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Systemic Functional Grammar
As with any field, there are a number of competing views in the study of syntax. It is not
possible to consider all of them and we have chosen to emphasize the best known one.
Arguably as important as Chomsky's theory, is Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG).
This view of linguistics has its roots in the work of the British linguist J. R. Firth,
although it also owes much to Prague School linguistics and to the work of Hjelmslev
and Whorf. However, the mastermind behind the systemic-functional perspective is M.
A. K. Halliday.
Linguists who adopt this approach are interested in relating the various kinds of
linguistic structures and patterns to the functions that language serves and to the social
settings in which it is used. These ideas are fundamentally different from those held by
transformational grammarians because they not only emphasize language function but
also suggest that language cannot be studied out of its context. Language is always used
in a particular situation for a particular purpose.
In Chapter 1, we studied seven functions of language, which are actually the micro
functions of language, covering the particular individual uses. If instead of going below
the level of individual functions we go above it, it is possible to identify several macro
functions. And perhaps the best way of describing them would be to follow M. A. K.
Halliday's three metafunctions: ideational, textual and interpersonal functions.
(i) Ideational function
How do we use language to make the world intelligible to ourselves and others? In other
words, in what way do we represent our experiential world in language? The function in
which we conceptualize the world for our own benefit and that of others is called
ideational function. In a sense we bring the world into being linguistically. The first
way in which we can think about a clause, or a simple sentence, then, is as a
representation of experience. Consider the following sentences in terms of the processes
indicated by the verbs, and the participants involved in them.
(19) The boy kicked the post.
(20) The man liked the new house.
(21) The child is homeless.
(22) The girl laughed.
(23) The visitor said "hello".
(24) There is a girl over there.
In (19), we can describe the process kicked as a material one. Material processes are
characteristically "doing" verbs such as running, dressing and climbing. An indication
of this can be seen in the fact that we rarely use them in the simple present tense, that is,
I run, but tend instead to employ the present continuous, or "-ing" form—I am running.
We associate them with continuous activity of some kind. The participants in (19) are the
boy and the post. In functional terms, Halliday describes the boy as the actor, that is, the
person responsible for the action, and the post as the goal, meaning the thing which is
acted upon. One of the operations we can characteristically perform with material process
verbs is to change the clause or sentence from active to passive. This involves swapping
over the grammatical subject and object while keeping the functional relations of actor
and goal:
(25) The post was kicked by the boy.
Even though the post is now in the subject position it is still functioning as goal, and
correspondingly, the boy, although in the object position, remains actor. Rearranging the
clause in this way allows us, if we wish, to leave out the actor:
(26) The post was kicked.
In (20), the predicator here is characteristic of a range of processes having to do with
feeling and thinking. They are not material—no concrete action is performed. Any action
is internal rather than external. Verbs such as hate, love, know, think and understand, fall
into this group. All of them include mental processes. The participants in mental
processes are different from those in material ones. We cannot really describe the man as
an actor since he does not perform the process of liking. He is the one who experiences the
sensation of liking. Halliday refers to this subject as the sensor, and the thing sensed as the
phenomenon. Mental verbs are different from material ones semantically and this is
reflected in their grammatical capabilities. They do not form the present continuous, the
"-ing" form, so easily: *The man is liking the house, */ am understanding your point.
They are sometimes referred to as stative verbs in that they describe a state or condition
as opposed to material verbs which are dynamic.
In (21), the process is different again from (19) and (20). The process included in the
verb here is neither material nor mental. It is relational in that its main purpose is to
relate the two participants together. With relational verbs, like be, become, appear, there
are a lot of possible participant roles because of a broader range of possible relationships.
One pair of them is carrier and attribute. In (21) homeless is the attribute—the
condition being attributed, and the child is the carrier, or the person who is in that
condition. The relational process does not allow its verbs to form the passive: *Homeless
was being the child.
