READING REPORT SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

NIRWAN P0600211020

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDY

A. Clause as Message

Of the three lines of meaning in the clause, Halliday starts the syntactic part of IFG with the clause as message because he finds it the easiest aspect of the clause to discuss (IFG: 36). In his use of terminology and analysis, the discussion draws heavily upon the concept of FSP developed by the Prague School. As a communicative event, the clause has a thematic structure highlighted by assigning a special status to one of its constituent parts, which is enunciated as the theme (IFG: 37). Thematic structure is speaker-oriented since it depends on his speechs point of departure in which he tells what I am talking about. Themes can be announced by virtue of their clause-initial position as is the case in English, or by means of special particles, such as wa in Japanese. After the theme comes the rheme, which develops it; and the two together express the thematic structure of the clause with the configuration of theme + rheme.

In English independent clauses, the theme is usually marked off as a tone group, and is realized as a nominal group, an adverbial group, or prepositional phrase as shown in the following table:

Table (4) Theme-Rheme Structures The duke Once upon a time For want of a nail Very carefully Theme has given my aunt that teapot there were three bears the shoe was lost she put them back on his feet again Rheme

Minor clauses, such as John! and good night! , are considered to have no thematic structure, and are left out of the account (IFG: 43). The thematic structure of major clauses that can stand by themselves depends on their choice of mood. In other words, every major clause anchors its thematic structure on the basis of its obligatory mood selection, which is either indicative or imperative. If indicative, it is either declarative or interrogative; if interrogative, it is either yes/no type or wh-type.

In declarative clauses, the typical unmarked thematic structure is the one where Theme is conflated with Subject. Accordingly, a marked Theme is that initial part in the clause, which is not the Subject. The most usual form of marked theme is an adverbial group, while the most marked one is that of Complement, which is a nominal group not functioning as Subject. The main manifestations for theme selection in English major clauses are summarized in Table (5) below, where ThemeRheme boundary is marked by # (IFG: 44): Table (5) Examples of Theme in Declarative Clauses Function Subject Class Nominal group: Pronoun Head Clause example I # had a little nut-tree She # went to the bakers as There # were three jovial Welshmen

Unmarke d Theme Subject

Marked Theme

Nominal a wise old owl # lived in an oak group: Mary # had a little lamb Common or London Bridge # is fallen down proper noun Subject as Head What I want # is a proper cup of Adjunct Nominalizati coffee on Merrily # we roll along Adverbial On Saturday night # I lost my group: wife Compleme Prepositional nt phrase a bag pudding # the King did make what they could not eat that night # the Queen next morning fried

Nominal group: Nominalizati on

In exclamative clauses, considered as a special sub-category of declarative clauses, the exclamatory wh-element is the Theme. Thus in the exclamative clause what tremendously easy questions you ask , the Theme part is what tremendously easy questions , and the Rheme is you ask .

In imperative clauses, the unmarked form is that of the verb in initial thematic position as in keep quiet! , while the marked form is the one with you in such a position (e.g. you keep quiet! ). Similar to yes/no questions, the unmarked form in negative imperatives is that with the finite verbal operator plus the following element, which is either Subject or Predicator as in dont argue with me.

B. Clause as Exchange

The organization of participants in speech events is represented by the principal grammatical system of Mood, looked at as the grammar of speech function. In the grammar of the clause, the Mood is the constituent formed by Subject plus Finite. The remainder of the clause is the Residue whose features are typically expressed as follows.

1.

The presence of the Mood element, consisting of Subject plus indicative.

Finite, realizes the feature

2. Within the indicative, what is significant is the order of Subject and Finite: (One) The order Subject before Finite realizes declarative; (Two) The order Finite before subject realizes yes-no interrogative; (Three) In a WH-interrogative the order is: (i) Subject before Finite if the WH-element is the Subject; (ii) Finite before Subject otherwise.

The Finite element in the Mood expresses either primary tense (present, past, or future) or modality, as well as a polarity feature of positive/negative; and this is why each of the verbal operators appears in both positive and negative form: did/didnt, can/cant, and so on. In addition to the verbal component realized by Finite the Mood requires a nominal component realized by the Subject. The Subject supplies the entity by reference to which the proposition can be affirmed or denied. For instance, in the clause complex the duke has given away that teapot, hasnt he? , the finite element has specifies positive polarity and present time, while the duke specifies the entity whose assertion is claimed to have validity.

