplay of discrepant interpretations of historical events as well as a low frequency of interactive textual features, manifesting the informational focus of the texts. At the same time, differences in results amongst texts within each of the corpora demonstrate possible effects of subject matter, in many cases, and individual author style in others.

Overall, the results confirm that similarity in content, but above all in purpose and audience, result in texts which show similarities in textual features, setting aside certain grammatical constraints.

6.0 New Systemic Functional books/resources

6.1 Thomas Andersen, Uwe Helm Petersen & Flemming Smedegaard

Thomas Andersen, Uwe Helm Petersen & Flemming Smedegaard. 2001. Sproget som ressource: dansk systemisk functionel lingvistik i teori og praksis. [Language as a resoruce: Danish systemic functional linguistic theory and praxis.] Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag.

Language as a resource presents a systemic functional model of Danish, as well as giving a systematic account of, and examples of, how this model can be applied to practical text analysis.

The systemic functional model presented in the book is predominantly a new Danish clause grammar, but, with reference to both semantics and context, the model is at the same time a broad and detailed tool for the description of language in use from the simplest word to the most extensive context.

Systemic functional linguistics is based on the idea that language is a resource that we draw on when we use it. And which is affected b this use. The grammar in this book is therefor not a system of rules dictating how we should express ourselves through language, but a mirror of how we actually express ourselves.

Language as a resource is primarily aimed at students and teachers at universities, business colleges, seminaries and the like, who work with the Danish language, text analysis and communication. Everyone with an interest in the Danish language will be able to enjoy the book. Language as a resource has been used with students in Danish and Workplace communication at Syddansk Universitet (The University of Southern Denmark).

6.2 Erich Steiner & Colin Yallop (eds.)

Moving beyond the notion of content in thinking about language and translation, this book is an attempt to face the demands of translation and multilingual text produc-tion by modeling texts as configurations of multidimensional meanings, rather than as containers of content. It is a recurrent argu-ment in this book that unstructured and one-dimensional notions of content are in-sufficient for an understanding of the proc-esses involved in translation and multilin-gual text production. Rather than using the assumption of some stable, unchanged content in modeling the processes in focus, the editors and contributors to this volume rely on the notion of meaning, a concept that allows us to recognize multidimen-sionality and internal stratification.

This book is not a relatively loose collec-tion of conference papers, nor a gathering of previously published work, but a focussed work written around a core of joint topics. The frequent use of specific textual examples - and substantial use of major portions of real texts - will help to provide ways of entry into the more technical areas addressed in our chapters. All of our chapters try to explore key concepts and to provide arguments for the proposed approach or solution, and all of them should therefore be seen as contributions to a modeling of translation and multilingual text production, beyond the specific problems addressed in each case.

The approaches advocated here are firmly grounded in models of language in use, that is in text and discourse, rather than in models of an assumed language system dissociated from its use. Furthermore, the emphasis is on textual operations across lan-guages, contexts and cultures, on transla-tions or other forms of multilingual infor-mation sharing. Finally, the computational systems whose architectures are discussed here are typical of recent developments, focussing on support for multilingual ex-perts, rather than aiming to replace them in the style of many of the older machine translation systems.

The readers this volume addresses are ad-vanced students and translators who are interested in opening up and engaging with questions of research; teachers who are interested in ways of helping their students to become independent reflective profes-sionals; and the relevant research commu-nities in universities and industry.

E. Steiner: Intralingual and interlingual versions of a text -- how specific is the notion of translation

E. Teich: Towards a model for the description of cross-linguistic divergence and commonality in translation

Part III: Working with translation and multilingual texts: computational and didactic projects

C. Taylor & A. Baldry: Computer assisted text analysis and translation a functional approach in the analysis and translation of advertising texts

6.3 María Ângeles Gómez-González

María Ângeles Gómez-González. 2001. The Theme-Topic Interface: Evidence from English. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia.

6.4 Robin Fawcett

Robin Fawcett. 2000. A Theory of Syntax for Systemic Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: Benjamins.