In (22), the predicator falls into a category of verbs such as cough, yawn and smile
which Halliday classes as behavioral. Behavioral verbs have some similarity to material
verbs in that they describe physical actions of some kind but they are different in that the
action is not performed on anything—*A girl laughed a boy is meaningless, whereas A
girl kicked a boy is meaningful. Moreover, behavioral verbs need a subject which is
animate or living. People and animals smile, yawn and cough, but not trees or rocks
(except figuratively). Material verbs, on the other hand, can have trees or rocks as
subjects, for instance, The tree swayed in the wind. In this respect, behavioral verbs are
like mental ones, which also require animate subjects. So they are a distinct group,
semantically and syntactically. We can see this in the fact that they only require one
participant—the person doing the laughing, coughing, or yawning. Halliday terms this
participant, the behaver. Verbs of this category are, like relational verbs,
characteristically intransitive, in that they do not take an object—we can't laugh
something—and consequently don't form the passive. The girl laughed loudly cannot be
turned into * Loudly was laughed the girl.
In (23), the process belongs to a large category called verbal. This includes verbs such
as say, report, claim, question and explain. Here again there is some similarity with
material processes but also significant differences. As with mental and behavioral
processes, the participant performing the activity has to be animate. But one special
feature of verbs in this category is that the participants can be swapped round without
any change in meaning: "Hello", said the visitor, has the same propositional meaning as
The visitor said "hello" (although it differs in force). They can also usually form the
passive—"Hello" was said by the visitor. Halliday terms the first participant "the visitor"
the sayer, and the second "hello" the target, the object of the saying.
In (24), the category of processes is a fairly small one. It consists of clauses in which
there acts as grammatical subject, for example There was a little cat and There seemed
to be a problem, and so on. In these cases what we essentially appear to be doing is
affirming the existence of something or someone, that is, "a cat/problem existed".
Halliday terms this process existential. When we look at the participants, however, we
can see that there doesn't really represent anything except the need for a subject. In
functional terms, therefore it has no importance outside its grammatical role. The only
significant participant here is the thing or person being affirmed as existing. In this case
a woman is referred to by Halliday as the existent.
(ii) Interpersonal function
Language serves to set up and maintain social and personal relations, including
communication roles such as questioner and respondent, and to express the language
user's own attitudes and comments on the content of an utterance. This function of
language is called interpersonal function.
Verbal communication involves an interactive event between two or more people in
which we take on certain roles—the most fundamental being speaker/ writer vs.
hearer/reader or, put more simply, addresser vs. addressee— and attempt to influence or
understand others. Traditionally, sentences are classified as declarative, interrogative and
imperative. Declaratives are used to give information, and perform the function of
statements; interrogatives are used to request something, and perform the function of
questions; imperatives are used to give instructions and perform the function of
commands. However, exact correlation between form and function only occurs in
idealized sentences. We frequently use declaratives to ask questions, and on occasion, to
issue instructions. The declarative utterance You're going out, could function as a
question or an order depending on the intonation patterns.
What we are essentially talking about here is the subject of mood in language structure.
One obvious way in which mood is characteristically signaled in English is by the
inclusion of specific words such as please, possibly, kindly and frankly. But mood is also
signaled through the syntax of sentences. Halliday identifies two sorts of exchanges
which he argues all utterances can be divided into. The first consists of demands for, and
offers of, goods and services of some kind, for example, Give me a cookie and Would you
like a cookie? In those cases what is at issue is a literal, or actual exchange. The second
consists of demands for, and offers of, linguistic information, for example, What is he
giving her? and He's giving her a cookie, where the issue is a verbal, rather than a literal,
exchange.
Halliday argues that what children first learn to speak are exchanges of the goods and
services. In other words, they use language primarily as a way of indicating their needs
and getting what they want. The use of language for the exchange of information comes
later. To begin with, then, language in its interpersonal function, is principally a means
to an end.
