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Welcome to All
Course Code: E 300 A
Course Name
English Language and Literacy
The Functional Analysis Of English
Chapter 1: A Meaningful Approach
 Grammar & meaning
For Halliday, lang is a system of meaning. The grammar
becomes a study of how meanings are built up through the
use of words & other linguistic forms like tone & emphasis.
 Linguistic choice
Acc to Halliday, language consists of a set of systems,
each of which offers the speaker / writer, a choice of ways
of expressing meaning : interrogative form, declarative
form, imperative form as well as choices in the
syntagmatic & paradigmatic orders.
 Language in use
Lang in use is influenced by complex elements from
specific situation. Situation also influence interpretation &
expression of meaning within same register. Eg: letter to a
friend is diff in content & style from business letter.
 The study of texts
Halliday insists on studying real life texts. Communication
is an interactive process through which meaning is
negotiated. The choice of words & the word order of one
sentence often depends on the language part that
preceded it. The linguistic analysis help us to find out why
some texts are more effective than others.
 The notion of rank / Rank Scale
The meaning of the text is constructed out of its
component parts: sentences, clauses and words.
Rank scale : a hierarchy of grammatical constituents
(clauses, group, word, morpheme) in which each rank is
made up of one or more members of the rank below.
SFL employs the notion of rank as:
a clause consists of one or more groups;
a group consists of one or more words;
a word consists of one or more morphemes.
Each of these ranks refers to a unit of meaning at the level
of the clause or below (rank scale).
For eg:
Clause
Several children are playing near the river
Phrase
Several children/ are playing/ near the river
Word
Several/ children/ are/ playing/ near/ the/ river
Morpheme
Several-child-ren-are-play-ing-near-the-river
Functions & Metafunctions:
 Grammatical functions: in a lexicogrammar, each
element (word or group or clause) has to be seen as part
of the system of the language. Eg: syntactic positioning,
form etc.
 The communicative function:
Acc to Halliday, relationship b/w forms of utterances &
types of meaning they express is a complex one, based on
the principle that what the speakers say makes sense in
the context in which they are saying it.
 Lang is organized around a small number of “functional
components” which correspond to metafunctions.
Metafunctions have a systematic relationship with the
lexicogrammar of the language.
 Metafunctions
1) The ideational metafunction is related to lang use to
organize, understand & express our perceptions of the
world & our consciousness. This can be classified into 2
subfunctions: Experiential & logical.
Experiential relates to experience / ideas.
Logical function relates to relationship b/w ideas.
2) The interpersonal metafunction relates to roles,
attitudes & judgments.
3) The textual metafunction relates to use of lang to
organize the text itself.
In any instance of language use, all 3 metafunctions
operate simultaneously in the expression of meaning.
Chapter 2: Labels
 Word classes : a set of categories for classifying words;
also called Parts of speech.
Word classes: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun,
preposition, conjunction, article and/or interjection.
Hallidayan grammar also features 8 word classes: nouns,
adjectives, numerals, determiners, verbs, prepositions,
adverbs and conjunctions.
 Nouns: Common nouns, proper nouns & pronouns
 Pronouns: are closed set of items: no additions or
transformations.
Personal pronouns: I, me
Possessive pronouns: my, mine
Wh-pronouns: who, whom, which, what, whose.
 Verbs: 3 basic subclasses: lexical, auxiliary & finite.
 Adjectives: modifiers of nouns / the head of a group that
is complement of a copular verb (i.e after copular)
 Determiners: more comprehensive category than article.
 Numerals
 Adverbs: characterized by morphological feature- ly, e.g.
Clearly, cleverly, sadly,…
 Prepositions
 Conjunctions: linking conjunctions / coordinators (and, but,
for, or) binding conjunctions / binders (because, whenever,
until, before, after, whether, although).
Chapter 3: The subject and related functions
 The subject is realized by a Nominal Group.
 Subject: the item in clause which is picked up in pronoun
in a mood tag / question tag.
 Apposition: Subject which is complicated by nominal
group placed alongside personal name.
Eg: Otto Loewi, an Australian physiologist.
(Nominal grp)
(Apposition)
 Subject-finite agreement: change of number or person in
subject may coincide with a change of number in verb.
 Passive clauses: passive clauses are, in a sense, an
inverted form of corresponding active clauses.
 Dummy subjects / empty subjects. Eg: There, it.
Dummy subjects is a sort of stand-in, holding subject
position until Subject comes along.
Eg: […] it was a mystery why some nerves stimulate an
organ and others depress it.
 Dummy subject & embedded clause together make up the
subject.
