Hallidays Metafunctions (Meanings)

Hallidays systemic functional grammar looks at how language works, how it is organised and what social functions are represented. Halliday invented the following scheme to describe language, however it also functions for other forms of meaning (semiosis). The meaning of a text needs to be defined in terms of three different but general and concomitant types of meaning: 1. experiential meaning; 2. interpersonal meaning; 3. textual meaning.

Experiential Meaning
The experiential meaning is concerned with the way reality is represented. It is based on experience and it expresses ideas, actions, events, states: experiential [] 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. (Halliday, 1973).

People need to REPRESENT ideas, actions, events, states in terms of: the PROCESSES going on; the PARTICIPANTS involved; the ATTRIBUTES of these participants; the CIRCUMSTANCES of the events (time, place, manner, cause, accompaniment, matter and role).

The compulsory elements are process and participant(s), whereas circumstances are, in most cases, optional. It is also possible to speak of the attribute(s) of a participant. There are six types of processes: material processes relational processes mental processes verbal processes existential processes behavioural processes

major process types

minor process types

Material Processes Material processes are processes of doing or of happening. A. Processes of doing A participant (called the ACTOR) does something (material process) to something/someone (called the GOAL). In the following example I do something to the diet, that is I eat it. I Actor follow Material process a pretty balanced diet. Goal

Notice that the clause may include some circumstances as in the following example: I Actor follow Material process a pretty balanced diet Goal every day. Circumstance of time

Besides the Actor and the Goal, material process clauses may have a BENEFICIARY, the receiver of the action.

The different widths of each colour band Actor

give Material p.

people Beneficiary

an idea of how much they need. Goal

The following example also has a material process, but the VOICE is PASSIVE rather than ACTIVE: They should be evaluated by a doctor for any fever that reaches 100.4 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) or higher. In the passive voice the Actor may or may not be expressed, and if it/he/she IS expressed, it will come later in the clause than the verb and this constituent will be enacted by means of a prepositional phrase introduced by the prepositions by/with. They Goal should be evaluated Material process: passive by a doctor Actor for any fever that reaches 100.4 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) or higher. Circumstance of cause

B. Processes of happening When in a material process clause no goal is specified, then it represents something that happens, an event. Most peoples body temperatures Actor even change Material process a little bit Circumstance of manner during the course of the day. Circumstance of time

Mental Processes Mental processes are processes of feeling, thinking and perceiving. In a mental process we use the terms SENSER and PHENOMENON for the participants. The Sensor is the conscious being (i.e. human or humanized) that is feeling, thinking or perceiving. The Phenomenon, which can be any material or abstract entity or even a fact, is that which is sensed felt, thought or perceived. Kids Senser like Mental process the new food guide pyramid. Phenomenon

In mental processes a subordinate clause typically realizes the Phenomenon: I Senser think Mental process I eat a pretty balanced diet. Phenomenon realized by a subordinate clause I Actor follow Material process a pretty balanced diet. Goal

Relational processes Relational processes are processes of being. This is an extremely frequent process type in scientific writing the most frequent of all. A clause with a relational process may be used either to identify something with something else (identifying type) or to say that something is an attribute of something else (attributive type). The identifying type identifies one thing saying that it is exactly the other (a is the identity of x): Your heart Identified Arrhythmias Identified is Relational process a muscle. Identifier abnormal heartbeats. Identifier the heart and blood vessels. Identifier

are Relational process

The circulatory system Identified

is composed of Relational process

The attributive type gives some information about the other which corresponds to saying that it is a

member of a class of things which have a particular characteristic or set of characteristics (a is an attribute of x): Washing your skin Carrier Hormones Carrier is Relational process essential. Attribute during puberty. Circumstance of time

become Relational process

active Attribute

In this structure it is typical to find the verb to be, but as the examples above show other verbs can be used. C. Behavioural processes Behavioural processes are processes of physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, dreaming, smiling, coughing. There is normally one participant the BEHAVER, who must be a conscious being. (You) Behaver breathe in. Behavioural process

Verbal processes Verbal processes are processes of saying in a broad sense; they include not only the different modes of saying (asking, commanding, offering, stating) but also semiotic processes that are not necessarily verbal (showing, indicating). There is always a SAYER as a participant, which may be a conscious being, but anything capable of putting out a signal may also be the sayer for example, a watch, a map, or a traffic light, in clauses like Electrical signals around the heart tell the heart when to contract and pump blood around the body. Other participants which occur with these processes are the BENEFICIARY (the receiver of the message or signal) and VERBIAGE (the content of saying). The Verbiage may be represented as a separate clause quoting or reporting what was said or may be construed as a participant. Electrocardiography (EKG, ECG) tracings Sayer I Sayer d say Verbal process said Verbal process show Verbal process a characteristic pattern of electrical impulses that are generated by the heart. Verbiage

the pain is about a two on a scale of one to ten. Verbiage realized by a subordinate clause the new pyramid rocks. Verbiage realized by a subordinate clause 1,187 girls and boys Beneficiary a bunch of questions about their sleep habits. Verbiage

