Challenges of Pragmatics over SFL: A Trans-Disciplinary Contrastive Inquisition into Meaning Processing Fashions via the Lion and the Jewel (Soyinka)

Abstract

Further to the Saussurean grassroots-work, the thriving of modern linguistics goes gaining an exponential momentum.So to say, novel horizons in language exploration have given way to two fresh but powerful and challenging offsprings oflinguistics: the Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory and the Morrisian, Gricean and neo-gricean pragmatics.Beyond our recognition of the individual operative potential in-borne in either discipline, we build on the scavenging and heuristiccapacity ontologically characterizing pragmatics to deem that it holds some typical advances over the SFL theory. Thus, the coremission of this article centres around a fused double-round descriptive exploration of two extracts from Soyinka‟s Lion and TheJewel through the sieve of toolkits inherent in both disciplines. Thence, in confronting Mood, Modality, Polarity and Adjunctsystems from the SFList universe with Presupposition, Conversational Implicature, Inference and Felicity Conditions inPragmatics, the work has come up with findings displaying discrepant values. A contrastive view of generated data underpins andorients our decision over the validity of our basic postulation.