 Finites & predicators
Verbal groups realize function of finite (F) & predictor (P).
In simple verbal group, finite & predicator are said to be
fused.
 Negatives and interrogatives
Where the positive declarative contains a separate Finite
& predicator, the negative counterpart is identical except
that not is present immediately after finite.
Interrogatives have a straight forward systematic
correspondence with declaratives in that finite & subject
are inverted.
 Mood: Halliday divides the clause into two parts: the Mood
and the Residue. The mood is made up of the subject and
Finite; the residue is the rest of the functions of the
clause.(Predicator, complement and adjuncts).
 Direct object complement follow transitive verbs.
Intransitive verbs occur with or without an object
complement. Most verbs in English seem to function both
transitively and intransitively, with or without a
complement.
 A complement which follows a copular verb is called an
intensive complement: she is a brilliant woman.
Some verbs allow 2 object complements : a direct
object complement and an indirect object complement.
The verbs that allow indirect object complements are
called ditransitive verbs. Typical ditransitive verbs are :
give, send, offer.
 Adjuncts: Adjuncts fall into 3 subtypes: circumstantial,
conjunctive and modal, corresponding to three
macrofunctions: the ideational, textual and interpersonal
respectively. ( p: 52-58 )
 There are five clause functions, covered here, subject (S),
finite (F), predicator (P), complement (C) and adjunct (A).
Ch 4: Information Structure & Thematic Structure
 In SFG, there are 2 parallel & interrelated systems of
analysis that concern the structure of the clause.
(1) Information Structure which involves constituents
called Given & New.
(2) Thematic Structure which involves constituents called
Theme & Rheme.
An independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a
complete sentence. Given and New information can be
found in both dependent & independent clauses and in
combinations of the two.
For effective communication, speaker must bring to hearer’s
attention some elements of shared or mutual knowledge.
This shared information is usually found at beginning of
clause and is called Given information.
 Most clauses also include information that is the focus of
the message, New information.
 When a speaker / writer constructs a clause, where Given
information is placed first & New information come second,
the clause is said to be unmarked.
 Theme in English is the idea represented by the
constituent at the starting point of clause, the point of
departure of the message. A clause begins with a
realization of the theme. This is followed by the realization
of the Rheme, which can be explained as being the rest of
the message.
 The topical theme represents the topic of the discourse: a
Participant, Circumstance or Process. The topical theme is
realized by one of the following elements: Subject,
Predicator, Complement or Circumstantial Adjunct.
MOOD
Declarative
THEME realized by
Subject
Interrogative(yes/no)
Finite + Subject
Interrogative (wh-)
Question word (wh word)
Imperative
Exclamative
Predicator
Wh-word + Complement
or Wh-word + Adjunct.
 Marked Theme: A theme which is untypical.
 Multiple Theme: Some clauses have more than one theme.
They have multiple thematic structure.
A theme made up of 2 or more Themes, ie; topical theme in a
clause + any textual & interpersonal themes preceding it.
Chapter 5: Grammar and Text
 The textual component of the grammar:
Halliday identifies textual component (texture) as
consisting of features associated with 2 groups of
resources: Structural & Cohesive.
 Structural component
1.Given & New : information structure & focus.
2.Theme & Rheme: the thematic structure.
 Cohesive component
1. reference
2. ellipsis & substitution
3. conjunction
4. lexical cohesion
 Constant Theme pattern: where a common theme is
shared by each clause & this Theme equates with Given
information.
It is common to short passages & descriptions of factual
information focusing on a particular thing or concept.
 Linear Theme pattern: The Rheme of one clause is taken
up as theme of subsequent clause.
 Split Rheme Pattern: occurs where the Rheme of a
clause has 2 components, each of which is taken in turn
as the Theme of the subsequent clause.
 Derived themes: the term used to describe expressions in
Theme position which are cohesively linked in meaning,
but not necessarily in form, to a topic which has been
stated earlier in the text.
Cohesive ties: classified into 4 main types.
 1. Reference: Reference can be cohesive when 2 or more
expressions in text refer to same person, thing or idea.
An essential characteristic of cohesive reference is that,
on second & subsequent mention, the person or thing
referred to is not named but is indicated by means of a
pronoun, demonstrative (this, these) or comparative term.
* References can be endophoric references, ie;
reference to something within text. These have a cohesive
function. There are non-cohesive exophoric references,
ie; references to things outside the text. Endophoric
references is classified into cataphoric (forward
pointing) references. Eg. look at this, a beautiful cat.
Anaphoric references (backward looking), Eg:
Armstrong went to the moon. He was the first man to walk
on the moon.
