900: Grammar, Meaning and Discourse: Outline — Semester 1, 1999  

NOTE: For current information about LING 900, check the web site specified below under "Web sites".

Convenor & lecturer

Christian Matthiessen @ 9850 7756 [Room 527, C5A]; Fax: 9850 9199.

E-mail: cmatthie@ling.mq.edu.au

NOTE: The best method of contact for questions, requests for appointments etc. is by e-mail.
 

Lectures
 

Readings

Text book:

IFG is the main text book. LexCart is a companion volume which provides you with (i) system networks for each area of the grammar (thus adding the systemic part of systemic-functional theory to the functional part introduced in IFG), (ii) additional examples and commentary, (iii) analysed texts, and (iii) brief typological outlooks. Both IFG and LexCart have extensive references to relevant publications — including publications exemplifying the use of functional grammar in text analysis. WFG has been designed as a workbook for IFG. It includes summaries of the various areas treated in IFG, exorcises with keys and sections on troubleshooting in analysis.

Note that Appendix 3 of LexCart is a brief glossary of many of the technical terms you will meet in this course.

NOTE that past experience has shown that using WFG, the IFG Workbook, and doing the exercises makes a very significant difference — in a positive direction! WFG includes keys to exercises so that you can do them by yourselves or (perhaps even better!) together in a small working group.

Extra optional readings, as indicated in the week by week outline. These readings vary considerably in difficulty and cover not only topics discussed in the course but also related topics.

Web sites

You will find various useful materials at the web site of the Systemic Meaning Modelling Group at Macquarie. The home page is:

http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/

You should familiarize yourselves with what is provided here. In particular, information relevant to LING 900 will be included under the "Virtual Classroom" link:

http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/Resources/VirtualClassroom/classroom.htm

From our home page you can also reach, among other things, our "Virtual Library", which includes a glossary of systemic functional terms that you will meet in the course, a systemic functional bibliography:

http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/Resources/VirtuallLibrary/VirtualLibrary.htm

There is also link to Network, the systemic functional newsletter:

http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/Resources/Network/Network.html

This newsletter includes a list of upcoming conferences and other events — systemic functional, but also other linguistics conferences:

http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/Resources/Network/FutureEvents/FutureEvents.htm

Linguistics conferences in general are listed at:

http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/conference.html

The home page of Functions of Language, a journal that publishes papers by systemic functional linguists and other functional linguists is: http://bank.rug.ac.be/mt/fol/

Workshopping

Since each Wednesday meeting is 3 hours, we will have some time to "workshop" in class around texts and problems. However, in addition, I recommend that you try to form small groups where you can talk through and exercises together, share materials (including WFG and any optional readings) and discuss problems.
 

Assessment

Two short assignments and one longer final assignment. The short assignments are designed to help you develop your analytical skills — the emphasis will be on lexicogrammatical analysis of text. Each assignment will be devoted to major areas of the grammatical system of English. The final assignment will build on the analytical skills that you develop throughout the course. You will analyse text again in the final assignment, but at this point you will select the grammatical systems you want to focus on and the emphasis will shift to the task of developing an interpretation of the analysis: the point is that you should be able to use your analytical skills to address issues relating to grammar, meaning and discourse.
 

NOTE — submission of assignments: Please submit your assignments to the Linguistics Department so that they can be collected and recorded systematically — do not submit them to me in class. Always make sure you have a copy of the assignments you submit.

Please submit typed or printed assignments — not handwritten ones.
 

