Systemic Functional Grammar Theoretical Review

The definition of the traditional grammar found in Gerot and Wignell 1994:5: Traditional grammar aims to describe the grammar of Standard English by comparing it with Latin. Students learn the name of part of speech nouns, verbs, prepositions, adverbs, adjectives, parse textbook sentences and learn to correct so called bad grammar. Writers are taught, for example, not to start sentences with ‗and‘, to make sure the subject agrees with the verb time flies, not time f ly, like an arrow, to say ‗I did it‘ and not I done it. Traditional grammar is a language grammar from the Greeks and Romans. It used for helping scholars learn Greek and Latin. Traditional grammar focuses on the rules of producing correct sentences. Traditional grammar classifies words into parts of speech, for example like noun, verb, adjective, etc. Traditional grammar describes how the form of words put together to make a good structure, or it can be called grammatically. b Formal Grammar Another type of grammar is formal grammar. The definition of the formal grammar found in Gerot and Wignell 1994:5: Formal grammars are concerned to describe the structure of individual sentences. Such grammars view language as asset of rules which allow or disallow certain sentence structures. Knowledge of these rules is seen as being carried around inside the mind. The central question formal grammars attempt to address is: ‗How is this sentences structured? Formal grammar focused in the structure of sentences. The rules of formal grammar describe how to connect the languages alphabet according to the languages syntax. Formal grammar doesn‘t need to find the meaning, it focuses only on the structure of the sentences according to language syntax.

2.2.5 Systemic Functional Grammar

People use language in their communication in everyday social life. They convey meaning in spoken or written discourse in terms of grammar and meaning. The function of language is learned as Systemic Functional Grammar, according to Gerot and Wig nell 1994:6, ―Functional Grammars view language as a resource for making meaning. These grammars attempt to describe language in actual use and so focus on texts and their contexts. They are concerned not only with the structures but also how those struc tures construct meaning.‖ According to Eggins 1994:2, ―Systemic Functional Linguistics is an approach to language which is centred on how people use language with each other in accomplishing everyday social life‖. There are four main theoretical claims about language: that language use is functional; that its function is to make meanings; that these meanings are influenced by the social and cultural context in which they are exchanged; and that the process of using language is a semiotic process, a process of making meanings by choosing. Functional grammar unfolds the language of a text more in finding the meaning. This study unveils the meaning within texts and the organization of texts. According to Martin 1997:2, ―you will find the IFG grammar much richer semantically than either formal or traditional school grammar. This makes the analyses you undertake more insightful when it comes to interpreting a text‖. The functional grammar has three kinds of meaning that can be said as metafunctions, they are interpersonal, ideational, and textual meanings. According to Halliday in Droga and Humphrey 2003:1, ―the language we use in different spoken and written text types serves a number of functions simultaneously, these functions as: the experiential function ideational meaning – the way we use language to represent our experience of the world, the interpersonal function – the way we use language to interact with others, the textual functions – the way we use language to create well organized and cohesive texts, both spoken and written.‖

2.2.6 Metafunctions