Lingua Inglese: Cohesion and coherence are the most important elements in a text, Co-reference, Use parallel structures to create balance and progression within your writing

REGISTER

The register is an important element in language that helps us to understand what situational factors determine what

linguistic features.

Register may be subdivided into 3 different categories: field, mode and tenor of discourse (Halliday 1964).

Halliday chose the term “field of discourse”; it refers to the setting in which communication takes place, the topic or

subject matter and the participant/s involved.

Registers are classified according to the communicative event: if language plays a fundamental part, the field will be the

subject-matter, while if language plays a minor role, the field will be the whole situation type. There is also the “ mode

of discourse” that is intended as the medium used or mode of language explained by Halliday as the role played by the

language activity in the situation. This distinction refers to the spoken or written mode.

The tenor of discourse refers to the relationship established among participants. Examples are those between

parent/child, doctor/patient, teacher/student. All these relationship bring different uses of language, and so a different

tenor of discourse.

Everyone shifts from one register to another one. Halliday also made reference to dialects, which he considers as

central to the relationship of language and social man. Unlike registers, dialects are varieties established by the user.

However, Halliday said that dialects can become a part of register. If, for example, an English speaker uses Standard

English in formal context and then switches to a regional dialect with friends in an informal context, then dialect

becomes intertwined (intrecciato) with notions of register.

CONTEXT OF CULTUR AND CONTEXT OF SITUATION

The concept of context has been extensively studied by different linguists, among them, Halliday proposed the concept

of context consists of three strata: context of culture, context of situation and co-text. Context of culture and context of

situation are outside of language itself. Co-text, also known as linguistic context, is certainly inside of language itself.

There is a close interdependent relationship between language and context. Context determines and is constructed by

the choice of language. On the one hand, language, when considered as a system--its lexical items and grammatical

categories—is related to its context of culture

The Context of cultural defines the potential or possibilities which language makes available to the community of

speakers. It ‘defines’ ‘the potential’, i.e., ‘the range of possibilities’

The cultural context in which human communication occurs is perhaps the most defining influence on human

interaction. Culture provides the overall framework wherein humans learn to organize their thoughts, emotions, and

behaviors in relation to their environment.

Although people are born into a culture, it is not innate. Culture is learned. Culture teaches one how to think, conditions

one how to feel, and instructs one how to act, especially how to interact with others—in other words, how to

communicate.

The Context of situation consists of three aspects: field, tenor and mode. Field refers to what is happening, to the

nature of social action that is taking place. It answers such questions as what it is that the participant is engaged in. It

determines ‘the actual’, i.e., the ‘choice’ that ‘takes place’ .

Tenor refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their status and roles: what kind of role relationship

obtain among the participants, including permanent and temporary relationships of one kind or another, both the types

of speech role that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of socially significant relationships in which

they are involved. Mode refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the participants are expecting the

language to do for them in that situation: the symbolic organization of the text, the status that it has, and its function in

the context, including the channel and also the rhetorical mode, what is being achieved by the text in terms of such

categories as persuasive, expository, didactic and the like. Collectively the three aspects of situational context are called

register. Context of situation is closely related to various texts. Certain situational context asks for certain text and in

return, certain text creates certain context. In the process of communication, the meaning system is largely determined

by the three aspects of situational context: ideational meaning by field, interpersonal meaning by tenor and textual

meaning by mode (Baker, 2000).

HALLIDAY AND METAFUNCTION

Halliday developed a theory of the fundamental functions of language, in which he analysed lexicogrammar into 3

metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Each of the 3 metafunctions is about a different aspect of the

world, and is concerned with a different mode of meaning of clauses. The ideational metafunction is about the natural

world in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is concerned with clauses as representations. The

interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is

concerned with clauses as exchanges. The textual metafunction is about the verbal world, especially the flow of

information in a text, and is concerned with clauses as messages. Malinowski's influence (see Figure 1.1) seems clear

here: the ideational metafunction relates to the context of culture, the interpersonal metafunction relates to the context

of situation, and the textual metafunction relates to the verbal context.