This course is concerned with a particular, modern approach to, and theory of, grammar — a systemic-functional interpretation of grammar, with English as the main language of illustration. Systemic-functional theory is one of the major modern approaches to languages. It has its roots in one of the two traditions in thinking about language that have been developed in the West ever since Ancient Greece — language interpreted as a resource. This tradition interprets grammar in terms of function, with an orientation towards rhetoric and ethnography. The other tradition views language as a rule system and interprets grammar in terms of form, with an orientation towards logic and philosophy. Systemic-functional theory originated with M.A.K. Halliday in Britain in the early 1960s, partly as a development of an earlier British tradition (Firthian linguistics), partly under the influence of functional linguistics in Europe (in particular, the Prague School) and anthropological linguistics in the U.S. (Sapir, Whorf), and partly under the influence of Indian and Chinese linguistics. Halliday's first descriptive focus was Chinese, later English. Now systemic-functional theory is being applied to a variety of languages — in addition to Chinese and English, also e.g. Gooniyandi, Pitjantjatjara, Japanese, Indonesian, Tagalog, Telugu, Finnish, French, Dutch, and German. (Your will find relevant references in IFG and LexCart. Some publications are easier to obtain than others; let me know about languages you have a particular interest in.) There are many research applications — general description, educational research, and computational modelling are important research contexts. (For references, see LexCart Appendix 2.) Scholars taking active part in the development of the theory come from linguistics, social semiotics, education, computer science, and theoretical physics. The account of grammar that you will meet has been used extensively in discourse analysis undertaken for various purposes, in social semiotic theory and description, in research on language in the educational process, and in computational systems for generating text. A computational version of the grammar described in IFG and LexCart has been under development since 1980, first in the US and now at various sites around the world with our department as one of the main nodes in this network. (Note, in this context, that a functional grammar is not an informal or inexplicit one. Just like a formal grammar, it can be formalized — as long as the formalization is up to the task of representing the richness of grammar.) Systemic-functional linguists hold an annual international congress, in Europe, N. America, Asia, or Australia; and annual workshops are held in Japan, Europe and Australia and a bi-annual one in China. See:

http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/Resources/Network/events/FutureEvents.htm

The course will map out the grammatical system of a language — or, to be more precise, the lexicogrammatical system (= grammar + vocabulary or lexis). This can be seen against the background of the overall object of study — language as a system for making meanings in social context:

This type of diagram will become familiar in the course. Briefly, it says that the complex of language in context is organized into a series of levels or strata, related by realization. Context is realized by language, with semantics as the interface; and within language, semantics or the system of meaning is realized by lexicogrammar or the system or wording, which in turn is realized by phonology or the system of sounds (or graphology, the system of writing). Lexicogrammar is thus located between (discourse) semantics and phonology (/ graphology) and, in a functional theory, it is naturally related to semantics. That is, the wordings of lexicogrammar — its structures and "words" — directly express and construct patterns of meaning: the two systems of lexicogrammar and semantics have evolved together as the "content" of language. In contrast, lexicogrammar is not naturally related to its expression in sound (phonology) or writing (graphology): the relationship is largely arbitrary or conventional rather than natural. Because of the natural relationship between semantics and lexicogrammar, we can use lexicogrammar as a way into the a study of meaning.

A systemic-functional interpretation of grammar differs from other possible interpretations, such as that of traditional grammar (which has its roots in Ancient Greece and has typically been the model in school grammars) — just as an Einsteinian interpretation of the physical world differs from a Newtonian one. In very general terms, the most prominent properties of a systemic functional interpretation of grammar are

The following is an example of a clause analysed in systemic-functional terms. The analysis tells you: (i) what options have been selected from all the possible grammatical options for clauses — here you can see what type of clause it is and how it compares with other possible clauses; and (ii) what structure realizes (expressed, codes) the options selected. The structure is a configuration of grammatical functions — Theme, Subject, Actor, etc.; and these are organized into three layers (separated by double lines), one for each metafunction. The first layer is textual, the second is interpersonal, and the third is ideational. Textually, the clause is a message (IFG, Ch. 3). It takes as its point of departure, its Theme, the fact that the speaker is demanding information about a particular element (what time ). That is, the grammar reveals right away that the speaker is demanding information from the listener: the point of departure keys the listener into this. Interpersonally, the clause is an exchange between speaker and listener (IFG, Ch. 4). It enacts a particular kind of question, interrogative — a content question or wh-interrogative: structurally, Wh (what time ) ^ Finite (did ) ^ Subject (you ). It also identifies the listener explicitly by means of the Vocative (Petey). Ideationally, the clause is a piece of representation (IFG, Ch. 5). It represents an activity in which one participant is involved — a type of material process, with Actor (you ) + Process (did get up) and an additional specification of time, Location-time (what time ). There are many additional details in the analysis given below and you'll learn about them during the course.
 