In terms of grammatical realization there are three main
types of cohesive reference: personal reference,
demonstrative and comparative reference. (p:94).
 2. Substitution & ellipsis:
Substitution is used where a speaker / writer wishes to
avoid repetition of a lexical item & is able to draw on one
of the grammatical resources of lang to replace the item.
3 types of substitution: nominal, verbal & clausal.(p:9596).
Ellipsis is the omission of words, groups or clauses (also
called ‘substitution by zero’). There are nominal, verbal
& clausal ellipsis.
 3. Conjunction: describe cohesive tie b/w clauses or
sections of text to demonstrate a meaningful relationship
b/w them. This “linking” or “joining” is achieved by the use
of Conjunctive Adjuncts, which are sometimes called
“cohesive conjunctives.”
4 classes of cohesive conjunction:
*additive (for example)
*adversative (by contrast)
*causal (as a consequence of this)
*temporal (firstly, secondly)
 4. Lexical cohesion: refers to the cohesive effect of the
use of lexical items in discourse where the choice of an
item relates to the choices that have gone before.
Repetition or re-iteration is a type of lexical cohesion that
probably has strongest cohesive force. Synonyms & near
synonyms can have the same effect as the entity referred
to. Where the cohesive device has the same referent, it is
termed an identity device.
There are also superordinate synonym relations like flower
and daisy or subordinate synonym relationship like daisy and
flower.
As well as synonyms, words from mutually exclusive
categories (such as male and female, or hot and cold) are
related as opposites. Words with contrastive meanings
(antonyms) have cohesive effects.
Collocation is also an indicator of cohesion.
One of the most important types of lexical cohesion concerns the
use of general nouns. With these words, a speaker of writer can
create a cohesive link with almost any previously mentioned
entity.
 Within the class of general nouns there is the category of
Anaphoric nouns (A-nouns) that is used to refer back to
sections in the text. Summary nouns are used to
summarize previous sections. Any noun which can be
used to refer to other sections in the discourse (meta
discursively) can be used as an anaphoric noun.
 Lexical cohesion involves meaningful connections in text
that are created through the use of lexical items and that
do not intrinsically involve reference, substitution, ellipsis
or conjunction.
Chapter 6: Process and Participants
 Processes
The linguistic representation of components of clause:
participants & processes take place with Nominal & Verbal
Groups respectively. The participants are the entities
involved in the process, they can be animate or inanimate.
1.Material Processes: in an action oriented narrative,
material processes involve doing words with actors and
goals.
The actor is explicit performer of the material process and
the goal is the recipient of the action.
Eg: Jerry opened the door.
(actor)
(goal)
The participants identified with Material processes are:
Actor, Goal, Beneficiary, Scope, Initiator (rare).
2. Mental Process: Some processes involve states of
mind / psychological events. With such processes the
Goal is substituted by phenomenon.
Senser and Phenomenon: in mental processes, the
participant is labelled senser, and the experience felt is
phenomenon.
3. Relational Processes: are realized by the verb be or
other copular verbs. Eg: seem, become, appear or
sometimes by have, own, possess. They typically fall into
two categories:
(a) Attributive Relational Processes: in attributive processes,
we have the carrier of attributation & attribute. Eg. She was
hungry (carrier of the attributation – process – attribute)
(b) Identifying Relational Processes: where the function of the
relation is to identify the entity involved, e.g. Clint is his name.
In such case the elements of the clause are: identified – the
identifying relational process & identifier.
4. Verbal Processes: are of 2 kinds: Quoted & Reported.
The person who produces the utterance is the Sayer. The
verbal process is realized by verbs like said. The actual words
spoken are labelled quoted or reported depending on their
function.
Quoted is realized as direct speech. Eg: I said: if there isn’t I’ll
go to city mall.
Reported is realized as indirect speech. Eg: I said I wanted
to go to city mall.
The person to whom the verbalization is addressed is the
Receiver.
What is said is Verbiage.
Target is a fairly peripheral participant & doesn’t occur with
direct/indirect speech, except incidentally. It is the person
or thing ‘targeted by process’ as with party leadership in
‘Former party officials criticized party leadership.’
Other processes: There are minor processes : Existential
& Behavioural processes.
Existential Processes have only one participant: the
Existent. This type of process has two main grammatical
realizations:
With a copular, with there as the empty Subject.
Eg: There were ten of us.
With a copular, and the Existent as the Subject, and a
Circumstantial adjunct. Eg: Ten of us were at the party.
Behavioural Processes: only one participant is usually
required, the Behaver. e.g. the car vanished.
Also, Behaviour is found rarely.