Examining the interpersonal dimension of syntax means looking closely at the relation
between the form and function of utterances. As we have seen, sentences might have the
form of declaratives, interrogatives or imperatives, but they function quite differently.
There is a much discussed example in linguistic literature concerning the range of ways
in which the demand for salt can be encoded, which illustrates this:
(27)a. Pass the salt.
b. Please pass the salt.
c. Can you pass the salt?
d. Could you possibly pass the salt?
e. You couldn't possibly pass the salt, could you?
What we can observe here is the element of politeness and deference increasing with
each permutation of pass the salt. (27a) has the form and function of an
imperative/command of the goods and services; (27b) lexicalizes a degree of politeness
by adding please, while (27c) grammaticalizes it by turning it into an interrogative,
seeking information; (27d) increases the politeness by changing the tense to the past,
and by including possibly—a lexical marker of tentativeness; and finally (27e) uses a
declarative/statement followed by a tag question. We can see, as a general rule, that the
more indirect the demand, the more polite it is felt to be.
(iii) Textual function
Language also makes links with itself and with features of the situation in which it is
used. This is what enables the speaker or writer to construct a text, and enables the
listener or reader to distinguish a text from a random set of sentences. This function of
language is called textual function. When we speak or write, we construct our clauses
so as to present the information in a certain way. In other words, the clause functions as
a message. Because of this, we have to decide how to order the parts of the message so
as (a) to make it clear to our audience, and (b) to emphasize, or make prominent, the
essential elements of it.
Any text is necessarily delivered in a linear manner, and as a consequence, we are
forced to process it in a similar fashion. Because of this, it is easier for us to process a
lexical string in which the burden of new information comes towards the end of the
clause. We expect the starting point of the clause, the subject, to present us with
information which is largely given, that is, assumed to be known; this gives us time to
prepare ourselves for the new to come later. If, for example, you were looking out of the
classroom and noticed a bird on the tree, you would be far more likely to say There's a
bird on the tree than A bird is on the tree. In this case, the existential sentence, with
there as an empty subject, prepares us for receiving the information. Another way of
putting this is to say that in an English clause the usual focus of information is towards
the end. Warnings and orders, for example, usually leave out the subject—look out or
get out of the way. The new information is promoted to the front of the clause; the subject
you is taken as given and therefore not strictly necessary. The way linguistics handles
these constructions is to distinguish between marked and unmarked uses. The distinction
of marked/unmarked is a useful one to get hold of. Anything that is unmarked
linguistically is normative or unremarkable, in its structure, whereas an element which is
marked is significantly different, deviant or anomalous. Marking a constituent by moving
it syntactically is one way of increasing its prominence. We can say, then, that orders and
warnings are marked utterances.
Information approaches to the clause are very rich in explaining a variety of syntactic
operations which we characteristically perform. Processes involving ellipsis, for
example, in which we leave out constituents of the clause, enable us to abbreviate and
simplify our utterances while keeping the message recoverable. For example, (28a) is
clearly less cumbersome than (28b):
(28) a. James enjoys tennis more than John.
b. James enjoys tennis more than John enjoys tennis.
Similarly the requirement to make our messages clear means that we normally, that is,
in unmarked clauses, try to ensure that items which are semantically close (those which
are dependent on each other in meaning) are syntactically close. Thus, (29a) is more
marked in structure than (29b) because of the separation of the clause when we were due
to leave from the noun phrase, the day, which it post-modifies.
(29) a. The day came at last when we were due to leave,
b. The day when we were due to leave came at last.
What we have really been considering here are the thematic relations of the clause. The
concept of theme is an important one in functional approaches to syntax. The theme is
the first constituent, and it denotes the starting point of the clause—what it is going to be
about. The rest of the clause is called rheme, the information that is new. Consider the
differences between the following pairs:
(30) a. Gas explosion killed thousands.
b. Thousands were killed by gas explosion.
(31) a. The rain came down.
b. Down came the rain.