What can you get out of a systemic-functional interpretation of grammar? There are two steps to the answer.

(i) First of all, we have to recognize how fundamental language is to human life and experience: for the very young child, language is the way into society, first through interaction in the family. Through this interaction, s/he is gradually defined as a person capable of playing a variety of social roles. At the same time, through this interaction, s/he builds up an interpretation and representation of his/ her experience of the world around and inside him/ her. It's his/ her primary resource for learning & thinking about the world. Language is at the same time a fundamental personal resource and a fundamental resource in terms of which social groups and societies are organized. If we can describe and understand language, we can begin to understand, and act on, these other systems it helps bring into existence — systems of knowledge, systems of social hierarchy, and so on. The task of coming to grips with language is becoming ever more central in a world that is dominated by information — by a commodity created by language.

(ii) The centrality of language in human life and experience is based on its nature as a system of meaning — a system for creating and understanding texts, for storing and transforming knowledge, and so on. And lexicogrammar is modelled in systemic-functional theory as a level of worded meanings: it is the way into meaning-making power of language. By studying lexicogrammar, we can thus gain considerable understanding of how meanings are made. But we can't do this piecemeal by just looking at fragments: we have to try to take a comprehensive view of the system in its totality. We can leave out details — we have leave out lots of details; but we have to try to understand how the system is organized as a functioning whole. Just as we would in trying to come to grips with an eco-system. Trying to take in the whole system is obviously very hard work — but the pay-off is considerable. If we achieve an understanding of lexicogrammar as part of the meaning-making system,

That is, the account of lexicogrammar feeds countless other activities and accounts.
 

The course is organized according to the resources of the grammar of English as they are interpreted theoretically in systemic-functional terms: one major objective is to give you a very good sense of what the grammatical system looks like, both globally (the whole system of grammar) and more locally (its various subsystems). This is the key both to descriptive applications and to a theoretical understanding of grammar. The grammatical theory will be introduced step by step in the context of the various systems of the grammar (THEME, MOOD, etc.). From a theoretical point of view, the syllabus is not a linear sequence of topics as outlined above but a spiral progression towards a fuller account of certain key abstractions that you will meet early on and then again and again — metafunctions, strata, systems, realization statements, function structures, and so on. Note that Appendix 3 of LexCart is a glossary of systemic-functional terms. The handout for each 'block' in the course will contain a brief theoretical review.

The first nine weeks are thus organized as a move through the major areas of the grammar. We begin with the most inclusive unit of the grammar — the clause — since this is most semantically revealing and displays very clearly a number of the principles and categories that we will find in other parts of the grammar. We move through the three metafunctional layers of the clause — textual, interpersonal, and ideational. We will then go beyond the simple clause to explore how clauses are combined into clause complexes. Diagrammatically:

After this tour through the grammar, we will turn to the relationship between grammar and discourse and round off the course by looking at the grammar from different vantage points and exploring it as, among other things, a theory of experience.

NOTE use appendices in IFG & LexCart as resources throughout the course:

• Examples of texts analysed: IFG Appendix 1; LexCart Appendix 6.

• Glossary of technical terms: LexCart Appendix 3.

• Summary of symbols and conventions: LexCart "Symbols and conventions".

 
The course is organized according to the chapters of IFG:
 

Week 12 is intended to put the grammar into various perspectives and to consolidate.
 

