Systemic Functional Grammar Research Articles

The Implementation of Visual Grammar in Slovene Classes to Mother Tongue Speakers

The discussion focuses on the implementation of visual grammar in the study program for primary school teachers in the course Slovene language 1 - basics of text. It points out the theoretical premises of the Systemic Functional and Visual Grammar as the basis for discussing the multimodal texts, and along with a case study (34 student exam solutions) and findings from practice, presents the more challenging areas of student acquisition of theory and metalanguage. It justifies the need and shows the possibility of teaching multimodal textual analysis in school education.

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

A Study of Michelle Yeoh’s Commencement Address from the Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar

A Study of Michelle Yeoh’s Commencement Address from the Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar

The Ideational Meanings of Multimodal Texts Presented in an EFL Textbook

This study explores the ideational meanings of multimodal texts in an EFL textbook entitled “Bahasa Inggris: When English Rings a Bell”. This study aims to describe the meanings of visual and verbal modes from ideational aspects. The visual modes were analyzed by using Visual Grammar Design framework (Kress van Leeuwen, 2006). Meanwhile, the verbal modes were analyzed using Systemic Functional Grammar theory focusing on the Transitivity system (Halliday, 1994). The ideational aspects of this study focus on components like participants, processes and circumstances. This study applied Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (henceforth SF-MDA) methodology. The findings of this study found that the dominant process types used in realizing the ideational meaning of the verbal text is relational process. Meanwhile, the ideational meaning of visual text is realized mostly through speech process. This study showed that the presentation of multimodal texts in the EFL textbook is relevant to the teaching and learning activity for the Junior high school students. Keywords: multimodality, ideational meaning, systemic functional grammar, multimodal analysis

Exploring the use of modality in EFL learners’ writing

Abstract Due to prevalence of formal analysis in language education, the implications of Systemic Functional Grammar has largely been ignored by materials and methods of language education. To illustrate the inadequacies of formal analysis and make a case for functional analysis and assessment of writing samples, this study aims at exploring the use of modality in a random sample of expository essays written in an EFL context. To this end, 20 expository essays, written by undergraduate students of English language and literature, were randomly obtained from writing instructors and professors teaching in the English department of Shahrood University of Technology (SUT), Iran. Leaners’ use of modality was then analyzed in line with the framework presented by Halliday & Matthiessen (2014). Analysis revealed learners’ lack of variation in the expression of uncertainties and doubts and as such lack of mastery over modality since they tended to express their opinions as implicit and as objective as possible. There seems to be a link between this problem and the dominance of formal analysis in teaching and assessing writing; hence, the findings of this study have clear implications for teaching instruction in this context and other similar contexts, where the implications of systemic functional grammar for language education seem to be ignored.

Reconstructing Grammar Exercises: A Systemic Functional Grammar Approach

Despite the sufficient amount of language textbook analysis studies that have been conducted, little attention focused on grammar exercises analysis presented in the Indonesian junior high school English textbooks that facilitated the students to make meaning where functional grammar principles were adopted. This current study nuanced education artifacts analysis. The researchers intended to reveal to what extent the English grammar exercises present functional grammar exercises. Moreover, The study provided a practical suggestion to teachers, textbook developers, and language practitioners to revise and include the functional grammar approach in designing English grammar exercises. Anchored into critical document study, this study focused to find the representation of functional grammar exercises portrayed in an English language textbook where the mandated English language curriculum endorses genre-based and text-based language pedagogy in an Indonesian secondary school context. Two analytical tools were combined (i.e. transitivity analysis and critical discourse study) to reveal the existing English grammar exercises. The findings present a total of 88 English grammar exercises found in the textbook. However, 28 English grammar exercises indicated activities for the student to make meaning. The result provided a critical suggestion for grammar exercises revision that facilitates students to make meaning and understanding the social practices of the language. However, this study only provided a textbook analysis, further studies possibly focus on action studies where the functional grammar exercises were implemented in classroom activities.

A Discourse Analysis of Interpersonal Metafunction in Vladimir Putin’s Speech Regarding Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

The present study discusses the strategies of discourse applied by Vladimir Putin in his speech regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The goal of the study is to find out language strategies used by Vladimir Putin in his speech and the way he implements the realization of strategies in the speech. The method used in the study is qualitative descriptive method. In addition, when performing the analysis, the study uses Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), especially the elements of interpersonal metafunction as the theoretical framework, to analyze the use of language in expressing social and personal relationships in the speech. The metafunction of interpersonal is often realized through the analysis of mood and modality. In the analysis of mood, it is possible to reveal the role that the speaker wants to be in the speaking situation, as well as the role that the speaker wants to assign to the listener. Moreover, in formal analysis, it cannot only show how the speaker perceives and thinks about the problem of the thesis topic, but also shows the power relationship and formal scale between the speaker and the listener. The results show that the design of Vladimir Putin's speech regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine reflects his political intentions. All of this manifests not only in the speaking strategies of interpersonal metafunction he employs, but also in the interpersonal meanings he builds in the speech. In conclusion, it can be stated that the fact found in the study is completely understandable since Vladimir Putin is trying to convince the world that what he did in directing Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the correct decision, and that it did not jeopardize world peace.