This is a very important piece of work. [...] Consistent, coherent and positive in its critical but generous thrust, it will be very salutary for the SFL community. [...] The concerns are valid ones, not only for systemic functional linguists but for all interested in grammatical analysis.

This book offers a very helpful summary of the Cardiff Grammar and a usefuland important comparison of the Cardiff and Sydney approaches. [...] If SFG is to occupy the place which some linguists say it deserves, its postulates should be subjected to fair public scrutiny. This is just what [this] book does.

6.5 Len Unsworth

Len Unsworth. 2001. Teaching Multiliteracies Across the Curriculum: Changing contexts of text and image in classroom practice. Buckingham: Open University Press.

This book is grounded in systemic functional linguistics and its extrapolation to "a grammar of visual design" as described by Kress and vanLeeuwen(1996).

6.6 Liesbeth Degand

Liesbeth Degand. 2001. Form and Function of Causation. A theoretical and Empirical Investigation of Causal Constructions in Dutch. Peeters, Leuven, Paris, Sterling. [Studies op het gebied van de Nederlandse taalkunde 5].

You can order the book by sending an e-mail to the publisher: peeters@www.peeters-leuven.be

The aim of this study is to provide a unified functional description of a number of causal constructions in Dutch: the connectives omdat, want, doordat, the prepositions door, vanwege, wegens, and the auxiliaries doen and laten. Given the observation that the various causal alternatives are not in free variation in discourse, the author hypothesizes that this distribution must be constrained and that it should be possible to identify some of the constraints that play a role in the selection of these causal forms. To reach this goal, Degand proposes to make use of a multifunctional theory of language -- Systemic Functional Linguistics -- in combination with numerous corpus analyses. This approach to language appeared to be particularly relevant, because it enables to give an explicit account of aspects of language that fall out of the traditional scope of linguistic description, namely accounts of genre, register, discourse semantics, etc. while the corpus analyses provide a solid empirical basis for the theoretical descriptions.

6.7 Susan Hunston & Geoff Thompson (eds.)

Susan Hunston & Geoff Thompson (eds.). 2000. EVALUATION IN TEXT: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Long neglected as a focus of linguistic research, evaluation in its various guises is now being recognized as a crucial aspect of any study of discourse. In this book, writers coming from different standpoints are brought together, providing a unique profile of the topic from several perspectives. These perspectives include: Systemic Linguistics, Narrative, Corpus Linguistics, and Discourse Analysis.

6.8 Anthony Baldry (ed.)

Anthony Baldry (ed.). Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore. ISBN 88-8460-000-6

The book contains essays by Baldry, Karagevrekis, Pavesi, Piastra, Taylor Torsello, Taylor, Thibault, and much more ...

To order your copy from outside Italy and the European Union have your bank send Lit. 70.000 (36,15 Euro) to cover handling, packing and postage costs to the following address:

TFL (Tipolitografia Foto Lampo) Swift Cde: Bromit NN 3501; Bank Account: ABI 3002-CAB 03801; Account number: 70309/59.

Within Italy and the European Union, the mail order cost is Lit. 60.000 (30,99 Euro) which covers handling, packing and postage costs. You can either send your payment to the above bank address or send a versamento postale / postal order payable to c/c n. 13350863.

Please quote reference MMDA in your order. In order to avoid delays please fax us mentioning the details of your payment and the address to which the book should be sent. The fax address is: Giovanna Colitti, Palladino Editore +39 874 494035.

You can also request our list of publications in English from the same fax and e-mail addresses.

6.9 CD-ROM, Academic Writing: a language based approach

Winner 2001 of the Tertiary Technology Showcase category in The Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing.