 Circumstance: are elements which carry a semantic load
but which are neither process nor participants. They are
concerned with matters like setting, physical or temporal
manner in which the process is implemented or other
entities accompanying the process rather than directly
engaged in it. Their realization is typically adverb or
prepositional phrase.
Ch 7: Structures of the Nominal Group
 The Nominal Group is a linguistic unit that has some of the
characteristics of a noun.
 The nominal phrase / noun phrase has noun or pronoun
as head.
 The noun group is made up of logical relation b/w Head
Noun & Modifier. Modification may occur in a noun phrase,
a verb phrase, an adjectival phrase, etc.
 Modifiers that precede the head noun are called
premodifiers. Modifiers that follow the head noun are
called postmodifiers. Halliday uses the term qualifier for
cases of postmodification.
 The function of modifiers can be realized by various word
classes: determiners, adjectives and numerals, as
premodifiers, and prepositional phrases as postmodifiers.
(p:139)
 The function of the modifier can also be realized by a
noun. Common examples of nouns as modifiers are found
in everyday expressions like: art gallery, football field,
grammar book, telephone number, etc.
 Logical & Experiential Metafunctions:
The logical function of Nominal Group is realized in the
sequencing of Head noun & Modifiers. As for experiential
functions, there are 6 experiential functions that are
realized in the Nominal Group. These are Deictic,
Numerative, Epithet, Classifier, Thing & Qualifier.
(p:140-144).
 The prepositional phrase can function :
As postmodifier/qualifier in a nominal group when
functioning as an adjective: The women, in the corner, is
from Italy.
 As an adjunct in a clause when functioning as an adverb (of
time, frequency, degree and manner). Adjuncts are part of the
basic structure of a clause or a sentence and modify the verb.
Examples of adjuncts:
He died in England (Adjunct/place)
I have almost finished (Adjunct/degree)
He came yesterday (adjunct/time)
I love you regardless (adjunct/manner)
 A prepositional phrase may have another prepositional phrase
embedded within its nominal group (as Postmodifier / Qualifier
of nominal group)& this phenomenon an be repeated with
multiple embeddings.
CHAPTER 8 : Rank shifted clauses
 A rank shifted clause is one which is used as a unit of
lower rank or part of such a unit; it is also referred to as an
embedded clause. Its rank shifts from clause to group.
 The clause which is inside another clause is the
embedded (or rank shifted) clause. The clause which
contains the embedded clause is the superordinate
clause. (p:154-155).
 From the logical point of view the rankshifted clause
functions as a modifier. From the experiential point of view
the rankshifted clause functions as modifier in
premodification and qualifier in postmodification.
 The convention for symbolizing a rank shifted clause /
embedded clause is the use of double square brackets
[[ ]] enclosing a clause.
 In case of defining relative clauses, embedded clause
functions experientially as Qualifier & Postmodification
within a nominal group.
The relative words (that, who/whom, which, whose, when)
are omitted in certain circumstances to give a ‘contact
clause.’
Relative clauses may be non-finite (ie; moodless, lacking
Subject & Finite). In this case they are known as ‘reduced
relatives.’
 Multiple embeddings (as well as linking) can occur in
embedded clauses (as in prepositional phrases) &
permutations of embedded prepositional phrases, relative
clauses & linking may occur.
 Embedded clauses can occur as Subject or Complement;
these too can be finite or non-finite.
Ch 9: Clause Complexes : Expansion
 Clause complexes are clauses which contain one or more
dependent clauses in addition to independent / main
clause. In addition to rankshifting (cases of embedding),
there are 2 further ways in which sentences can
incorporate more than one clause.
(1)linking the clauses together on an equal footing.
(2)binding one clause to another in a dependency
relationship.
Where clauses are joined together in either of these ways,
we have a clause complex.
 Equal clauses :
In the case of clauses with equal status the linking is done
through the use of a category of conjunctions called linking
conjunctions / linkers. In traditional grammars these are
known as coordinating conjunctions .
 Clause complexes may involve expansion or projection.
 Clause complex relationships are of 2 kinds:
(1) Paratactic, ie; equal in status &
(2) Hypotactic, ie; involving a dependency relation.
 A clause which has another depending on it is called the
dominant clause; a clause which depends on another is
called dependant clause.
 Dependant clauses are not embedded.
 Non-defining relative clauses are one kind of dependant
expansion.
 A non-defining relative may have as its antecedent a
nominal group or an entire clause or clause complex.
 Non-defining relatives are distinct from defining relatives,
which are embedded.
 In many texts, there is a complex interplay of conjunction
(parataxis), dependency (hypotaxis) & embedding
(rankshift).