It is not difficult for us to notice that in each case sentence (b) rearranges sentence (a) by
swapping over the first and last elements—in (30b) this involves putting the verb into the
passive. Despite the changes, however, there is no alternation in the essential or
prepositional meaning of the initial sentences. The same information is given to us, it is
simply presented in a different order. The differences are thematic. What comes first in an
English sentence is of crucial importance in telling us what the sentence is going to be
about. In (30a), for example, gas explosion occupies the place of theme, and in
information terms the sentence is saying "I'm going to tell you about a gas explosion". In
(30b), however, thousands is the theme, and the sentence is saying "I'm going to tell you
something about thousands of people". In the case of (31 a), the thematic sequence is
unmarked: The rain occupies the place of theme. It is also the given part of the
clause—the determiner the identifies it as something already existing—while the
remainder is the rheme, the new information. In (30b), however, part of that new
information is put at the front of the clause and given prominence. Down is thus a marked
theme.
There are several types of themes in sentences, from those which express mood
"Frankly, I don't give a damn", to those which are more content laden "Your idea is
nonsense", but all we have attempted to do here is give you a flavor of what is a very
rich field.
Types of themes
1 Simple theme
The theme consists of only one structural element， with
neither the textual theme nor interpersonal theme. It can be
represented by one or more nominal/adverbial/ prepositional
groups.
Slowly and quietly(T), //he pushed the window open(R).
2 A clause as the theme
If you don’t like that teapot (T), //give it away(R).
Give that teapot away(T) //if you don’t like it(R).
3 A multiple theme
It consists of not only a structural element but also a textual
element and/or an interpersonal element. If all the three
elements turn up in the same theme, they follow the sequence
of textual element(s) + interpersonal element(s) +structural
element(s).
Textual theme: continuative elements like yes, well, and
conjunctive elements like however.
Interpersonal theme: modal elements like frankly speaking,
finite elements like do, and vocative elements like John.
Topical theme: structural elements
On the other hand(Textual theme), maybe(Interpersonal
theme), on a weekday(Topical theme), //it would be less
crowded(R).
If winter comes,can spring be far behind?
Patterns of Thematic Progression
From the seemingly messy sentence structures in a text,
Fries(1983)&Danes(1974) abstracted several patterns of
Thematic Progression which could be adopted to explain
whether a text is coherent or not.
1 The Constant Theme Pattern
In this pattern, a common Theme is shared by all clauses and
this Theme equates with given information. See example one:
Example One: The brain contains 10 billion nerve cells,
making thousands of millions of connections with each other.
It is the most powerful data processor we know. And it is
under intensive investigations by scientists nowadays.
The pattern takes the same element as the point of departure
of all clauses, and the Rheme of each clause gives further
explanation to the same Theme. The pattern is easy to
comprehend and could make it easier for readers to find
information. Though the application of the pattern could
probably make a text monotonous, most readers tend to take
the text as coherent.
2 The Linear Theme Pattern
The Theme of a sentence in this pattern is identical with the
Rheme of the previous sentence, whereas its Rheme
constitutes the Theme of the following sentence. See Example
two:
Example Two: The stomach produces gastric juice, which
contains dilute hydrochloric acid. The acid kills most of the
bacteria in the food. The partly digested food passes next into
the duodenum.
In this pattern, the Theme of a certain sentence is the
summary of most of the content of the previous sentence, and
thus makes a new point of departure which further introduces
a new Rheme. Since the application of the pattern could make
readers curious for the coming information, it is more easily
to be regarded as coherent.
3 The Split Theme Pattern
The pattern occurs when the Rheme of a clause has more than
one component, each of which is taken in turn as the Theme
of a subsequent clause. See Example Three:
Example Three: The only other considerable region in the
world lies in Japan. This country shows a remarkable fusion
of both densely populated rural and urban communities.
Japanese peasant farmers, who constitute 45 percent of the
population, practice a typical monsoon Asian subsistence
economy, whereas the millions of people living in vast
industrial cities have much in common with counterparts in
Europe and North America.