"Academic Writing uses the power of technology to help students master and succeed in the writing at university. The key feature of the CD-ROM is the way that students can access and analyse existing writing work samples to learn new skills" (Judging Panel, June 2001)

The package is an interactive CD-ROM to teach academic writing for individual or classroom use. It is available in both PC and Macintosh versions. It includes annotated student writing from a range of disciplines and genres. Initially, the package was designed to be incorporated into an existing writing curriculum, as well as used as a resource in university learning centres specifically to address the academic writing needs of non-English speaking background (NESB) students. However, it can also function as a stand-alone, self-study resource for English speaking students making the transition from high school to university who feel they need guidance on the writing demands of the academy. It is also suitable as reference material for teachers and academics in Education and Linguistics.

The program content has been informed by systemic-functional grammar and is divided up into three sections. The first section, The Big Picture models annotated essays/reports/case studies etc from a range of disciplines including History, Management, Engineering, Creative Arts and Philosophy. The second section, The Middle Ground looks at paragraphs and their structure introducing Theme and thematic development, while the third section, Up Close looks at the clause and the resource of nominalisation and other grammatical systems which are characteristic of academic writing.

The package has been very favourably reviewed: "This package is a rare combination of sound language theory, intelligent instructional design and elegant navigational devices.....In short, this team has produced a rich resource which meets a number of needs for support and practice in the study of language as well as in academic writing." (ALM 2000 p. 17. Dr. M. Allan, Language Education, School of Education, James Cook University)

The CD-ROM sells for AUS$70 (includes GST) per unit. Alternatively, 5, 10 and 20 user site licenses are available to be used in computer labs. It is available through the distributor, NCELTR Publications, Macquarie University.

7.0 Systemic Web pages

There is a growing number of these. The following are examples of what is currently available -- please send information to Network (address as above) on additional sites so that future lists can be more representative.

o Mick O'Donnell's systemic web page contains a variety of current systemic information:

o KPML [Komet-Penman multilingual] The systemic functional computational work carried out by John Bateman and his colleagues at IPSI/ GMD, Darmstadt, Germany:

o Systemic booklist 1985-6, compiled by Michael Cummings and maintained by Mick O'Donnell:

http: // www.dai.ed.ac.uk/ staff/ personal_pages/ micko/ Systemics/ Bibliography/ Books.html

o Bibliography and general database for systemic work on languages other than English (Maintained by Alice Caffarel; see also under 8 below):

8.0 Research reports

8.1 Report from Laboratory for Language Based Intelligent System: Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, Japan

Our research team aims at realizing a new computing environment in which all information processing on computers can be performed by natural language as a meta-language. It will make a paradigm shift from number-based computing to language-based computing.

Based on systemic functional linguistics, we describe language systems with special reference to its use in context, and compile the results into database, called the Semiotic Base. It consists of the Situation Base, the Meaning Base, and the Lexicogrammar Base. It plays a role of language-based intelligence stored in computers for everyday language computing. To construct a prototype of the Semiotic Base, we are currently engaged in

8.2 The Instituto Nacional de Linguística (INL), Universidade Nacional de Timor Lorosa'e (UNATIL)

Benjamim Corte-Real graduated from a Ph.D at Macquarie University under the supervision of David Butt. At the time he submitted this information, he was the Director of the recently established Instituto Nacional de Linguística (National Linguistics Institute) based within East Timor's national university. He has recently been elected Rector of the University.

We have taken the following information from a brochure produced by the INL, to give an idea of the work of this significant organization.

The predominantly Oral Tradition of the native languages of East Timor - being the deposit of the history and the culture of the people and the land -, will find it increasingly hard to compete with other languages in this era of communication superhighway. Language, Culture, and Identity make up a circle of concepts and values that underlie the very existence and sense of collective pride of societies and nations. As the new nation of Timor Lorosa'e emerges, it is imperative that available resources be adequately explored and invested for the preservation and promotion of one of its unique cultural vehicle.

The Instituto Nacional de Linguística (INL) is an integral part of the Universidade Nacional de Timor Lorosa'e (UNATIL) that is tuned into developing studies on the national linguistic treasure of East Timor, as part of the University's endeavour to effectively preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Timor Lorosa'e.

