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interrelated sets of options for making meaning. It can also be said that SFG is a theory of choice of meaning. Meanwhile the term functional indicates that the
approach is concerned with the contextualized, practical uses to which language is put. It means that this study concerns in the way language is used rather than is
formed. Language, either said or written, has evolved to satisfy human needs. That is why SFG is opposite to formal grammar, which focuses on compositional
semantics, syntax and word classes such as nouns and verbs. In other words, SFG is study of language based on the function in context rather than the formal one
Halliday, 1993: xiii. Systemic functional grammar presents a view of language in terms of
lexicogrammar approach; a term that embraces the idea that vocabulary lexis is inextricably linked to grammatical choice. It involves the idea that language
consists of a set of system, which offer the speaker or writer an unlimited choice of ways of creating meanings Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor.2004:3. It means
that it is concerned primarily with the choices the grammar makes available to speakers and writers. These choices relate speakers and writers intentions to the
concrete forms of a language. Traditionally the choices are viewed in terms of either the content or the structure of the language used.
F. Text and Context
It has been stated that SFG or SFL focuses on the discourse analysis. It examines the meanings which occur in text produced by the people. Text is used
by the people to express their minds and ideas. As a semiotic system approach to
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language, text carries out the social function of social process in the society. Thus, text always represents norms and values where the text is produced. As Halliday
stated, text is semantic unit, not the grammatical one like clause or sentence 1994: xvii. Text is a result of choice of meaning since it consists of meaning
represented in the communicable form. The term of text here is not only written text in the small sense, but also spoken text. The term text is used in linguistics to
refers to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole Halliday and Hasan 1976.
A text can be observed from two points of view. Firstly, text can be observed as a process. In this case, text is a process of social interaction and
activity among the participants in expressing the social function. Secondly, text can be observed as a product. Thus, text can be recorded, saved, and released for
other social processes Santosa, 2003:18. Text which is produced by the people could not be separated from the
context. Whenever and wherever the text is produced by the people, it always deals with its context as a unified device in expressing social function and
meaning. Language as a text always occurs in two contexts. Those are context of culture and context of situation. Context of culture can be norms and values in the
society where the text is produced. Meanwhile, context of situation is a term covering all the things going on in the world outside the text. It can be analyzed
through three conceptual frameworks: field, tenor and mode Martin and Rose.2003:243. The relationship of language as text in its context can be seen as
figure 2.1 below:
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Figure 2.1: language as the realization of social context
Social context: 1.
Context of situation: Field, Tenor, Mode
2. Context of culture
Adapted from Santosa, 2010
Field refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place: what is that the participants are engaged in, in which language
figures as some essential component Halliday Hasan 1985: 12. It can be said that field tends to describe when, where, why and how it happens. Field represents
ideational function in the metafunctions system. Tenor refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participant, the
status and their roles: what kind of role relationship obtain, including permanent and temporary relationships of one or another, both types of speech roles they take
on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of social significant relationships in which they involved Halliday Hasan 1985 : 12. Martin also defines tenor as
the negotiation of relationships among its participants 1992: 523. In the system of metafunction, interpersonal meaning is represented by tenor.
Mode refers to what part language is playing, what it is that the Social context
Language as
Text
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participants are expecting language to do for them in the situation: the symbolic organization of the text, the status that it has, and its function in the context
Halliday Hasan 1985:12. Mode also involves two components; channel and medium. Chanel concerns how the language is used in a text whether in spoken or
written text. Medium means the medium used to express the language whether one-way or two-way communication ibid. 52. Mode represents interpersonal
function in the metafunction system. Based on the explanation above, we can see that text and context has a
close relation. It can not be separated because text always brings its context in doing certain jobs to express social function. We will know how language
constructs meaning by connecting text and its context; context of situation and
context of culture. G.
Metafunctions
According to Halliday, functional bases of grammatical phenomena are divided into three broad areas, they are called metafunctions: ideational,
interpersonal and the textual. These three functions underlie all the use of language either to understand the environment or to act to the others 1985: xii.
Written and spoken texts can be examined with respect to each of these metafunctions in register analysis.
Ideational function is meaning derived from language as to construe reality. It constructs mental picture in the peoples mind about the reality what is
going on. Ideational function is divided into experiential meaning and logical meaning. Experiential meaning organizes our experience and understanding of the
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world. It is the use of language to reflect the experience of its participants as the agent who is doing the activities. Logical meaning works above the experiential
meaning. It organizes our reasoning on the basis of our experience. It is used to understand the relation between participants and its process Santosa, 2003 : 20.
Ideational function can be analyzed through its lexicogrammar. Some grammatical units representing ideational meaning are transitivity, group system,
and lexis, including congruency. Interpersonal function is meaning derived from language to behave
socially Santosa, 2003: 20. It describes social interaction among its participants. The participants that conduct in interaction event consist of speaker and listener
who interacts each other in the form of giving something or demanding something. Halliday called this as the most fundamental type of speech role. He
explained these types of interaction as giving means inviting to receive, while demanding means inviting to give. The commodities exchanged in interaction
event are: 1. good and services, 2. information Halliday, 1985: 68. Textual function means we act semiotically to construe reality and behave
socially Santosa, 2003: 20. It deals with the message delivered by the text by organizing ideational function and interpersonal function in coherent. Halliday
explained that textual function can be analyzed through theme-rheme system. Theme is the element which becomes the point of departure of the message. It
represents about what the clause is concerned. Meanwhile, rheme is the rest of the message which the theme is developed. A clause consists of theme-rherne which
put in a structure by putting the theme in the first Halliday, 1985: 37.
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Those three systems of function in the metafunctions are closely connected to its context of situation. They reveal three conceptual frameworks of
context of situation. Filed is represented through ideational meaning, tenor is represented through interpersonal meaning, and mode is represented through
textual meaning Halliday and Hasan, 1985: 34
H. Ideational Meaning
