riassunto esame prof. Luporini

Functional grammar

Linguistics = the scientific study of language or of particular languages. It has a very wide field of study:

• Several different branches:
  • Cognitive linguistics: concerned with cognitive mechanisms
  • Structural linguistics: concerned with linguistic structure and forms
  • Functional linguistics: concerned with functions played by language.
• Several different applications = it's an applicable discipline to solve real-world issues
  • Comparative linguistics: helps to compare different languages
  • Computational linguistics: create computer programs (e.g. Google Translator)
  • Forensic linguistics
  • Historical linguistics

Linguistics is useful for us because it makes us more aware users and consumers of a language. By studying it, we can become more critical, and it's important to know how this language functions.

Systemic functional linguistics (FG)

It's a branch of Linguistics developed in the last century by Michael Holiday.

• Focus on contextual meaning, language in use, on how language is used in context.
• It's functional and descriptive (it focuses on the function of language and aims to describe how it works).
• Based on empirical research
• FG matches in formalism. There are correspondences between the two approaches but they are still different.

Different approaches to the study of language

There's a basic opposition between:

• Formal approach (Formalism)
  • The focus is on structures
  • Unit of analysis: sentence
  • Language concern: syntax = rules for combining different nouns, verbs to form sentences
  • Language: set of rules for sentence construction
• Functional approach (Functionalism)
  • The focus is on meanings (or functions)
  • Structure is always the starting point to analyze a language but Functionalism goes beyond it.
  • Unit of analysis: whole text (the level of the sentence wouldn't be enough to express a meaning)
  • Language concern: language is mainly a resource for semantics (= study of meanings)
  • Language: resource for meaning making (FG is descriptive and not prescriptive = errors can be motivated by the context)
• Chomsky: very famous linguist. Founder of Generative Grammar: typical example of a Formalist approach. It consists of a series of rules that can be applied to build up correct sentences in English.

Why systemic functional linguistics / functional grammar?

Different applications of FG:

• Discourse analysis: to analyze the language of the media (newspapers…), to carry out a critical analysis of media discourse, political discourse, advertising… to understand better how different text types work.
• Stylistics: study of style, including for instance studying the language of literature.
• Translation studies
• Foreign language teaching and learning
• Register studies: academic register/advertising studies…

Our unit of analysis in FG is the text. It doesn't mean we'll work with long texts, but with single units that we have to break down into smaller units (series-books-chapters-sentences-words). At the end of our analysis we want to be able to say something about the text.

How do we define a text?

• It's not a question of length: it can be 100 pages or a few words
• It has to be self-sufficient in meaning.
• Coherence
• Cohesion: it means that the different parts of a text have to fit together
• A text is not necessarily written (also spoken)
• We break down texts into clauses

The importance of the context

• Language takes place in context. In other words, when we're dealing with language we must always consider the context in which it's used.
• Context = what goes with language. It's the surroundings against which the communicative exchange takes place, the backdrop. We might call it the background of the language event.
• In FG, the context is what we call a twofold definition: The meanings we convey while using language are strictly linked to both the cultural and the situational context in which language is used.
  • Culture: wider context, it's the all-embracing circle.
  • Situation: included in the context of culture. It's the "here and now" of the situation. These two contexts together include the text.

Context of culture

• The set of beliefs, value systems, traditions, that we have and that we may share as part of the same culture. It is the context of the cultural background.
• In FG, the context is always a necessary part of the linguistic analysis, and we can never overlook the context.

Context of situation

• Is embedded within the context of culture.
• It's the here and now of the communication = it's a clear-cut notion, the context of situation is more specific. It's not as fixed as the context of culture (that takes a long time to change).
• Within the same context of culture, we find many different contexts of situation.
• 3 variables that tell us something specific about the context of situation:
  • Field: what is going on?
    • In terms of social activity that is being carried out (such as lecture, informal conversation..)
    • In terms of subject matter: what the exchange is about (English linguistics, Spanish literature, what you did yesterday)
  • Tenor: who is taking part? We now focus on the participants in the exchange, on the interlocutors
    • Defined in terms of social roles: it depends on the role we take on in society. Roles that are socially determining. In fact, social roles are fixed, they can change but it takes time.
    • Discourse roles: role you take on in the discourse. So, for instance, you can either take on the role of speaker (the one who's giving info) and the other can be the receiver, listener, addressee, hearer. The receiver is receiving the information. Discourse roles are much more flexible because they can change quite easily during the exchange: the interlocutors can switch.
  • Mode: What is the role of language? How is language being used in the exchange?
    • Channel: may be phonic, graphic or a mix of these two modes
    • Medium is a very complex notion.
    • Monologue/dialogue? In a monologue, we have one speaker and one or more passive receivers so the discourse is built up by a single speaker. In a dialogue: different voices that interact. Spontaneous or not..? with a friend, you're not really planning too much. Sometimes language can be used in a prepared way (e.g. political discourse). Sometimes we can find an instance of language that is not prepared but not spontaneous (Lessons).