C. Clause as Representation

Halliday considers this tripartite interpretation of experience as a semantic configuration of the categories of process, participant, and circumstances is what lies behind the grammatical distinction of word classes into verbs nouns and the rest, a pattern that in some form or other is probably universal among human languages as shown in the following Table. Table (6) Typical Functions of Group and Phrase Classes Type of Element (a) (b) (c) Process Participants Circumstances Typically realized by Verbal group Nominal group Adverbial group or prepositional phrase

Process is of six types, three principals and three subsidiaries. Principal types of process are material (i.e. doing), mental (i.e. sensing), and relational (i.e. being). Subsidiary types are behavioural (both physical and psychological), verbal, and existential. These are shown in Table (7) below (IFG: 143): Table (7) Process Types, Meaning, and Participants Process Type Material Action Event Mental Perception Affection Cognition Relational Attribution Identification Behavioural Verbal Existential Category Meaning doing doing happening sensing seeing feeling thinking being attributing identifying behaving saying existing Participants Actor, Goal

Senser, Phenomenon

Token, Value Carrier, Attribute Identified, Identifier Behaver Sayer, Target Existent

In English, material processes are of two types, disposative (doing to), and creative (bringing about), each of which can be either abstract or concrete. In contrast, mental processes can be of perception (e.g. hearing, seeing), affection (e.g. fearing, liking), or cognition (e.g. knowing, thinking). Relational processes of being are of three types, intensive (equative), circumstantial (time, place, manner, etc), and possessive, each of which can be attributive (with the functions Attribute and Carrier), or identifying (having the functions Identified, and Identifier). Since an Attribute cannot function as Subject, clause passivization and reversibility are only applicable to identifying clauses, and this is why the clause the fair lasted all day is permissible, whereas all day was lasted by the fair.

D. The Group The group (= group of words) realizes the grammar of the clause from within (Below the clause in Hallidays terms). Recognized as a distinct rank in grammar that has its own multivariate constituent structure, the group is interpretted as a word complex with Head and modifying element. The group is a combination of words built up on the basis of a particular logical relation. The elements involved are distinct in function, class, and sequence. Just as the sentence has evolved by expansion outwards from the clause, so does the group from the word; and this is what distinguishes the group from the phrase, the latter being a contraction of a clause .

Five types of groups are functionally defined and examined; three main classes (nominal, verbal, and adverbial), plus two minor ones (conjunction and preposition groups) (IFG: 180-213). The experiential structure of the nominal group is realized by the function of Deictic (either specific or non-specific), Numerative (either quantitative or ordinative), Epithet, Classifier, and Thing. The interpersonal structure of this group is embodied in the Person system, attitudinal Epithets, connotative meanings of lexical items, and prosodic features. As for the textual meaning, it is realized by the whole of the structure, which determines the order in which the elements are arranged. The experiential structure of the verbal group is that of Finite (expressed by a temporal or a modal verbal operator) plus Event. If the Finite is not fused with the event, as is the case in one-word verbal groups like ate, then one or more optional Auxiliaries are added as shown in the two figures hereunder.

(One) ate Finite/Event (b) couldnt have been going to be being eaten Finite Auxiliary1 Auxiliary2 Auxiliary3 Auxiliary4 Auxiliary5 Event Figure (10) Experiential Structure of the Verbal Group (IFG: 197)

Phrasal verbs have separate entries in dictionaries, and are rather unstable grammatical constituents, though strongly favoured in spoken English. From the experiential point of view, they realize a single Process, not a Process plus Circumstance. For example, while the lexical verb see realizes a mental process, the phrasal verb see off represents a material one. Exploring the answer to the question of why phrasal verbs have evolved to greater use in modern English, Halliday finds the answer in the fact that they allow to leave the focus in the clause unmarked by splitting the Process into two parts, one functioning as Predicator, the other as Adjunct, which comes in its normal place at the end of the clause. This is illustrated in the diagram hereunder:

They Actor/ Agent Subject

called Process Material Past Time

the meeting Goal/Medium

off

call predicater Residue

Complement

Adjunct

Mood

Table (11) Phrasal Verb in Transitivity and Mood Structure (Halliday, 1994: 209) As for the adverbial group, its head is an adverb plus a possible non-lexical modifying element such as not, rather, or so. The conjunction group has three sub-classes: linkers, binders, and continuatives. Halliday concludes his chapter on the group with the following summary of word classes: common noun proper

Nominals

pronoun adjective numeral determiner lexical auxiliary finite

verb

Verbals preposition adverb Adverbials conjunction linker binder continuative

Figure (11) Summary of Word Classes in Functional Grammar) E. The Clause Complex

The relationship between the clause and sentence, like the one between the word and group, is that of expansion. A sentence is seen as a CLAUSE COMPLEX with a head clause plus the other clauses that modify it. Therefore, Halliday considers the clause complex to be the only grammatical unit above the clause that needs to be recognized since it can account in full for all the functional organization of the sentence. Another motivation behind abandoning the notion of sentence as a separate grammatical unit lies in the fact that the sentence, unlike the clause and group, does not have its own functional configuration since its elements are neither distinct in function, nor realized by distinct classes of a more-or-less fixed order.

