Systemic linguistics
Encyclopedia
Systemic functional linguistics is an approach to linguistics
that considers language
as a particular kind of system
, a social semiotics
system. It was developed by Michael Halliday
, who took the notion of system from his teacher, J R Firth. Whereas Firth considered systems to refer to possibilities subordinated to structure, Halliday in a certain sense 'liberated' the dimension of choice from structure and made it the central organising dimension of this theory. In other words, whereas many approaches to linguistic description place structure and the syntagmatic axis in the foreground, Hallidayan systemic-functional theory adopts the paradigmatic axis as its point of departure. The term 'systemic' accordingly foregrounds Saussure's 'paradigmatic axis' in understanding how language works. For Halliday a central theoretical principle is then that any act of communication involves choices. The choices available in any language variety are mapped using the representation tool of the 'system network'. Systemic-functional linguistics is also 'functional' because it considers language to have evolved under the pressure of the particular functions that the language system has to serve. Functions are therefore takne to have left their mark on the structure and organisation of language at all levels. The organisation of the functional framework around systems, i.e., choices, is a significant difference to other 'functional' approaches, such as, for example, Dik's functional grammar (FG or as now often termed, functional discourse grammar
) or lexical functional grammar
Thus it is always important to use the full designation: systemic-functional linguistics rather than just functional grammar or functional linguistics.
For Halliday, all languages involve three very generalized functions: construing experience (meanings about the world), enacting social relations (meanings concerned with interpersonal relations) and the weaving together of these functions to create text. Because these functions are considered to come into being simultaneously [viz. one cannot mean about the world without having either a real or virtual audience], language must also be able to bring these meanings together: this is the role of structural organisation, be that grammatical, semantic or contextual. These three generalized functions are termed 'metafunctions'.
make up systemic-functional grammar. A system is a theoretical tool to describe the sets of options available in a language variety; it represents abstract choice and does not correspond to a notion of actual choice or make psychological claims. Formally system networks correspond to type lattices in formal lattice theory, although they are occasionally mistakenly mistaken for flowcharts or directed decision trees. Such directionality is always only a property of particular implementations of the general notion and may be made for performance reasons in, for example, computational modelling. System networks commonly employ multiple inheritance and 'simultaneous' systems, or choices, which therefore combine to generate very large descriptive spaces.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
that considers language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
as a particular kind of system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
, a social semiotics
Social semiotics
Social semiotics is a branch of the field of semiotics which investigates human signifying practices in specific social and cultural circumstances, and which tries to explain meaning-making as a social practice. Semiotics, as originally defined by Ferdinand de Saussure, is "the science of the life...
system. It was developed by Michael Halliday
Michael Halliday
Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday is a British linguist who developed an internationally influential model of language, the systemic functional linguistic model. His grammatical descriptions go by the name of systemic functional grammar .-Biography:Halliday was born and raised in England...
, who took the notion of system from his teacher, J R Firth. Whereas Firth considered systems to refer to possibilities subordinated to structure, Halliday in a certain sense 'liberated' the dimension of choice from structure and made it the central organising dimension of this theory. In other words, whereas many approaches to linguistic description place structure and the syntagmatic axis in the foreground, Hallidayan systemic-functional theory adopts the paradigmatic axis as its point of departure. The term 'systemic' accordingly foregrounds Saussure's 'paradigmatic axis' in understanding how language works. For Halliday a central theoretical principle is then that any act of communication involves choices. The choices available in any language variety are mapped using the representation tool of the 'system network'. Systemic-functional linguistics is also 'functional' because it considers language to have evolved under the pressure of the particular functions that the language system has to serve. Functions are therefore takne to have left their mark on the structure and organisation of language at all levels. The organisation of the functional framework around systems, i.e., choices, is a significant difference to other 'functional' approaches, such as, for example, Dik's functional grammar (FG or as now often termed, functional discourse grammar
Functional discourse grammar
Functional grammar and functional discourse grammar are grammar models and theories motivated by functional theories of grammar. These theories explain how linguistic utterances are shaped, based on the goals and knowledge of natural language users. In doing so, it contrasts with Chomskyan...
