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29 Halliday…professes, as the central objective of his theory of language, to help answer
the question: ‘why is language as it is?’ Robins, 1967:245. The crucial characteristic of SFL is its orientation outside linguistics towards
sociology. This orientation brings with it a view of language as a social semiotic
Halliday 1978: we can only learn about how language works if we consider the way it is used in particular contexts, both cultural and situational. Essentially, SFL
advocates a view of language as a means of doing. In this sense, language provides a linguistic behaviour potential, which ultimately defined by the context of culture.
Using language is choice among the linguistic possibilities determined by the context
of culture in a particular context of situation. Language is thus considered primarily as a social resource with which speakers and hearers can act meaningfully.
The major theoretical concepts that follow from SFL’s view on language and from the central question governing all linguistic investigation are:
• Language is a behaviour potential;
• Language construes meaning;
• Language is multifunctional;
• Using language is choice in the potential and ultimately actualization of the
potential.
2.1.4 Metafunction of Language
Systemic Functional Theory brings forth two convictions about language that build the thematic thread along which the research presented here organized:
• Language varies as its function varies;
• Language is a semiotic system and a semiotic process that construes meaning.
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30 We can conceive of metalanguage, i.e. of the representational categories set
up to express our linguistic findings, in the same way. Metalanguage also varies according to use, giving rise to ‘metaregisters’, as it were, and metalanguage is a
semiotic system and a semiotic process that goes through cycles of semiosis. The central question linguistic investigation is concerned with in SFL is: how
is language organized to convey meaning? ‘Meaning’ in the Systemic Functional sense is considered to be construed by the linguistic behaviour potential, i.e. by
language itself: ‘Semantics is what he [the speaker] CAN mean and we are looking at this as
the realization of what he DOES.’ Halliday 1973: 74
And, crucially, meaning derives from function in use or function in context: ‘It is a general feature of semiotic systems that they develop and function in a
context, and that meaning is a product of the relationship between the system and its environment’. Halliday 1985b: 10
Function, in turn, has various aspects that are simultaneously fulfilled whenever language is used:
‘Whatever we are using language for, we need to make some reference to the categories of our experience; we need to take on some role of the interpersonal
situation; and we need to embody these in the form of text.’ Halliday 1974: 49-50.
All of these three functions, called metafunctions, are simultaneously
relevant. They are of equal status: ‘The speaker does not first decide to express some content and then go on to
decide what sort of message to build out of it… Speech acts involve planning that is continuous and simultaneous in respect to all the functions of language’. Halliday
1970: 145
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31 The functional diversity of language is acknowledged in SFL by
metafunctional hypothesis:
When we examine the meaning potential of the language itself, we find that the vast number of options embodied in it combine into a very few relatively
independent ‘networks’; and these networks of option correspond to certain basic functions of language. Halliday 1970: 142
These ‘certain basic functions’ arte the three metafunctions: the ideational, the interpersonal, and the textual.
The Ideational Metafunction is concerned with the ‘speaker’s experience of
the real world Halliday 1970: 143. The Ideational metafunction is defined in reference to grammar as follows:
‘that part of the grammar concerned with the expression of experience, including both the processes within and beyond the self- the phenomena of the
external world and those of consciousness- and the logical relations deducible from them’. Halliday 1973: 91.
Within the Ideational Halliday, 1970: 143, there is a subdivision into
experiential and logical. The Experiential refers to propositional content encoded as
processes, events, the participants therein and the accompanying circumstances, the types of objects referred to and their qualities. The Logical refers to some general
organizing relations expressed, for instance, by dependencies between elements in structure e.g. hypotactic versus paratactic organization.
The logical part of the ideational metafunction represents what is encoded in the grammar as complex units that are hypotactically and paratactically related.
The Experiential pert of the grammar ultimately reflects the field parameter of the situational context. Semantically, the experiential encodes a language’s propositional
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32 content. At clause level, the experiential metafunction is most notably reflected in
configurations of processes and the participants therein, called the system of TRANSITIVITY Halliday, 1970: 21.
The Interpersonal Metafunction ‘serves to establish and maintain social
relations’ Halliday 1970: 143, including a speaker’s assessment of the probability and relevance of a message.
