BASIC CONCEPTS REVISITED

UNIT 1: PRESENTATION BASED ON BLOOR & BLOOR AND GEROT

AND WIGNELL – CHAPTER 1

LANGUAGE = a ‘system of meanings’

GRAMMAR becomes a study of how meanings are

built up, how language is put together and how it works.

(when people use language, they construct meaning)

(through the choice of words and other grammatical resources -

singular vs. plural; negative or positive, etc = wordings).

GRAMMAR SEMANTIC: concerned with meaning

FUNCTIONAL: concerned with how

language is used

GRAMMAR AND MEANING

LINGUISTIC TERMINOLOGY

MEANINGS

WORDINGS

LETTERS/

SOUNDS

FOLK TERMINOLOGY

SEMANTICS

LEXICO-GRAMMAR

ORTHOGRAPHY

PHONOLOGY

WHAT IS GRAMMAR ?

We need a theory of language -grammar- to help us understand how texts work to be able to help learners learn how to understand and produce texts –spoken and written, in various contexts and for various purposes.

WHY GRAMMAR

CHARACTERISING LANGUAGE

People have devised theories of grammar according to what they want to find out about language.

Grammars differ in how they characterise language, depending on the purposes of the users.

There are 3 grammars which have had a major influence on schools in this century.

TRADITIONAL FORMAL FUNCTIONAL

AIM

The description of the grammar of standard English by comparing it with Latin �prescriptive. Students learn to correct the ‘bad grammar’.

The description of the structure of individual sentences. Language is a set of rules which allow or disallow certain structures. Meaning is typically left aside.

The description of language in actual use and so focus on texts and their contexts. Language is a resource for making meaning.

FOCUS

The rules for the production of correct sentences regardless of purpose or intended audience. Two weaknesses:1.- the rules are based on the language of a very small group of speakers => discriminative.2.- the rules deal with the most superficial aspects of writing.

How sentences are structured.

How the structures construct meaning

UNIT OF ANALYSIS

SENTENCE SENTENCE CLAUSE

LEVEL OF CONCERN

SYNTAX SYNTAX SEMANTICS

LANGUAGE = a set of systems , which offer the

speaker an unlimited choice of ways of creating meanings.

For example: to know the time

What’s the time?

Tell me the time, please

I’d like to know the time

LINGUISTIC CHOICE

LANGUAGE IN USE

People use language to make meanings in specific situations, and the form of the language that they use in discourse is influenced by the complex aspects of those situations.

CONTEXT OF CULTURE

CONTEXT OF SITUATION

GENRES: specific socially recognised forms which

result from using language (written or

spoken) to accomplish something.

specified through the use of the REGISTERVARIABLES: FIELD, TENOR, MODE

FIELD

•what is going on with reference to what, including activity focus (nature of social activity) and object focus (subject matter).

TENOR

•the social relationships between those taking part. These are specifiable in terms of status of power (agent roles, peer or hierarchic relations); affect (degree of like, dislike or neutrality); contact (frequency, duration and intimacy of social contact).

MODE

•how language is being used as a mode of action or reflection.

THE CONTEXT – TEXT CONNECTION

METAFUNCTIONS

The ways in which human beings use language are classified into 3 broad categories known as ‘metafunctions’

THEY AREIDEATIONAL INTERPERSONAL

TEXTUAL

IDEATIONAL:

Language is used to organise, understand and express our perceptions of the world and of our own consciousness. It has to do with how we talk about actions, feelings situations, states, etc. These meanings are realised in wordings through Participants, Processes and Circumstances and are more centrally influenced by the field of discourse.

EXPERIENTIAL:Concerned with content or ideas

LOGICAL:Concerned with the relationship between ideas

INTERPERSONAL:

Language is used to enable us to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take on roles and to express and understand feelings, attitudes and judgements. –giving and requesting information, etc. Meanings are realised in wordings through ‘mood & modality’ and are most centrally influenced by the tenor of discourse.

TEXTUAL:

Language is used to relate what is said to the rest of the text and to other linguistic events. It is important in the creation of coherence in spoken and written text. This meaning is realised through patterns of Theme and Cohesion and are most centrally influenced by the mode of discourse.

The relationship between context, meanings and wordings can be summarised as follows:

CONTEXT TEXT

SEMANTICS LEXICOGRAMMAR

(meanings) (wordings)

FIELD IDEATIONAL TRANSITIVITY

(what’s going on) (Processes, Participants,

Circumstances)

TENOR INTERPERSONAL MOOD & MODALITY

(social relations) (speech roles, attitudes)

MODE TEXTUAL THEME – COHESION(contextual coherence)

THE STUDY OF TEXTS

SFL studies actual instances of language that have been used by speakers or writers

� TEXTS

TEXT = any stretch of language, regardless

of length, that is spoken or written for the purposes of communication by real people in actual circumstances.

COMMUNICATION = Interactive process

through which meaning is negotiated in real time

THE NOTION OF RANK

CLAUSE

GROUP/PHRASE

W O R D

M O R P H E M E

CONSTITUENCY is concerned with the structural organisation of the clause or how it is built up out of its various parts

RANK EXAMPLE

CLAUSE

� In the lower layers of the sea, there are fewer animals

� (and) they tend to eat each other� (because) there is no plant life

GROUP

� The lower layers of the sea� Fewer animals� Are� Each other

WORD

� The� Lower� Layers

MORPHEME

� layer� -s� The

FUNCTIONS

FUNCTION

The way a word or a group operates in

relation to other words or groups in

the clause, i.e. how the grammatical

structures are organized to

express meaning�GRAMMATICAL

Situational use of language:

To ask for directions, describe people and places, etc.�COMMUNICATIVE

Same utterance �

different uses:GOOD

AFTERNOON: A greeting

A reprimand

Same use �different

utterances:Take your shoes

off, please!Would you take off your shoes?

The relationship between the forms of utterances and the types of meaning they can

express is based on the principle that what speakers say is closely related to the context in which they are

saying it.