WFG chapters support IFG as follows:
 

WFG Exercises are organized into three phases, increasing in difficulty. You are not required to do any of the exercises, but doing a selection will certainly be very helpful to you. Note in particular that WFG contains practice texts. Keys to exercises appear at the end of the book (pp. 210-).

LexCart is also quite optional — if you need further detailed discussion, you can use it as a reference source. (If you would like to read a version that is more introductory than the presentation in IFG first, you can consult the new introductory books listed above — in particular, Butt et al (1995), Gerot & Wignell (1994), Thompson (1997) or Eggins (1994).)
 

Week 1: Introduction to a functional interpretation of grammar

Lectures: Towards a functional interpretation of grammar

During this week we will discuss some of the foundations of a functional interpretation of grammar. We will interpret grammar not as an autonomous system, but as a subsystem of language functioning in the environment of the other linguistic subsystems. This environmental or ecological perspective on grammar will allow us to explain its organization by reference to axis, delicacy, rank, and metafunction.

Readings:

— Introduction: Organization of clauses: IFG, Chapter 2; (LexCart, Chapter 1 — there's no need to read all of Chapter 1 now, but note that you can return to it later as you feel the need for an overview of the theoretical underpinnings). — Organization of the elements of clauses, groups/ phrases: IFG, Section 6.1.

further readings:

Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. & M.A.K. Halliday. 1997. Systemic functional grammar: a first step into the theory. [This is an introductory summary of the theory used in the interpretation of English grammar in IFG, WFG and LexCart.]

 
Week 2: Introduction; THEME [1]

Lectures: textual -- THEME in particular

Here you will meet the grammatical resources for organizing the clause as a piece of text in context, a message, in such a way that it fits into the movement of the text in which it occurs. In particular, the THEME system provides the options for selecting what to set up as the local context of the clause that will relate to context of the preceding text — this is the point of departure of the clause, its Theme, realized (expressed) by initial position in the clause. THEME is one of the systems of the textual metafunction — the metafunction making it possible to present ideational and interpersonal meaning as text in context.

Readings:

— THEME: IFG, Section 2.5, Chapter 3 (note also Sections 8.4 through 8.6); LexCart, Chapter 6.

further readings:

Week 3: THEME [2]; rank & constituency, grammatical domains

Lectures: textual -- THEME in particular

Readings: — THEME: as above. Rank & constituency, grammatical domains: IFG, Chapter 1; LexCart, Chapter 2.

Week 4: MOOD [1]

Lectures: interpersonal — MOOD in particular

Here you will meet the grammatical resources for constructing the clause as a move in an ongoing exchange between the interactants (speaker & addressee) in a dialogue. In particular, the system of MOOD realizes different types of dialogic interactions the speaker engages the listener in — statements, questions, offers, and commands. These are realized structurally in terms of the presence of the Mood element and its internal organization (in particular the relative order of its two main elements, Subject and Finite) but also in terms of the intonation contour or pitch movement at the level of phonology. MOOD is the central clauses interpersonal system, but it is supported by other systems such as MODALITY and POLARITY.

Readings: IFG, Chapter 4 (note also Sections 8.9 and 10.4); LexCart, Chapter 5.

further reading:

Week 5: MOOD [2]

Lectures: MOOD; stratification of language; grammatical metaphor (1)

Readings: as above for MOOD; for theory: LexCart, Sections 1.1 & 1.4; IFG Section 10.4 on "interpersonal metaphors".
 

Week 6:TRANSITIVITY [1]

Lectures: ideational -- experiential: TRANSITIVITY

Here you will meet the third of the three metafunctions, in the environment of the clause. This is the system of TRANSITIVITY, the resources for construing 'goings-on' — our experience of happenings, activities, acts, sensations, states of being, and so on. This system allows us to deconstruct our experience of the world into phenomena, which can then be reconstructed into configurations of elements. Such configurations involve a Process, participants involved in this process (bringing it about, being affected by it, etc.), and attendant circumstances. The grammar has evolved a small number of distinct types of process, each with its own set of participants, and these interpret different domains of experience.