In each metafunction an analysis of a clause gives a different kind of structure composed from a different set of

elements.

According to Halliday (1972), there are three metafunctions:

- Ideational (including experiental and logical) metafunction --- The ideational metafunction is divided into

two: experiential and logical metafunctions. The experiential metafunction organises our experience and

understanding of the world. It is the potential of the language to construe figures with elements (such as screen

shots of a moving picture or pictures of a comic novel) and its potential to differentiate these elements into

processes, the participants in these processes, and the circumstances in which the processes occur. The logical

metafunction works above the experiential. It organises our reasoning on the basis of our experience. It is the

potential of the language to construe logical links between figures; for example, "this happened after that

happened" or, with more experience, "this happens every time that happens"

- Interpersonal metafunction --- we use language to interact with others, to establish and maintain relations

with them, to please them, to anger them, and influence their behavior, to get their help or sympathy (language

servers as a medium between individuals);

- Textual metafunction --- language as a system organizes messages in a unified manner so that chunks of

messages fit logically with others around them and with the wider context in which the talking or writing takes

place (when language is in use, playing the above two functions, it naturally forms a text).

THE EXPERIENTAL METAFUNCTION

The experiential metafunction is concerned with the topic, or content message of each clause. It is about our experience

of the world, both in its external manifestations (actions, events) and in its inner dimensions (state of mind, feelings,

thoughts).

It consists of a flow of events that are arranged into what Halliday and Matthiessen call “ quanta of change”, that means

the portion of change that are shaped as a figure.

Figures consist of a process which is being talked about, of participants involved and of other circumstances.

Material process

The material process clause consists of what participants do, what happens in the world and what participants make

happen. Material clauses construe our experience of the world. The material process clause constructs the outer world in

terms of action, such as walking, running, eating, travelling. The performer of the action is called Actor; the other

optional participant is the Goal, at which action is directed. Another term is the Patient, meaning one that “suffers” the

process.

The Actor may also be an object or an abstract entity and the Goal may be human. Additional participants in material

clauses are: the Scope, the Recipient, the Client, the Attribute.

Material processes can be subdivided into more categories:

- creative clauses, they deal with an Actor (intransitive) or Goal (transitive), which is brought into existence; ex:

Shakespeare wrote plays and poems

- transformative clauses, they deal with a pre-existing Actor (intransitive) or Goal (transitive); ex the house

was expanded with a new extension.

Mental process

Mental processes are processes of feeling, thinking and perceiving. Mental clauses construe our experience of the world

within ourselves. In a mental process we use the terms SENSER and PHENOMENON for the participants. The Sensor

is always a human participant able to feel, sense and perceive. The Phenomenon, which can be any material or abstract

entity or even a fact that is ‘sensed’ (felt, thought or perceived).

Kids Like The food

Senser Mental process Phenomenon

Mental clauses can be subdivided into 4 categories: perceptive (perceive, sense, see, feel), cognitive (think, believe,

guess), desiderative (want, wish, desire, would like, hope for) and emotive (like, love, adore, dislike, hate, enjoy).

Relational processes

Relational processes are processes of being. This is an extremely frequent process type – in scientific writing the most

frequent of all. A clause with a relational process may be used either to identify something with something else

(identifying type) or to say that something is an attribute of something else (attributive type).

According to Halliday, relational clauses play the role of identifying and specifying characteristics and features. They

establish a relationship between the 2 notions, for example “the car is grey”, the verb “is” create a relationship between

“my car” and “grey”.

Central notions in relational clauses are the relationship of class membership and identity.

Class membership is construed in attributive clauses, while identity is construed in identifying clauses. In other

words, the entity which carries the attribute is called the Carrier, while the other is the Attributive.

That book Is Good

I Am Italian

Carrier Attributive relational process Attribute

The book belongs to the class of good books, the “I” belongs to the class of Italians. So Carrier = member and attribute

= class. All these qualities provide details or qualities about the subject, but don’t identify it.

Behavioural processes

Behavioural processes are processes of physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, dreaming, smiling,

coughing. There is normally one participant, the BEHAVER, who must be a conscious