) or lexical functional grammar
Lexical functional grammar
Lexical functional grammar is a grammar framework in theoretical linguistics, a variety of generative grammar. It is a type of phrase structure grammar, as opposed to a dependency grammar. The development of the theory was initiated by Joan Bresnan and Ronald Kaplan in the 1970s, in reaction to...
Thus it is always important to use the full designation: systemic-functional linguistics rather than just functional grammar or functional linguistics.
For Halliday, all languages involve three very generalized functions: construing experience (meanings about the world), enacting social relations (meanings concerned with interpersonal relations) and the weaving together of these functions to create text. Because these functions are considered to come into being simultaneously [viz. one cannot mean about the world without having either a real or virtual audience], language must also be able to bring these meanings together: this is the role of structural organisation, be that grammatical, semantic or contextual. These three generalized functions are termed 'metafunctions'.
A multidimensional semiotic system
The point of departure for Halliday's work in linguistics has been the simple question 'how does language work?'. Across his career he has probed the nature of language as a social semiotic system, that is, as a resource for meaning across the many and constantly changing contexts of human interaction. In 2003, he published a paper in which he set out the accumulated principles of his theory, which arose as he engaged with many different language-related problems. These principles, he wrote, 'emerged as the by-product of those engagements as I struggled with particular problems' as various as literary analysis and machine translation. Halliday has tried, then, to develop a linguistic theory and description that is appliable to any context of human language. His theory and descriptions are based on these principles, on the basis that they are required to explain the particularly complexity of human language. These principles are:- that meaning is choice, that users select from 'options that arise in the environment of other options', and that 'the power of language resides in its organization as a huge network of interrelated choices'.
[the paradigmatic dimension] - that in its evolution from primary to higher order semiotic, 'a space was created in which meanings could be organized in their own terms, as a purely abstract network of interrelations'. Between the content of form pairing of simple semiotic systems emerged the 'organizational space' referred to as lexicogrammarLexicogrammar'Lexicogrammar' is a term peculiar to systemic functional linguistics. It was coined by Michael Halliday, the father of systemic functional linguistics, to describe the continuity between grammar and lexis. For many linguists, these phenomena are discrete. But Halliday brings them together with...
. This development put language on the road to becoming an apparently infinite meaning making system. [the stratification dimension] - that language displays 'functional complementarity'. In other words, it has evolved under the human need to make meanings about the world around and inside us, at the same time that it is the means for creating and maintaining our interpersonal relations. These motifs are two modes of meaning in discourse, what Halliday terms the 'ideational' and 'interpersonal' metafunctions. They are organized via a third mode of meaning, the textual metafunction, which acts on the other two modes to create a coherent flow of discourse. [the metafunctional dimension]
- that language unfolds syntagmatically - as structure laid down in time (spoken) or space (written). This structure involves units on different ranks witihn each stratum of the language system. Within the lexicogrammar, for example, the largest is the clause, and the smallest the morpheme and intermediate between these ranks are the rank of group/phrase, and of the word.[the syntagmatic dimension]
- that all of these resources are, in turn, 'predicated on the vector of instantiation', defined as 'the relation between an instance and the system that lies behind it'. Instantiation is a formal relationship between potential and actual. Systemic-functional theory assumes a very intimate relationship of continual feedback between instance and system: thus use of the system may change that system [the instantiation dimension]
The system network in systemic linguistics
The label "Systemic" is related to the System Networks used in the description of human languages. System networks capture the dimension of choice at each stratum of the linguistic system to which they are applied. The system networks of the lexicogrammarLexicogrammar
'Lexicogrammar' is a term peculiar to systemic functional linguistics. It was coined by Michael Halliday, the father of systemic functional linguistics, to describe the continuity between grammar and lexis. For many linguists, these phenomena are discrete. But Halliday brings them together with...
make up systemic-functional grammar. A system is a theoretical tool to describe the sets of options available in a language variety; it represents abstract choice and does not correspond to a notion of actual choice or make psychological claims. Formally system networks correspond to type lattices in formal lattice theory, although they are occasionally mistakenly mistaken for flowcharts or directed decision trees. Such directionality is always only a property of particular implementations of the general notion and may be made for performance reasons in, for example, computational modelling. System networks commonly employ multiple inheritance and 'simultaneous' systems, or choices, which therefore combine to generate very large descriptive spaces.