Ideational Function Research Articles

Meaning-making in academic writing: A comparative analysis of pre- and post-intervention essays

This article reports on an analysis of academic essays written by two groups of second-year university students: one group with History as a major, and a mixed group. The analyses focused on key features representing each of the three main functions of language identified in Systemic Functional Linguistics. The ideational function is represented by logical relationships, the interpersonal function by appraisal, and the textual function by thematic development. The main finding was that students in the cross-disciplinary group acquired a more marked command of stance and engagement than the members of the subject-specific group. They also acquired a more varied repertoire of lexico-grammatical devices that facilitate cohesion and mark logical relationships. Students in the two intervention groups improved about equally in terms of their ability to develop an argument systematically. The results showed that a visible pedagogy and ample opportunity for practice are effective, irrespective of the scope of the intervention.

FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR (An Introduction to Metafunctional Components of Language)

Functional Grammar describes grammar in functional terms in which a language is interpreted as a system of meanings. The language system consists of three macro-functions known as meta-functional components: the interpersonal function, the ideational function, and the textual function, all of which make a contribution to the structure of a text. The concepts discussed in Functional Grammar aims at giving contribution to the understanding of a text and evaluation of a text, which can be applied for text analysis. Using the concepts in Functional Grammar, English teachers may help the students learn how various grammatical features and grammatical systems are used in written texts so that they can read and write better.

Red socks and purple rain: the political uses of colour in late apartheid South Africa

This article explores the extent to which colour functions as an independent mode in a particular context and explores the culturally produced regularities in the uses of colour in this context. Drawing on a Hallidayan metafunctional view of text, we look at how colour instantiated systems of knowledge and belief (ideational function) and social relations and identities (interpersonal function) in South Africa during the last decade of the apartheid government. In this type of repressive socio-political context, colour was a less policed mode, and thus had different affordances to images and the verbal modes. We argue that colour can function as an independent mode under certain conditions, such as stringent press restrictions, where the use of colour in a range of media (clothing, flags, posters) can play a crucial role in communicating.

Exploring relationship between students’ questioning behaviors and inquiry tasks in an online forum through analysis of ideational function of questions

In this study we explored questioning behaviors among elementary students engaging in inquiry science using the Knowledge Forum, a computer-supported collaborative learning tool. Adapting the theory of systemic functional linguistics, we developed the Ideational Function of Question (IFQ) analytical framework by means of inductive analysis of the questions found in 10 online forums contributed by three classes of Year 4 elementary school students and their teachers. We found 25 categories of questions which we grouped into three main kinds: Scientific, Epistemological, and Meta-discoursal. We then narrowed our analysis to three forums involving digestive systems. Using the IFQ framework, we explored the relationship between nature of inquiry task and students’ questioning behaviors. Our analysis shows that for close-ended task that sought scientific facts from authoritative sources, students tended to ask only scientific questions. For open-ended problem-solving task that demanded epistemic justification from the students, there was more even distribution in all three kinds of questions.

Intentionality and Conventional Meaning (Socio-Historical Approach)

Linguistic studies of collective consciousness are practically nonexistent though insightful ideas are found in works of many linguists (Chomsky 1985, Fowler 1996). The central tenet of this paper is that archetypes (mental representations of concepts in collective consciousness) are built around socially significant experiences of people and comprise meanings which incarnate collective sentiments and ideologies. The number and composition of such meanings can change and vary due to an interplay of environmental factors – social, political, economic, cultural, etc. – and can be drawn from discourses which perform an ideational function concerned with the representation of world views in a language. Two propositions are preconditional for the present research: first, the acknowledgement of the force of authorial intent (intentionality) in discourse and, second, the assumption that over a long history, language has learnt to suit the needs of the society it functions in (mainly the needs of dominant social groups) by legitimatizing some meanings (conventional meanings) and rejecting others. The concept chosen for the analysis is monetary DEBT. Debt plays an important role both in the economic life of a country and in private lives of individuals. The attitude to debt has been changing throughout the history, and we hypothesize that economic discourses have had a major impact on collective perception of the concept in question.