However, since there are types of relationships between clauses other than modification such as those of and, or, ifthen, and becauseso the concept of modification needs to be enriched by recognizing some other type of metafunction: the logical metafunction whose structural reflex is of a different order. Every language has its own systems of interclausal logical relations realized not by certain organic multivariate configuration of distinct functions, but by univariate iteration, or recursive complexing.

In expansion, the secondary clause expands the primary clause by elaborating on it (exposition, exemplification, or clarification); extending it (addition, exclusion, or variation), or enhancing it (qualifying its time, place, manner, cause, or condition). In projection, the secondary clause is projected through the primary clause, which instates it either as a locution (a construction of wording) or as an idea (a construction of thinking). These basic types of clause complexes are outlined in Table (12) below:

Table (12) Basic Types of Clause Complexes (Halliday, 1994:220) Logico-Semantic Relation EXPANSION (a) Elaboration (b) Extension (c) Enhancement (i) Paratactic (ii ) Hypotactic

John didnt wait; he ran John ran away, which away. Surprised everyone. John ran away, and John ran away, whereas Fred stayed behind. Fred stayed behind. John was scared, so he John ran away because ran away. he was scared

PROJECTION (a) Locution (b) Idea

John said: Im running John said he was running away. away. John thought to himself: John thought he would Ill run away. run away.

Expansions can occur as an embedded structure wherever a clause or a phrase functions not as a relation between clauses, but as rank-shift element within the structure of a group. Embedded clauses can function as Postmodifier in the nominal group (e.g., the man who came to dinner), or Head (e.g., that youre sorry isnt enough), or Postmodifier in an adverbial group (e.g., as quickly as you can) (IFG: 242).

F. Morphological Component

Unlike his in-depth analysis of the group and the clause, Halliday does not give a full description of morphology (nor segmental phonology). Recognizing the

morpheme as a distinct rank in his scale of grammatical units, he is content to give it only a very scant coverage in IFG. The following is one out of three diagrams given on page 17-9 in IFG to illustrate the internal structure of words: walrus billow + s word morpheme sulk + y/i + ly

Figure (12) Word and Morpheme

G. Rhythm

The FOOT realizes the rhythmic unit of the language. In English natural speech reveals a strong tendency for salient syllables to occur at regular intervals, and for foot units to acquire roughly the same length. This tendency is more prevalent in casual, spontaneous speeches than in self-monitored ones, such as lecturing or reading aloud. Thus, in spontaneous speech of a constant speed, each additional syllable is, roughly, four-fifth the length of the syllable that precedes it, an this is why the average two syllable-foot is only about one-fifth as long again as a one-syllable foot. This descending regularity may be shown as follows: Table (13) Relative Descending Foot-Duration Correspondence in Continuous Speech Number of Syllables per Foot Relative Duration of Feet 1 1. 2 1.2 3 1.4 4 1.6

Being one of the units of English phonological structure, a foot may consist of one or up to a six or seven as a maximum. Variations in rhythm alone may realize contrasts in meaning, as is the case in the following examples: (1) a./tell me/when he / comes/ hypotactic projection inform me of the time of his (habitual) arrival b./tell me when he/comes/ inform me at the time of his arrival hypotactic projection

H. Tonicity

In information units, the contrast between given and new information is indicated by allocating TONIC POMINENCE to the New element both in the marked (NEW+GIVEN) and the unmarked (GIVEN+NEW) structures, while the contrast in mood is indicated by the opposition between falling and rising pitch. In English, the falling pitch indicates polarity known; the rising polarity unknown. A third type of tone is level, meaning not (yet) decided whether known or unknown. The fourth and fifth types of tones are falling-rising (indicating certainty) and rising falling (indicating uncertainty). In normal speech, the falling tone is most frequent, followed by the falling-rising, level, rising, and rising-falling tones in descending order. The frequency of the level tone increases in loud reading, while the rising-falling tone increases in childrens speech.

I.

Cohesion The relation of cohesion is set up where the interpretation of some element in

one of the sentences of the text is made dependent on that of another, simply because the one presupposes the other, and both are thereby integrated into the text. The coauthors offer the following example from the instructions in a cookery book: Wash and core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish. Here, the anaphoric function of them in the second sentence referring back to the six-cooking apples gives cohesion to the two sentences, and that is why we interpret them as forming part of the same text. Five categories of textual cohesive devices are recognized in English: reference (=co-reference), substitution and ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion via reiteration and collocation. Reference cohesive ties are personal pronouns, demonstratives, and comparatives. Ellipsis occurs in the contexts of the clause, the verbal group, and the nominal group where something is presupposed by what is left out. Substitution is realized through the use of substitute forms that serve as place holding devices. Conjunction is expressed via the choice of a conjunctive adjunct (an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase), or of one of a small set of conjunctions (and, or, nor, but, yet, so, then) appearing in clause-initial thematic position. Lexical cohesion is triggered by repetition, synonymy (identity, hyponymy, meronymy), and collocation.