Readings: for TRANSITIVITY: IFG, Chapter 5 (note also Section 10.3); LexCart, Chapter 4.

further readings:

Week 7: TRANSITIVITY [2]

Lectures: TRANSITIVITY; grammatical metaphor (2); grammar & lexis

We have already met grammatical metaphor within the interpersonal metafunction — metaphors of mood and modality. Here we will discuss grammatical metaphor within the ideational metafunction — metaphors of transitivity and other ideational system. These are strategies for reconstruing experience, often with the effect of reifying processes, qualities and other phenomena — i.e. of construing them as if they were entities.

Readings: for TRANSITIVITY: IFG, Section 10.3 on "ideational metaphor"; LexCart, Sections 1.5.2 & 2.1.3.2; Section 1.4.

further readings:

Week 8:TRANSITIVITY [3]; CLAUSE COMPLEXING — PROJECTION

Lectures: TRANSITVITY as above; ‘mental’ and ‘verbal’ clauses projecting ‘ideas’ and ‘locutions’ in clause complexes.

We will focus on ‘mental’ and ‘verbal’ clauses in particular and explore how they can project other clauses within clause complexes — clauses representing the "content" of sensing (ideas) and of saying (locutions). This is the grammar of "direct and indirect thought" and of "direct and indirect speech". This lecture will take us from the transitivity grammar of the clause to the grammar of the clause complex.

Readings: for TRANSITIVITY as above; PROJECTION: IFG, Section 7.5 + pp. 157-8 (on circumstances of Matter and Angle).

Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. 1998. Construing processes of consciousness: from the commonsense model to the uncommonsense model of cognitive science. In J.R. Martin & R. Veel (eds.), Reading science: critical and functional perspectives on discourses of science. London: Routledge. pp. 327-57.

Week 9:CLAUSE COMPLEXING — TAXIS and EXPANSION

Lectures: ideational -- logical: CLAUSE COMPLEX; dynamic, logical systems

Up to now, we have been concerned with the systems of the clause and its internal organization as message, exchange and representation. Here you will learn about the grammatical resources for constructing sequences of processes by combining clauses step by step into clause complexes. These are again ideational (like the resources of TRANSITIVITY), but of a different subtype — the logical subtype of the ideational metafunction. Structurally, this means that clause complexes are developed by means of interdependency relations; unlike clauses, they are not are not units consisting of constituent parts. You will also learn about differences between written and spoken English in the distribution of information by looking at two kinds of measure related to the degree of deployment of the potential of the clause complex — lexical density and grammatical intricacy.

Readings: IFG, Chapter 7; LexCart, Chapter 3 (Note discussion of RST in LexCart Section 1.8.2)

further readings:

Halliday, M.A.K. 1985. Written and spoken language. Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. & S.A. Thompson. 1988. The structure of discourse and 'subordination'. In J. Haiman & S.A. Thompson (eds), Clause combining in grammar and discourse. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
 

Week 10: Lexicogrammar construing meaning in text

Lectures:

Readings:

 
Week 11: Lexicogrammar construing meaning in text

Lectures:
 

Readings:
 
 

Week 12: Wider perspective

Lectures: Perspectives on the grammar (e.g. semohistoric ones) — ways of using the grammar.

Here we explore among other things how the resources of the grammar are deployed in the creation of text. We will review observations that have been made throughout the course (e.g. in the discussion of THEME).

Readings: Note examples of text analysis in IFG Appendix 1 and LexCart Appendix 6. LexCart Appendix 2 is a reading guide to applications of the functional theory of grammar introduced in the course.

further readings:

References — work on languages other than English
 

• Textual

References — work on semiotic systems other than language

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