The interpersonal metafunction encodes speaker’s attitudes and evaluations and relates to the contextual parameter of tenor. One of Halliday’s definitions of the
interpersonal metafunction in relation to grammar is the following: ‘The grammar of personal participation; it expresses the speaker’s role in the
speech situation, his personal commitment and his interaction with others’ Halliday 1973: 91.
One of the typical characteristics of the interpersonal metafunction is that it relates to choices that repeatedly and at different places affect the structure of a
grammatical unit. An example of this kind of grammatical patterning is Subject-Finite agreement. The major grammatical systems reflecting interpersonal information are
Mood and Modality. Halliday 1994 68-69 sets out two most fundamental types of speech role or
function whenever people use language to interact: 1 giving and 2 demanding. What is exchanged demanded or given is a kind of commodity, which falls into two
principal types: 1 goods and services, and 2 information. These commodities will define the four primary speech function of offer, command, statement, and question.
In semantic level, these four actions are realized by three kinds of mood: declarative, imperative, and interrogative. In lexicogrammar grammatical level, the
clause of interpersonal meaning is realized by the mood of the system language,
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33 which comprises two major elements: mood and residue. A mood element of English
clause typically consists of a subject and a finite, whereas a residue element consists of predicator, complements, and any number of different types of adjunct, for
example:
Declarative
The students will
face Final examination
Next wek Subject Finite
Predicator Complement Adjunct
Mood Residue Interrogative
Should I
be using unleaded petrol
in my car? Finite Subject
Predicator Complement Circumstance
Adjunct
Mood Residue Imperative
Don’t you touch
the bottom
Finite Subject Predicator
Complement
Mood Residue
The Textual Metafunction ‘enables the speaker or writer to construct texts’
Halliday 1970: 143. Finally, correlating with the situational-contextual parameter of mode, the textual metafunction encodes the textual aspects of grammar, such as
themes, given-new information, etc., which have their realization in English most notably in word order, focus and intonation. The realization of choices in the textual
metafunction typically cuts across constituent boundaries as they are associated with the experiential metafunction.
Theme is concerned with the potential of placing certain elements in theme position, the ‘point of departure’ Halliday 1985a: 39.
The textual meaning of language clause in its function as a message is realized by the theme system. The theme system of the clause is represented by the
thematic structure of the clause, which comprises two major elements: 1 theme and 2 rheme. Theme is defined as the element, which serve as the point of departure of
the message and always exist in initial position of a clause. The rest of the message is called rheme. Nominal groups, adverbial groups, or prepositional phrases normally
realize theme. For examples:
Jack went up the hill
Theme Rheme
Mary decided to wait until next week
Theme Rheme
Did we decide to wait?
Theme Rheme
Context Text
Semantics Lexicogrammar
meanings Wordings
Field Ideational
Transitivity What’s going on
processes, participants,
circumstance
Tenor Interpersonal
Mood and Modality Social relations
speech roles, attitudes Mode
textual Theme, Cohesion
Contextual Coherence
Figure 1.1 the relationship between context, meanings and wordings Gerot and Wignell 1994: 15.
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34
2.2 Transitivity System
The experiential part of grammar ultimately reflects the field parameter of the situational context. Semantically, the experiential encodes a language’s prepositional
content. At clause level, the experiential metafunction is most notably reflected in configurations of processes and the participants therein, called the system of
TRANSITIVITY. So, Transitivity is concerned with the process type encoded in a clause and the participants involved.
Agency Effective
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35 Middle
TRANSITIVITY Material
Mental Process
Verbal Type
Relational Existential
Behavoural
Figure 1.2 The experiential system of TRANSITIVITY in English The parallel classification in AGENCY and PROCESS TYPE above reflects
two models of grammatical patterning of the English transitivity system. AGENCY cuts across all process types and is concerned with external causation effective =
externally caused; middle = not externally caused. This provides for the ergative view of English transitivity. The process type view essentially reflects the option of a
process of extending to a Goal, accounting for the transitive model of English transitivity.
The TRANSITIVITY system in the grammar thus describes what is known in other theories as semantic relations, deep cases or theta roles. Together with system