Texts with this pattern will have a clear layout for the reader
to catch what the passage is about. According to different
scales of delicacy, it would be easier for readers to find useful
information. With each step forward, the information offered
will be more and more specific. Texts in this pattern will
impress readers as logical and coherent.
4 The Constant Rheme Pattern
A common Rheme is shared by all clauses in this pattern, and
this Rheme equates with new information. See example four:
Example Four: England is a country; France is a country;
Turkey is another country; Egypt, Italy and Poland are other
countries.
In this pattern, all new information shares the same feature.
Although it sometimes sounds wordy and tedious, it could be
used to emphasize the new information the speaker is
offering.
Although linguists have abstracted several patterns for
Thematic Progression and they indeed play an active role in
analyzing the coherence of text, we should be conscious that
in actually writing, it is very rare to find a text consisting of
only one of these patterns. Therefore, in our analysis of text
coherence, we should be able to adopt the patterns in a
flexible way.
Summary
Syntax the study of sentence structures, and "grammar" refers to syntax plus the part of
morphology that deals with inflections. Syntactic rules govern three kinds of relations
between words and word groups. They are syntagmatic relation, paradigmatic relation and
hierarchical relation. Syntagmatic relation refers to the traditional term "word order". It is
concerned with the rules of how words are put together in certain linear order to form
different sentences. Word (lasses, traditionally "parts of speech", are sets of words which
have the same grammatical features and are likely to occur in the same position in a
sentence
and mutually substitutable in a particular grammatical context. The syntactic-relation of
substitution between words of the same class is also referred to as the paradigmatic
relation. There is also a hierarchical relation between all the possible word groups in a
sentence. In any given sentences some words are more closely related than others, and a
sentence is made up of two-part constructions on a series of levels or layers. The big
word groups contain some smaller ones and the smaller ones may in turn contain some
still smaller ones, 1C Analysis is the technique of breaking up sentences into word
groups by making successive binary cuttings until the level of single words is reached.
"Grammatical category" is generally used to refer to certain defining properties of word
classes with corresponding inflectional affixes as their formal indications. There are
number, case and gender for nouns and adjectives, and tense, aspect, voice and mood for
verbs.
The grammatical structure of a sentence is traditionally analyzed in terms of the
functional categories of its constituents. A sentence is seen as composed by a subject
and a predicate. The predicate may contain, apart from the main verb, objects,
complements and adverbials. The grammatical structure often corresponds to the
semantic structure of sentences, which is analyzed in terms of the semantic roles played
by the constituents. Subject usually has a role of an agent and complements are
attributes. Indirect object has a role of a beneficiary and direct object is a patient.
Adverbials may be instrumental, locative or temporary. The grammatical structure also
corresponds to the thematic structure, which is described in terms of the information
value of the constituents. The initial constituent of a sentence is called theme and the
rest of the sentence rheme.
According to Chomsky's Standard Theory, the syntactical component in TG consists of
two parts: the PS rules and the T-rules. The PS rules and the Lexicon together make up
what is called the Base. The Lexicon is a full list of words with information about their
categories, subcategories, and semantic properties. A sentence generated from the Base
is called the Deep Structure of the sentence. It is a structured string of words, which
contains the semantic information for the interpretation of the sentence. T-rules are to be
applied before we can get the Surface Structure of the sentence.
In GB Theory, some new rules are introduced. The X-bar Theory is generalized from the
PS rulers they have a similar formulation. Likewise, (Move a is a general rule covering
all the transformation rules, in which a stands for any element that can be moved from
one position to another in the deep structure. Trace, symbolized by t, indicates the
original position any constituent formally occupied before the movement. COMP and
INFL are given the status of the head of a Complementizer Phrase and the head of an
Inflection phrase, so that the top levels of sentences conform to the X-bar requirements
for the other levels.