CANCIÓN VS VIOLENCIA. RESPUESTA AL 11 DE SEPTIEMBRE EN LA CANCIÓN NORTEAMERICANA. EL CASO DE LOS BLACK EYED PEAS

The objective of this article is to understand the relationship that can be established between the entertaining function of songs, and their ability to respond to given social processes. In this way, it could be argued that the idealising and didactic functions of music can be equated to the ideational function of language identifi ed by M.A.K. Halliday. Therefore, by analysing referential processes, transitivity and metaphorical uses, we shall be able to fi gure out the personal and social experience that musicians are drawing upon in their reactions to certain social events. In this article, we will focus on the response of the Black Eyed Peas to the 9/11 attacks in New York. To achieve this, we will do a linguistic analysis of their song "Where is the love". In this way we shall draw conclusions not only on the discursive construction of a given social image, but also on the musical reaction to socio-political events.

Sobre a função das representações conceituais simbólicas na gramática do design visual: encaixamento ou subjacência?

Nosso objetivo neste trabalho é discutir a função das categorias gramaticais atributo simbólico e portador na Gramática do Design Visual (KRESS e van LEEUWEN, 2006 [1996]). Para os autores, estes constituintes, pertencentes à metafunção ideacional, poderiam estar presentes ou não em estruturas conceituais simbólicas, conferindo a um participante um valor que o caracterizaria e/ou o conceituaria. Advogamos aqui que, decorrente dessa função, os atributos simbólicos e os portadores são responsáveis pela realização de inferências por parte dos leitores de imagens e, portanto, estão sempre presentes em quaisquer representações visuais. Em virtude disso, entendemos que as representações conceituais simbólicas não estão no mesmo nível de autonomia que as representações narrativas e conceituais classificatórias e analíticas, e sim num nível de subjacência.

The performative potential of metaphor

AbstractThis article investigates metaphor, especially fresh metaphor, from a per-spective that integrates literary pragmatics, language as social semiotic,and cognitive linguistics. It proposes that such metaphor may be not onlythought but also forged by deliberate choice. It posits a performative viewof metaphor in use, that is, metaphor treated as possessing performativepotential — being able to perform force. To elucidate the performative po-tential of metaphor, this article will first discuss a list of thirteen functionsthat metaphors can perform and address the question of why metaphor issometimes used in favor of non-metaphorical language. It will then pro-ceed to characterize the performative potential of metaphor in the light ofHalliday’s theory concerning the metafunctions of language. The conceptof performative potential highlights the interpersonal function of languagewhile not disregarding its ideational and textual functions. The notion ofthese three functional components provides a perspective from which toconsider what can be performed by metaphor — to present and representthought, to enable the writer to articulate his notion of selfhood and itsrole, to interact with the addressee, and to exercise textual performance.By way of illustration, I will analyze two passages from William Blake’sThe book of Thel and juxtapose them with several passages from TheDhammapada, a Buddhist text consisting of aphorisms in verse form.Both texts articulate the nature of the struggle towards a meaningful life,and more importantly, both contain metaphors of love and wisdom.Keywords: fresh metaphor; functions of metaphor; metaphor as action;performative potential; social semiotics.

Critical Analysis of the Image of Immigrants in Multimodal Texts

In this article I will explore the main strategies used to make meaning in different multimodal texts related to immigration. I will pay attention to the way in which each semiotic resource has evolved to be used with other semiotic resources, which has implications in the ideational function of language, and in the way readers create meaning. My corpus of examples belongs to a local newspaper in Alicante, the city with the third highest number of immigrants in Spain. I will explore the reasons why the journalist chooses some linguistic and visual forms instead of others, and the influence of these forms in the creation of meaning. I will also observe how the written text in each article supports the construction of a particular image of immigrants , and will compare the texts for the visual and linguistic construction of immigrants. Through a visual grammar and linguistic analysis I will demonstrate how readers are positioned to have a negative view of immigrants that is supported through linguistic choices in the multimodal texts. In this way, I will point out some of the ways in which Halliday’s metafunctions are interlinked and impact on each other.

Exploring Codeswitching in Systemic Functional Linguistics

Codeswitching is a phenomenon well-studied in several branches of linguistics and anthropology, but one which has not been well integrated into a systemic-functional (SFL) approach. This paper aims to provide an empirical account of codeswitching with an SFL metafunctional framework based on ethnographic field research among Thai and Lao speakers in Northeastern Thailand. Codeswitching was found to have textual functions involving the organization and cohesion of oral texts produced in conversational interaction among multilingual speakers. Codeswitching was also found to produce interpersonal meaning, both within and above the level of the clause. Such meanings were produced through, among other things, the choice of pronouns and politeness markers. Less clear are codeswitching functions in ideation; because the transitivity systems of Thai and Lao are so similar, ideational functions are found more at the level of discourse. The ideational differences between Thai and Lao are argued to be connected to literacy, since Lao as used in Thailand lacks a literate mode and, consequently, the discourse types associated with it. Codeswitching was used to appropriate literate discourses of Thai into Lao through a strategy of simultaneity, and thereby validate Lao as a politically efficacious language.

