Maulina
Adzkiyah
2201409033
TiAL
Study Group 405-406
Systemic-Functional
Linguistics
Definition
Systemic-Functional
Linguistics can be defined as the relationship between language and its
functions in social settings. In systemic-functional linguistics (SFL), three
strata make up the linguistic system: meaning (semantics), sound
(phonology), and wording or lexicogrammar (syntax, morphology, and lexis). SFL
treats grammar as meaning-making resource and insists on the interrelation of
form and meaning.
In other words, SFL is a theory of language centered on the notion of language
function. SFL accounts for the syntactic structure of language. Its function of
language as central (what language does, and how it does it), in preference to
more structural approaches, which place the elements of language and their
combination as central. SFL starts at social context, and looks at how language
both acts upon, and is constrained by, this social context.
Theory
Halliday
(1985) wrote in “The value of a theory” that “lies in the use that can be made
of it, and I have always considered a theory of language to be essentially
consumer oriented”. This perspective from the major figure of
Systemic-Functional linguistics is refreshing to applied linguists who grew up
on a diet of linguist oriented structural transformations. It can be said that
Systemic-Functional (SF) theory views language as a social semiotic a resource
people use to accomplish their purpose by expressing meanings in context.
According to
Halliday (1975), language has developed in response to three kinds of
social-functional 'needs.' The first is to be able to construe experience in
terms of what is going on around us and inside us. The second is to interact
with the social world by negotiating social roles and attitudes. The third and
final need is to be able to create messages with which we can package our
meanings in terms of what is New or Given, and in terms of what
the starting point for our message is, commonly referred to as the Theme.
Halliday (1978) calls these language functions metafunctions, and refers
to them as ideational, interpersonal and textual respectively.
History of systemic
SFL grew out of
the work of JR Firth, a British linguist of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, but was
mainly developed by his student MAK Halliday. He developed the theory in the
early sixties (seminal paper, Halliday 1961), based in England, and moved to
Australia in the Seventies, establishing the department of linguistics at the
University of Sydney. Through his teaching there, SFL has spread to a number of
institutions throughout Australia, and around the world. Australian Systemics
is especially influential in areas of language education.
Child
language development
Some of
Halliday's early work involved the study of his son's developing language
abilities. This study in fact has had a substantial influence on the present
systemic model of adult language, particularly in regard to the metafunctions.
This work has been followed by other child language development work,
especially that of Clare Painter. Ruqaia Hasan has also performed studies of
interactions between children and mothers.
Systemic
and computation
SFL has been
prominent in computational linguistics, especially in Natural Language
Generation (NLG). Penman, an NLG system started at Information Sciences
Institute in 1980, is one of the three main such systems, and has influenced
much of the work in the field. John Bateman (currently in Bremen, Germany) has
extended this system into a multilingual text generator, KPML. Robin Fawcett in
Cardiff have developed another systemic generator, called Genesys. Mick
O'Donnell has developed yet another system, called WAG. Numerous other systems
have been built using Systemic grammar, either in whole or in part.
Levels of social context
1. Field of discourse
2. Language bridges from the
cultural meanings of social context
3. Semantics
4. Lexicogrammar
5. Ideational meaning
6. Interpersonal meaning
7. Textual meaning