Operating under the norms and the regulations of UNATIL, the INL is set out to pursue its specific role of conducting activities pertinent to the scientific/ academic treatment of the national language - Tetum -, and all the other local languages. These languages need to be documented in written and audio-visual forms, and described in varied ways, so as to ensure a more solid and permanent source of reference. For that, INL seeks to start a process of timorization of expertise in relevant areas, such as linguistic studies and research, literary production, teaching and publication.

Write a Tetum Monolingual Dictionary, Manuals of Orthography, Grammar books, socialize the Standardized Orthographic System, provide training to East Timorese linguistic students, various groups of Tetum writers, get foreign experts to transfer their expertise to local linguists, and continue the training of young and new students.

The INL will work together with the Centro Nacional de Investigação Científica (CNIC) in the area that concerns both, i.e., research, production of academic/ literary material and publication.

8.3 Report on the collaboration between North American systemicists and the Language Research Center (Georgia State University) in Atlanta

Beginning in 1995, several North American linguists (Jim Benson, Michael Cummings, Peter Fries and Bill Greaves) have been cooperating with Primatologists (particularly Sue Savage Rumbaugh and Duane Rumbaugh) at the Language Research Center of Georgia State University (the LRC) in investigating communicative abilities of bonobo apes in the colony of the LRC. Our contact began when a colleague of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's who taught at York University (where all except Fries teach) approached us and asked us to compare the data they were getting at the LRC with our information about the development of language in children. We were most interested in doing what we could and began by (a) looking at several videos which had been created to present the abilities of bonobos to the lay public, and (b) distributing these videos to other systemicists in Europe and Australia, and (c) increasingly after the fall of 1999, serving as linguistic consultants to Sue Savage Rumbaugh and her colleagues.

Eventually we were given access to primary data and chose to analyze a short conversation between Sue and Kanzi using two approaches. The first approach examined at the exchange structures in the conversation using the analytical tools described in Suene Eggins and Diane Slade Analyzing Casual Conversation. The second approach was a sort of lexico-grammatical analysis which depended in great part on the analysis of cohesive harmony, and which focused on Kanzi's ability to make contributions which were semantically appropriate at appropriate times in the conversation.

We took the approach we did because in the past, much of the discussion of the abilities of the bonobos has centered around the issue of whether they displayed grammar -- the ability to create new combinations of form to express new meanings. We felt that while the discussion of grammar was important, it ignored a more basic ability: the ability to take part in an extended interaction in an appropriate way. This we feel is also an important aspect of language. It is interesting to note that we found the Eggins and Slade analytical framework perfectly adequate to describe the interaction in the conversation which we analyzed.

Researchers are at present investigating a number of aspects of the communicative abilities of these bonobos. Severine Renard is examining the timing of Kanzi's vocalizations. In particular, she is looking at places where Kanzi's vocalizations overlap Sue's contributions, and is trying to discover patterns in when the overlaps occur. Sue Savage Rumbaugh is presently examining the semantic content of vocalizations (and is getting preliminary evidence that the vocalizations convey fairly specific lexical information (e.g. grape, vs. milk, vs. burrito, etc). Others (primarily Tiberu Spircu and Bartek Plichta) are attempting to make acoustic analyses of the vocalizations to see what mechanisms are used as the bonobos vocalize. (Preliminary analyses indicate that bonobos can (a) change the length of their vocal tract by projecting their lips (b) add at least a second (in addition to the oral cavity) resonating chamber -- perhaps the nasal cavity. In addition to these abilities, they have a very sophisticated control of pitch, and are able to give the impression of producing syllable boundaries by modulating the pitch.)

Paul Thibault (who gave a paper on the LRC bonobo work at the ASFLA conference in 1999) will be visiting the LRC in October, and other systemicists outside of North America are becoming increasingly involved in this research.