The text in context: what are the strata?

• Meanings: semantics
• Wording: meanings are realized in and by the lexical grammar of the text
• Letters/sounds: wordings are realized in and by the phonic/graphic channel (phonology/graphology) FG; which is a branch of SFL, is a very systematic approach to the study of language so there are clear connections:

Text and context connection

Semantics: First of all, our starting point is the context of situation with its three variables: field; tenor and mode.

• Each of them tends to activate specific meanings
• These meanings are then realized in and by the lexical grammar or the wordings that we find in a text.
• Language is used to give form to three kinds of meanings, and these three kinds correspond to the three variables:
  • Ideational meanings: directly linked to the field.
  • Interpersonal meanings: language functions as a meaning that we have to build and maintain in interpersonal relations. (linked to the tenor, that answers the question who are the interlocutors).
  • Textual meanings that have to do with the fact that we can represent reality through language and build, maintain social relations: we as speakers and writers can create texts. These meanings depend on our capacity of building the text and are directly influenced by the mode (what's the role of language).

Moving from the strata of semantics to the strata of wording there are specific lexico-grammatical systems (of options), that are available to speakers and writers, that are responsible for realizing different kinds of meanings.

• Ideational meanings are realized by the meaning of transitivity and clauses in combination.
  • Clause as representation
• Interpersonal meanings are accounted for by the system of modality, appraisal, mood system.
  • Clause as exchange
• Textual meanings are realized in structural cohesion and non-structural cohesion as a system of lexico-grammatical options.
  • Clause as message

Unit 2: Going in through form

Main topics:

• Identifying clauses and clause constituents
• The rank scale
• Nominal group analysis

Thompson: “in the present chapter I want to turn to some more concrete preliminaries: the ways in which we can split up the sentence into parts, so that we can later go on to look at the particular functions each part serves”.

• Unit much about structure
• While considering the basic tenets in FG, we note that FG focuses on meanings and functions rather than on forms. BUT this fact does not imply that we don't care about structure at all (it is our starting point of analysis).
• In this unit we're going concrete. We're going to be able to divide the text into smaller parts.

Distinction between sentence and clause

1. Sentence: unit of writing, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop.
2. The clause is a unit of grammatical analysis. Some clauses are also sentences, but not all of them. Conversely, one sentence can be made up of more than one clause.

Thompson gives a definition of clause: any stretch of language centred around a verb.

The rank scale

The rank scale is a concept that helps us make sense of the compositional nature of the language. In language, there are larger units made up of smaller units.

• These units can be summarized in a hierarchical way: there are different levels in which we place the different units.
• Units at the higher level are made up of the units in the rank below.

Ranks from the highest to the lowest:

1. Clauses: While we're dealing with a text we can begin by breaking it up into clauses
   • Es: "(1)while we've faced challenges before, (2) this one is different: (3) we join with nations in a common endeavour" 3 clauses, 3 verbs here.
   • Connection between these clauses: punctuation (particularly between the 2^nd and the 3^rd clause), pronoun, while: adversative function, it's a conjunction, same subject in clause 1 and 3. They're interconnected.
   • This reminds us of a fundamental principle: units at every level (in this case clauses) in the rank scale may combine to form clause complexes (1+2+3 here).
2. Groups and phrases: intermediate level between clauses and words
   • There are different types of groups and phrases:
     • Nominal Group/Noun Group: group centred around a noun or around a pronoun = NG
     • Verbal Group: group centred around a verb = VG
     • Adverbial Group: group centred around an adverb = AG
     • Prepositional Phrase: phrase introduced by a preposition (we don’t call it a group) = PP
   • These constituents are more complex than groups because prepositional phrases include groups (preposition followed by a nominal group). E.g. (while) we – have faced - challenges – before,...
     • we, challenges = NG!!! they're groups even if they're just a word: there's the possibility, if we want, of adding more words that expand the group. (e.g.: serious challenges/ extremely serious challenges... e.g.: we, the British people/ we, you and I together.. long before..)
     • have faced = VG... this one- is- different:
     • this one: NG
     • is: VG
     • different: groups centred around adjectives are a special kind of group: is a special kind of noun group.
     • we- join- with all nations- in a common endeavour
       • we: NG
       • join: VG
       • with all nations: PP
       • in a common endeavour: PP
3. Words: stretches of letters/sounds separated by blank spaces/pauses.
   • while- we- have- faced- challenges- before