Other kids Sayer We Sayer

asked Verbal process

Existential processes Existential processes represent that something exists (in the case of entities) or happens (in the case of events). These clauses are normally formed using the pronoun there (dummy subject) and typically have the verb to be, or some other verb expressing existence, such as to exist, to arise, followed by a nominal group functioning as EXISTENT, which is the only essential participant. There Existential there There Existential there was Existential process followed Existential process a battle. Existent an angry debate. Existent

When you analyse texts for the experiential meaning you may consider the following questions: The participants (actors) 1. 2. 3. Who/what are the participants in the text? Are they human, animal or inanimate? Are the participants active/passive /passive?

Processes: micro-processes 4. What material, verbal, mental, relational, existential and behavioural processes are represented? a. What actions do the participants undertake? b. What changes are there in facial expression? c. Do the participants look at each other? d. What physical changes occur? For example, do the participants bend over or lie down? hide or cover themselves up? protect themselves? become temporarily deformed? e. What mental changes occur? f. What changes occur in behaviour? behav For example: do the participants start: laughing, crying or become angry? g. What changes occur in emotional states?

Circumstances (what, where, when) 5. 6. What location or locations does the text represent? What temporal scales are involved? Exercise 1: Consider the following screenshots taken from an advertisement by WWF and answer the questions above: New Thinking on Climate Change

Before

After

InterpersonalMeaning
The interpersonal meaning expresses judgements, assessments, gives guidelines, deals with relationships between people, the relationship between texts and readers/viewers and the relationships within texts: interpersonal [...] the grammar of personal participation; it expresses the speakers role in the speech situation, his personal commitment and his interaction with others (Halliday, 1973).

Besides representing the context as they experience it, speakers speakers of a language enact their roles as participants in the context, as they interact with each other. Interacting, they, in a sense, create the context, as they negotiate their own roles in it and those of others. This is done through what Halliday has called the interpersonal function (or metafunction) of language. Discourse roles are negotiated through

exchanges. We can speak of three types of exchanges, related to three different uses of language: A. to exchange knowledge, or information; B. to exchange actions, , or goods and services; C. to establish and maintain relations. In texts semiotic resources offer an array of choices to represent different interpersonal interperso relations. For instance, a person depicted may be shown as addressing the viewers directly, directly, by looking at the camera. This conveys a sense ense of interaction between the person depicted and the viewer. But a person depicted may also be shown turned away from the viewer, and this conveys the absence of a sense of interaction. It allows the viewer to scrutinize the characters represented as though they were specimens in a display case. When you analyse texts for the interpersonal meaning you may consider the following questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How does the text invite the reader/viewer to evaluate the actions/events actions represented in the text? In what ways are the readers/viewers requested to become participants in the text? How do distance, gaze and perspective contribute to creating a relationship between the participants in the text and the viewer? From what angle are the participants viewed? For example: front, side, rear How is the reader/viewer led to adopt a particular part interpretative stance on the text? For example, are the visual images sensuous, naturalistic, abstract or hyper-real? hyper How is the attention of the reader/viewer captured? For instance, are key-words key words used? Exercise 2: Watch the TV commercial of Idaho Potato (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3eV80IYZ34) and answer the questions above.

Textual Meaning
The textual meaning refers to the actual form of the t text, the way it is organise;,, it deals with information management, resources and genres. Through the combination of resources at different textual levels it allows ideas and attitudes about thematics, actions and events to o be expressed: textual [] concerned with the creation of text; it expresses the structure of information, and the relation of each part of the discourse to the whole and to the setting (Halliday, 1973).

Any semiotic resource has to have the capacity to form texts, systems of signs which cohere both internally with each other and externally with the context in and for which they were produced. In language every clause is organised as a message relating relat to an unfolding text. It is divided into two parts, the Theme and the Rheme. Theme: Point of departure of the message (i.e. what the clause is going to be about) Contains the given information, i.e. information which has already been mentioned somewhere in the text or is familiar from the context Rheme: Part of f the clause in which the Theme is developed Contains unfamiliar, or new, information, i.e. information which has not already been mentioned somewhere in the text or is not familiar from the context

In visual grammar composition is the fundamental cohesive principle of space-based space based texts. It incorporates three aspects: 1. Information value. The placement of elements endows them with the specific informational values attached to the various s zones of the image: left and right, top and bottom, centre and margin.