Bridging theories: A logical-functional perspective on languages

The objective of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the functional specialization of languages. It offers a logical-functional perspective on the topic by establishing correspondences between the theories of three scholars: Peirce, Santaella, and Halliday. Through both an analysis of visual examples and a discussion of the literature, it proposes that the sonorous, the visual, and the verbal, in deep association with human senses, have evolved as specialized matrices mainly to fulfill interpersonal, ideational, and textual semiotic functions, respectively.

New blooms in established fields: Four domains of learning and doing

Educational taxonomies developed by Bloom, Krathwohl, and collaborators have been used for decades as frameworks for instructional objectives, curriculum design, and assessments of achievement. However, their scope is now too limited. The well‐known cognitive domain is extended to include ideational functions of imagination and creativity, and the affective domain is enhanced to include internalization, wonder, and risk taking. The psychomotor domain is expanded into a sensorimotor domain, incorporating five senses along with balance, spatial relationships, movement, and other physical activity. A social domain is introduced to accentuate sociocultural processes that accompany thinking, feeling, and sensing/movement. Lastly, the four domains are synthesized into a unified domain of thinking, feeling, sensing/moving, and Interacting to optimize potential and self‐fulfillment for all students.

How much listening sections in Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) reflect real Japanese language use context

The aim of this study was to find out how much listening sections in Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) reflect real Japanese language use context. For this purpose, this study set up 5 analysis points; 1)setting, 2)role, 3)function, 4)topic, 5)text type and analyzed the listening sections of all levels of the JLPT administered from 1999 to 2000. There were four main findings; 1) setting and role were well-balanced and did not focus on a particular setting or role. But in lower levels, unclear setting and role were problematic. 2) In function, ideational functions (function for information and function for expression) covered 80% of all listening texts. 3) In text type, 70% of listening texts were conversation type text. 4) Various topics were used.

Spaudos žanrų tipologija : vakarietiškoji patirtis

The paper presents a systemic approach to the typology of genres. First, it introduces the preliminaries of the theory of genre, i.e. the concepts of text, discourse and context. Genre is conceived as part and parcel of community life, its conventions and traditions, as a social action in the widest sense. As such, generic knowledge is mostly intuitive, generic conventions are perceived and reproduced on a non-verbal level. Therefore it is of paramount importance to reveal, discuss and systematise those factors which determine the existence of a generic variety as well as to explicate and verbalise intuitive generic knowledge. The object of description is textual genres analysed in terms of their function, form and contents. The overall scheme, comprising a number of notions, is based on the three Hallidayan functions of the text. Thus the ideational function represents contents of the texts, its topic and object, the rela ionship between text and context, implicatures and background knowledge as much as it influ ences the choice and comprehension of a specific genre. The interpersonal function reflects the model of the relationships between writer and its audience on the one hand, and writer and the referent on the other. Text modality, speech acts and hedging devices are just a few means that belong to the interpersonal function of a text and differentiate between different genres. The textual function comprises the widely discussed phenomenon of implicit textuality or coherence, explicit textuality or cohesion, and intertextuality or hierarchy of voices. The typological power of the textual function manifests itself in the informational structure of a text, one of the basic criterions for the identification of genre. The present analysis applied generic criteria to the study of press genres with the aim to delineate the main genres (including pre-genres and sub-genres). The threefold framework in corporating the descriptive, systemic and func tional approaches were used for the analysis of the existing classification of Lithuanian journalese. The investigation revealed the deficiency and inadequacy of the current typological classification of the press genres. The outcome of the study points to the urgent need to investigate press genres using the framework discussed above

The horse and the molecule: reflections on biotechnology and social change

Ethnographic accounts of the induced innovation created by the harnessing of horse technology on the Great Plains of North America are used as an analogy to situate social change as a consequence of biotechnology. Ethno historical reconstructions of social change on the Great Plains emphasise cultural continuity as a theme and this guides analysis in the case of biotechnology. The two narratives of induced innovation and social change are summarised but with stress on how continuity is maintained. The principle lesson drawn from the analogy is an emphasis on the ideational function of technology (its emotive character) and the necessity to distinguish ideational from social organisational features in models for induced innovation.

