Rabu, 25 April 2012

5th Assignment of Topic in Applied Linguistics


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

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