When pictures and layouts make significant use of the horizontal axis, positioning some of their elements left, and other different ones right of the centre, the elements placed on the left are presented as Given, the elements placed of the right as New. When pictures and layouts make significant use of the vertical axis, the elements placed towards the top are presented as Ideal; those placed near the bottom are presented as the Real. The Ideal to the idealised or desired essence of something; the Real to more specific, concrete information and detail. If a visual composition makes significant sig use of the centre, placing one element in the middle and the other elements around it, then what is presented as centre is the nucleus of the information informati to which the other elements nts are in some way subservient. 2. Salience. The elements are placed in such a way as to attract the viewers attention according to different degrees, for example they can be positioned in the foreground or background, be big or small, have bright colours or dark, dark etc. Framing. The presence or absence of framing devices (realised by elements which create dividing lines, or by actual frame lines) disconnects or connects elements of the image, signifying that they belong or do not belong together in some sense.

3.

When you analyse texts for the textual meaning you may consider the following questions: Macrolevel resources (i.e. cluster types/primary genres, e.g speech & thought bubbles, slogos, slogans, tables, diagrams, graphs) 1. 2. How are the textual resources used to represent the dichotomies given/new and ideal/real? Is the text in question a scientific text or is the text a cartoon? Regardless of the genre, what is the management in text between given and new information and between the expected and the unexpected?

Microlevel resources (i.e. below the level of subclusers) 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. What use is made of framing? What use of colour is made? What is the significance of colour? Do particular colours stand out? Are the visual or linguistic resources ellipted? What resources are most salient? Why did you pick out these resources? What is the significance of these resources? How are the texts various parts linked up? What textual units exist? For example, what clusters are there? Are there subclusters, clusters and superclusters? Exercise 3: Look at the home page of the National Institute of Health(http://www.nih.gov/) and answer the questions above.

References
(a) Primary sources for text analyses Beare, Kenneth (2010). A Physical Examination. Examination Available at: http://esl.about.com/od/intermediatereading/a/d_mphysical.htm ://esl.about.com/od/intermediatereading/a/d_mphysical.htm [Accessed 7 November 2010]. Beare, Kenneth (2010). Pain that Comes and Goes.Available at:http://esl.about.com/od/intermediatereading/a/d_mpain.htm[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Dowshen, Steven (2010). Arrhythmias. Available at: http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/heart/arrhythmias.html[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Dowshen, Steven (2010). Hearth and Circulatory System. Available at: http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/body_basics/heart.html[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Dowshen, Steven (2010). What Kids Say about: Sleep. Available at:

http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/kidssay/poll_sleep.html [Accessed 7 November 2010]. Gavin, Mary L. (2005). Kids Talk about: The New Food Guide Pyramid.Available at: http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/kidssay/comments_new_pyramid.html[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Gavin, Mary L. (2007).A Kids Guide to Fever.Available at: http://kidshealth.org/kid/ill_injure/sick/fever.html[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Hyde, Patrice (2008). Can I Prevent Acne?Available at: http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/beautiful/prevent_acne.html[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Heart Contraction and Blood Flow. Available at: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hhw/hhw_pumping.html [Accessed 7 November 2010]. Idaho Potato Commercial.Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3eV80IYZ34[Accessed 7 November 2010]. New Thinking on Climate Change.Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgXBo1_YkWM[Accessed 7 November 2010]. Parks, Robin (2008). Electrocardiogram (EKG, ECG) tracing. Available at: http://www.revolutionhealth.com/articles/electrocardiogram-ekg-ecg-tracing/tu3164[Accessed 7 November 2010]. (b) Scientific works Baldry, Anthony and Thibault, Paul (2006). Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis. London and Oakvill: Equinox. Eggins, Suzanne (2004). An Introduction to Systemic and Functional Linguistics. Second Edition. New York and London: Continuum. Halliday, M.A.K. (1973). Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M.A.K. and Matthiessen, Christian (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Third Edition. London: Edward Arnold. Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo (2006). Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. Second Edition. London and New York: Routledge. Martin, Jim R., Matthiessen, Christian and Painter, Clare (1997). Working with Functional Grammar. London: Arnold. Taylor Torsello, Carol (1992). English in Discourse.A Course for Language Specialists. Volume II.Padova: CleupEditore. vanLeeuwen, Theo (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. London and New York: Routledge.