8.3.1 Significant dates in the collaboration:

9.0 Articles

9.1 The Linguistics of `Nation Building': East Timor and Macquarie

How does an `oral' culture turn itself into a literate culture? Can the community exercise choice at all in the matter; or will the process be the result of the dominating tides of the world's globalizing cultures? East Timor is facing these issues.

There are many languages in East Timor - between 13 and 30, depending on how you make the divisions. Tetum, however, can be currently used by around 3/4 of the population; and this explains why it is the "national" language. Portuguese has contributed variously to the evolution of Tetum, and has also been the medium of institutions of education, church, and state. For these reasons, Portuguese has been designated the `official' language, taking up where Tetum cannot presently function. Indonesian was imposed by importing teachers for high schools and by military induction - its influence is localized, and its associations problematic. Other foreign languages, English for instance, can hardly be regarded as tools for community literacy; nor can they ensure that the institutions of East Timorese communities - law, governance, social structure, oral performance - are maintained.

Such considerations have been the focus of 10 days of talks between East Timorese representatives and Macquarie linguists, through the Centre for Language in Social Life (C.L.S.L.). Francisco Martins (Vice Rector) and Dr. Benjamim Corte-Real (Director of the Institute of Linguistics) came to Macquarie, supported by our office for International Projects and the C.L.S.L. Both visitors are themselves linguists.

For Dr. Corte-Real, it was a return to the campus - his Ph.D. and Masters degree were completed here with Dr David Butt, Director of C.L.S.L. The passage of his study had never been an easy process, however. He and Dr. Butt together had approached the military and police officials in 1995 to ensure that the video recordings Benjamim undertook would be permitted, and not misunderstood. "Stick to culture and literature. Not politics," was the parting advice of the colonel. A great deal of effort has been put in, behind the scenes, by scholars like Dr. Geoffrey Hull (Uni of Western Sydney) and Dr Lance Eccles (Asian Languages) to develop and publish directly on East Timorese linguistics.

Working together through Macquarie, and with the expertise of Dr. Hull on Tetum and other East Timorese languages, the long term plan is to produce a wide range of orthographies, glossaries, dictionaries, and grammars, at the same time as generating texts of immediate practical relevance for schools, on the one hand, and for workers in health, law, agriculture, on the other.

The plans, under discussion for 2 years, have been given urgent priority by East Timorese leaders, and form the basis of an Academic Partners Scheme sought by the University Rector in Dili, Armindo Maia. While the link may begin through literacy, and therefore linguistics, the aim is to bring about partnerships from Departments right across the campus. To this end, we are initiating specific partnerships in a conference planned for Feb 18-20, 2002, at the new National University of East Timor.

9.2 Language and Behaviour

This paper describes the work of a classroom teacher at Seaton Park Primary School in Adelaide, South Australia, in supporting students in understanding what happens in their exchanges with peers, family and other adults. Its title could have been: "Developing the range of contexts in which students can make conscious choices in language". The explicit teaching of language and context began as a way of addressing the issue of abusive behaviour by children in a Year 6/7 class. Although the teacher was reacting to an immediate situation in his classroom, similar issues regarding the role of language in the access to discourses of learning and power have been explored by a range of researchers and theorists, such as Basil Bernstein.

The teacher was interested in supporting the students in their being able to choose appropriately from the language system in as many different contexts as possible. The work undertaken by the teacher was not intended to be about imposing the values of one group on another but about the students developing control of the linguistic tools needed to make their own meanings, so that their meanings were more transparent. Later, as the students began to understand more clearly the connection between text and context and how meanings are realised, they could also see that they had the resources to make their meanings more opaque if they wanted to. In this situation, the language user has some degree of control of the outcome rather than necessarily being the servants of others' meanings and this meant that they were able to start negotiating within their peer groups, their school communities, their families and the wider community.

Prior to this work in the classroom, the typical way for the teacher to deal with disruptive students was to follow the school's three-tiered method: Tier 1 is classroom-based (pointing out inappropriateness of behaviour within the class plan - What did you do? and What are you going to do about it?); Tier 2 is school-based class exclusion (eg a time-out locale); and Tier 3 is school exclusion (ie suspension).