Any instance of one of these phenomena may occur inside
another instance of the same phenomenon or inside an
instance of one of the others.
Chapter 10: Complex clauses / Projection
 Projection is another function in clause complexes that
contain verbal processes.
 Paratactic projection clauses are typically ‘direct speech’
(including verbatim speech, thought or writing).
Projecting & projected clauses may occur in any order, or
projecting clauses may interrupt projected clauses.
Paratactic clauses are labelled 1,2, and so on, in sequential
order of occurrence, regardless of whether the projecting
clause or projected clause comes first.
 Hypotactic projection clauses are typically ‘reported
speech’ (or reported thought or reported writing).
Hypotactically related clauses are labelled α, β and so on to
indicate grammatical dependency, regardless of the order
in which the clauses occur.
In hypotactic projections, projecting (dominant) clauses
typically precede projected (dependent) clauses.
 Non-finite & finite projections:
Like expansion clauses, projection clauses may be finite or
non-finite.
Reported promises, commands or requests involve non-finite
dependent clauses.
Eg: 1- I told him to follow my lead.
2- He promised to honour his vows.
The verb “ask” can be used to project questions &requests.
Eg: She asked me to help her
 Dependent & independent projections:
The clauses projected by verbs are dependent clauses.
Clauses occurring with the nouns take the form of
rankshifted clauses occurring as Postmodifiers of the
Head noun.
`1- He concluded (that) there was no harm done
(Projection /dependent clause)
2- He drew the conclusion that there was no harm done
(Projection / postmodifier)
 Ambiguous structures:
A potential for ambiguity arises when it is not clear
whether a structure is an expansion or a projection.
Sometimes the boundaries are not clear cut.
Chapter 11 :Applications of Functional Analysis
 The functional analysis of English helps the language user
understand the functions of language & ways of using it for
effect. The language user needs to understand the
functions of language & how to resist linguistic pressures
& to recognize when people are using language to exploit
or oppress others.
 There are methods of analysis that focus on the structure.
These split the clause into its SFPCA components, each
having its distinctive characteristics. Other methods focus
on the clause as message. These look at information
structure: Theme & Rheme or Given & New.
In both cases language is recognized and treated as a
system or a set of systems.
 Viewing the characteristics of registers, structurally &
functionally, helps native and non-native users produce
appropriate valued texts. Grammar features of scientific
writing are characterized by nominalization of processes,
e.g. accelerate becomes acceleration, comparecomparison and so on. The tendency to use Nominal
Groups rather than verbal processes has a number of
major effects in scientific texts. It projects external
objective reality that facilitates the expression of general
“truths” or “claims”.
 Register analysis, the study of thematic progression in
texts, lexical cohesion, cohesive conjunctions, the use of
diff verbal processes, reporting verbs, etc, all contribute to
the learner’s awareness of the appropriate & effective use
of English. Methods of linguistic analysis give us the tool
for investigating the characteristics of a text.
 Non-native speakers’ discourse is frequently a string of
unconnected independent clauses, whereas the native
speaker signals the clause relations and “peaks of
prominence” in the message.
 Functional grammar helps highlight the significant
grammatical features in valued texts that can be learned to
improve communication skills. In language teaching, it
establishes beyond doubt that simplistic linguistic analysis
based only on identifying incorrect grammar use is of little
help in the evaluation of the success of communication.
 The Functional perspective introduced the concepts of
register & language for specific purposes. Appropriate
cohesive devices & specific aspects of grammar like
ellipsis & substitution are new areas that merit functional
analysis. These were not targeted in any old pedagogic
grammar. Also, changing the focus of a sentence &
manipulating word order indicate more than just
movements at the surface level of grammar.
 Appropriateness in languages use varies as the functions
of language vary and in relation to the situation of the
language exchange.
Chapter 12: Historical Perspective
 Western thought of grammar can be traced back to the
Ancient Greeks – Latin – English.
Ferdinand de Saussure :
Synchronic / Diachronic approach.
Langue / Parole
Paradigmatic / Syntagmatic dimensions.
Linguisics in America:
Franz Boas
Edward Sapir
Leonard Bloomfield ( phonology, morphology, syntax –
behaviourist psychology)
 Noam Chomsky:
(1)Deep & surface structure
(2)Transformational Grammar.
Competence / Performance.
Chomsky is a formalist & Halliday is a functionalist.
 Whorf (grammatical metaphor)
 The Prague school
 Malinowski (context of situation)
 J.R.Firth
 Corpus linguistics
 Systemic functional grammar
Dr. Veena Vijaya
E-mail: [email protected]
Thank You