Subjective and objective modality: interpersonal and ideational functions in the English modal auxiliary system

This study deals with the distinction between subjective and objective modality on the basis of the English modal auxiliaries. I show that this distinction is still very poorly understood, both in terms of the criteria that have been proposed to support it, and in terms of the actual delineation of subjectivity and objectivity in the modal domain. After identifying the empirical and theoretical problems in the literature, I propose an alternative, semiotic account, which tries to explain the divergent grammatical behavior of subjective and objective modality in terms of the function they fulfill. The central factor in this semiotic explanation is the performative versus non-performative status of the modals, which can explain their divergent behavior with respect to tense, interrogation, and conditionality. On the basis of this alternative analysis, I also propose a more accurate delineation of subjective and objective functions in the English modal auxiliary system.

Nonprofits and Democratic Development: Lessons from the Czech Republic

This article argues that existing concepts of the civil society–democracy relationship are misleading guides for analyzing political development because they incorporate limited perspectives on the nature and activities of civil society, particularly the nonprofit sector. First, three contemporary conceptualizations of civil society are critiqued, and a contradiction is noted between the importance assigned to ideational functions and the inadequacy of reliance upon elections and party systems. Particular emphasis is placed on civil society's involvement in policy formation, for it is there that a weak state–society connection may be discovered, with significant ramifications for democratic development. Second, recent political instability in the Czech Republic is related to negative trends in political attitudes, indicating a weak connection. Third, the general nature of Czech policy-making processes is examined, and then a closer look is taken at the formation of nonprofit legislation and environmental policy. Finally, implications for the future development of Czech democracy are drawn.

Transitivity and ergativity in 'The Lotos-Eaters'

This article argues that Bakhtin's repeated assertions that poetry, unlike the novel, is inherently monologic can be questioned in the light of a clear case of dialogism in Tennyson's 'The Lotos-Eaters'. A discussion of its dialogism is formalised by an analysis of grammatical function-structures of the Experiential component of the Ideational function of clause structure, following Halliday (1985), in the tradition of Systemic Functional Linguistics. In particular, the paper discusses the significance of the instantiation of transitivity and ergativity. It incorporates modifications suggested by Davidse (1992a) to the analysis of Material process types and argues that these modifications are useful for foregrounding the different worlds construed by the poem. The analysis reveals three worlds or voices in the poem: (1) the transitive:effective, or Deed and Extension paradigm of the outside world; (2) the transitive:middle/ergative, or Instigation of Process paradigm of lotos-land; and (3) the Behavioural/ Mental:Perceptive paradigm of the mariners-in-Lotos-land. It is argued that the mariners oppose (1), wish to ally themselves with (2), but settle for (3) as a strategy.

The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language

Although linguistic research into the sign languages of established deaf communities has unequivocally shown them to be natural language, there still remains much that is unknown about the appropriate characterization of these languages and in particular their relationships with their host spoken languages. Being based primarily on linguistic (particularly psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic) research in North America on American Sign Language (ASL), research has concentrated on showing the similarity between linguistic patterning in signed and spoken languages. Findings include the establishment and description of: (I) a sign phonology and morphosyntax (the latter particularly rooted in movement, direction and spatial location) and its manifestation in language processing and brain trauma; (II) processes of sign language acquisition parallel to spoken language acquisition; and (III) patterns of language use and cultural identity similar to that of speaking communities. Perhaps due to its roots in North America and the general thrust of much of contemporary linguistics, attention has been focused on a single language function (the ideational function) and how such meanings are encoded in sign languages. In this paper I suggest how the application of the principles of systemic functional linguistics help identify and describe the grammatical resources of visual-gestural languages in constructing and conveying meanings.

Children's use of discourse markers in disputes: Form‐function relations and discourse in child language

Children's verbal disputes were analyzed for the development of discourse markers because, so, and, but, and well. One hundred twenty‐eight verbal disputes were analyzed; participants were 23 children ranging from 2 years;7 months to 9 years;6 months, and 10 adults, all interacting at home in various play activities. It was predicted that the functions of discourse markers would be limited to the local level of discourse for the youngest children, and the markers would primarily index either the exchange or action levels of discourse before the ideational level of discourse. The last function to develop for these forms should be the ideational function of markers which marks global discourse structure. The results showed that the markers were primarily used to mark the exchange structure of discourse when they were first used by children 2;7 to 3;6 years. The global level of discourse was not marked by children until the second half of their 4th year (3;6–4;0), and the first markers to do so were because ...