At Tier 1, the teacher counselled the students after they'd been reprimanded. This involved talking about the situation and exploring the meanings and intentions made by the students. But meaning wasn't clearly related to the language choices made by the students. In this counselling, the students and teachers felt frustrated that they weren't progressing to a satisfactory position and the typical behaviour patterns were simply re-occurring. The disruptive students, who were consistently finding themselves `excluded' by their peers and adults, felt they knew what they meant and thought their meanings were transparent to the listener. However, the listeners' reactions made them think that the listeners were purposely misconstruing them. Hence, they felt they were being victimised and their reaction to that was to resort to being abusive, physically and verbally. A typical situation would be:

Student 1: "Give me the pencil." (meaning: I need a pencil and I think this kid could lend me one because he has a few)

Student 1: "Give me the pencil, jerk-off." (meaning: It's so unfair; he's got so many pencils and he lent one to that other kid. What is with this guy! He hates me, so I hate him.)

Student 2: "Piss off." (meaning: He thinks he can order people around and hassle them but I'm not accepting that)

Student 1 doesn't realise that Student 2 is reacting to his language and not to the exchange of a pencil. Student 2 can't clarify that and, in any event, Student 1 cannot see anything wrong with his language choice.

The counselling indicated that the intention of Student 2 wasn't to hurt Student 1 but to get him to stop harassing (the command Give me the pencil was seen as harassment by the student and the vocative jerk-off simply exacerbated the situation). In general, the intention of the students wasn't to hurt, yet they were doing a lot of hurting.

To undertake the analysis of interpersonal meanings with students, the teacher needed a model of language that is concerned with the linguistic resources chosen to make meaning in context. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) allows for a structured and systematised way of discussing context and the degree of appropriateness of the available linguistic choices in that context. It doesn't say what is or is not appropriate, but it does provide a systematised exploration. The teacher was undertaking a professional development course in classroom applications of SFL and realised when interpersonal meanings were discussed that it was possible to address the issue of behaviour from a linguistic perspective instead of solely from a psychological one.

For students, this means that they and the teacher can discuss the meanings intended and discuss the appropriateness of the language choices made. Explicitly teaching the lexico-grammar and understandings of the context gives the students and teacher a shared metalanguage. It also makes them aware of a greater range of language resources from which to make conscious choices in a range of contexts. Importantly, by reflecting on language in a technical way, the students can `separate' themselves from their language. In this way, individual students are not the targets of the discussion. This is important if the language of the students is not to be set up for criticism and ridicule, yet, at the same time, they are supported in understanding the choices they are making.

The teacher had talked about language informally in the counselling sessions but began to discuss it formally in the classroom. There, he introduced the issue of inappropriate behaviour to the class, discussed it in general and then said that they were going to look at the language involved. They had ownership of both the problem and the resolution of the problem and the teacher's role was as a support so that the problem was reduced.

In the SFL Model, language is seen as located in a context. The context is organised as two parts: the Context of Culture and the Context of Situation, the latter being a specific situation in the cultural context. The Context of Situation itself is organised according to three variables in the context: the Field (the `what' of the context), the Tenor (the `who' of the context) and the Mode (the `how' of the context). The model makes a clear link between these three situational variables and the language system. Field is realised (expressed) through the experiential meanings in the language, Tenor is realised through the interpersonal meanings in the language, and Mode is realised through the textual meanings in the language.

Since the focus of the work undertaken by this teacher was Tenor, then it was the interpersonal meanings that were explored with the students. These interpersonal meanings are realised through certain linguistic elements. These include attitudinal lexis, modality and mood. Attitudinal lexis deals with those words that express some kind of attitude or affect and when it came to disruptive behaviour, they usually included swear words. Modality is concerned with the speaker's angle on the world and can be realised through elements like modal finites (might, could, must), modal adjuncts (perhaps, possibly, always), modal processes (suggests, indicates, appears), mental processes (I think, I believe) and modal nouns (chance, risk, possibility). Mood is concerned with the speech functions of statements, questions, offers, and commands and the mood type we use to express those.

Attitudinal lexis was the first thing to be explored by the class but I would like to look at mood choice in more detail for this presentation.

Meaning	Speech function	Grammar (Mood type)	Example
Giving information	statement	declarative mood	I feel sick.
Seekinginformation	question	interrogative mood	Are you sick?
Giving goods and services	offer	modulated interrogative	Can I take you to the doctor?
Seeking goods and services	command	imperative mood	Go to the doctor.

Speech function	Grammar (Mood type)	Example
command	imperative mood (congruent)	Go to the doctor.
	declarative mood (metaphorical)	You don't look well at all.
	interrogative mood (metaphorical)	Are you only going to take those tablets?
	modulated interrogative(metaphorical)	Shall I ring the clinic to check?

What became clear to the teacher and his class was that quite a number of the students, including all those getting into trouble regularly, were not able to understand or use the metaphorical forms of commands confidently. Although there are metaphorical forms for all of the speech functions, it was commands that caused the major problems. The students were typically making commands using the congruent grammatical choice, the imperative. What they couldn't see was that this was not always appropriate.

Initially, the teacher attempted to discuss these issues of language and context and degrees of appropriateness by focusing on tenor and the tenor variables of roles, relationships, status, contact and affect without teaching the lexico-grammar. However, it became necessary to teach the lexico-grammar for the students to understand independently the choices being made by others and the choices available to them.

For some of the students, this exploration of interpersonal resources has had positive effects on their home relationships. Many of the students had previously been in an ongoing state of conflict with parents. Now, students were discussing their work in this area with their parents - some were even teaching it to their parents - and their relationships were not marked by continual misunderstandings. Issues to do with power and language and the choices made by both parents and children were better understood and since they didn't have to separate themselves physically like before, they could get to the next stage of talking about things in general.

Reception-Year 1 students out in yard - instead of using Fuck off, they now use Go away because I don't ... or Leave me alone or they use modality. They are now able to reflect to some degree on how they and others realise commands in different ways in different contexts. Of course, if their attempts at using metaphorical commands don't work, they revert to Fuck off.

In a discussion with one Year 6 girl who was abusive both at school and at home, the teacher discovered that what she really desired was to talk like Dawson, an actor on a TV show called "Dawson's Creek". On investigating the kind of language used in the show, it was clear to the teacher that the choices were overwhelmingly metaphorical. In the young girl's home, the communication between mother and daughter was not successful: the girl thought her mum was being hurtful when using congruent commands. At the same time, her name was often placed at the front of the congruent commands, eg Donna, clean up your room. The work on language and behaviour has had a very positive influence on the girl's relationships with her mother, peers and teachers.

One Year 6 boy, who had been receiving extra language support since his first years in school, has developed his metalinguistic skills to the point where he is respected by the other students for his knowledge. This is an interesting phenomenon requiring further research because it is typical that students who are highly skilled in an `academic' subject are often put down by somebody in the class for their knowledge. However, with their study of the English language, it seems that respect is the response in this classroom. One possible explanation for this is that the school subjects are considered to be too technical by the students who are not successful in them and so a student who excels in a subject is showing off their knowledge of the technicality. But language is so naturalised and the students in the class think, rightly or wrongly, that their use and existing knowledge of the English language is not technical that, when they do start to technicalise it, they are impressed.

Exploring the role of language in communication is now in the process of being incorporated as part of the whole school curriculum, in all the years. Children in the earlier years explore language of the school yard for example and later start to investigate the lexico-grammar. Research into school talk, peer talk, shop talk, class talk etc is now also part of the curriculum. A scope and sequence is being worked out for the school so that understandings of these issues are developed in a supportive way. This work is being shared with other teachers through a practical, eight-hour professional development package where the teachers also explore the classroom activities used.