An Interdisciplinary Study of Different Pragmatic “We” in Academic Discourse: A Case Study of Linguistics and Economics

Based on Systematic Functional Grammar and Hyland’s pragmatic classification of “we”, with the help of AntConc and Log-likelihood and Chi-square Calculator 1.0, the present study combines qualitative and quantitative research designs to compare and analyze the similarities and differences of different pragmatic functions of “we” in Linguistic and Economic academic discourse. The result shows that there are significant differences in the use of “we” between the academic discourse of the two disciplines (P < 0.001). In addition to the most frequently used pragmatic function of “we,” the other four functions are more frequently used in the academic discourse of Linguistics. The study suggests that this result may be affected by the stylistic characteristics of the discipline, and hopes to provide some enlightenment for the understanding and writing of academic discourse in Linguistics and Economics.

Verbal choice in the ideological construction of romance and migration in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah

A novel is a composite of ideologies about individuals, groups, events or communities. Central to the construction of ideology is a clause, which survives on the existence of a verb, which could reveal an attitude to a particular ideology. This paper focuses on Chimamanda Adichie’s choice of verbs in constructing the two ideologies of romance and migration in Americanah. While data is randomly drawn from the novel, insights from Systemic Functional Grammar are useful in revealing the functions of the verbal items in the construction of romance and migration. The focus on the verb is justified since the choice of verb will take a central place in ideological construction. Findings show that some of the verbs used in depicting the two ideologies have a direct value of the ideology depicted while others rely on their contextual significance in “conjuring up” the intended ideologies. Specifically, the verbs of romance, which are either finite or non-finite (but usually lexically extensive), reveal the phenomenon at physical and psychological levels, but there are also some verbs that have emotive value, depicting a character’s assessment of other character’s perception or judgment of a phenomenon. The verbs of migration, which are either copula or extensive, are inclined towards depicting direction, linguistic competence of immigrants, their hope, disposition and challenges in America. The study concludes that a close examination of the verbs used in constructing romance and migration in the novel is a gateway to a further understanding of the text.

What are the choices behind the titles? A Systemic Functional Grammar analysis of titles from articles of Rural Sciences and Communication

Selecting a text to read through its title is a current habit. In the scientific context, Swales and Feak (1998) explained that interesting titles attract readers and function as a way of convincing them to go forward. Previous studies usually present a quantitative approach. This research aims at identifying similarities and differences between titles of articles from Rural Sciences and Communication and providing an interpretation guided by Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) Systemic Functional Grammar. To do so, 246 titles were retrieved from the European Journal of Agronomy and the International Journal of Communication. Subsequently, an analysis of 30% of titles was conducted, considering the number of words, verbs, punctuation (HARTLEY, 2005), and field. The analysis suggests that titles are short, direct, and informative; choices for punctuation point to simple sentences, and the format short:long. The verbs were classified mainly as material processes, which may inform that concrete changes led to the article's findings.

An analysis of the modulation system in Vietnamese from a systemic functional perspective and some suggestions for legal translation

Systemic Functional Grammar (hereinafter referred to as SFG) is a linguistic area that has attracted numerous attention from linguistic scholars in Vietnam and worldwide. In this paper, we focus on Modulation analysis in Vietnamese, including Obligation and Inclination, from a Systemic Functional perspective. The qualitative research methodology will be applied to explore the aspects of Modulation in Vietnamese. The descriptive language method is mainly employed in this article to investigate the Modulation system in Vietnamese from the SFG viewpoint. The data for the investigation of Vietnamese Modulation was collected from formal online newspapers in Vietnamese. The data for the recommendation for legal translation was the Singapore Companies Act. The results of the study showed that the Modulation system in Vietnamese is composed of two categories: Obligation and Inclination. Regarding Obligation, it consists of four subcategories: necessity, Obligation, permission, and expectation. As for inclination, it includes Intention and Willingness. Then the results of the study will be employed to make some suggestions for legal translation in Viet Nam context.

PARTING COMPANY WITH A DEAR ONE: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO A TRIBUTE DELIVERED BY MATILDA AMISSAH-ARTHUR

Tributes are paid to the dead to eulogise them and also to re-echo their sterling qualities when they were alive. Language is used tactfully to play this functional role. This study employs the transitivity model of the Systemic Functional Grammar by Halliday and Matthiessen to analyse the tribute by Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur to her late husband, the former Vice President of Ghana. The study, through both quantitative and qualitative means, aims at exploring the dominant process types and the participants used in the tribute to unravel their communicative functions. The results indicate that five of the process types which are material, verbal, relational, mental and behavioural are used in the tribute. Out of a total of 44 clauses identified in the text, the material process was the most used with a frequency of 18 representing 41% to underscore the actions carried out by the late Vice President when he was alive. This is given credence to by the preponderant use of the actor among the participants. The study concludes that the processes and the participants were employed to project their communicative effectiveness in presenting the message.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0251/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Interpersonal-function topoi in Chinese central government’s work report (2020) as epidemic (counter-)crisis discourse

Abstract Using Systemic Functional Grammar and conceptual framework in the argumentation-oriented approach to discourse, this study analyzes Chinese central government’s “ Report on the Work of the Government” in 2020 (henceforth the Report) to explore the “interpersonal-function topoi” in the political discourse. The Report was delivered and issued against the backdrop of the surging covid-19 epidemic. This study first calculated the frequency of mood, modality and persons in the Report. The statistics were qualitatively analyzed in relation to various topoi-imagery of the crisis vis-à-vis representing the agency-reflected in the interpersonal metafunction of the language in the Report. These topoi play a vital role in winning popular support for the Chinese central government’s anti-epidemic measures and mobilizing the widest public into actions against the covid-19 pandemic. The analysis demonstrates how the analysis of interpersonal metafunction from an argumentation-oriented perspective can shed light on dealing with crisis discourse, especially in the pandemic settings.

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON’S SPEECH “WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS”

In the research, the speech “Women’s rights are human rights” by Hillary Clinton will be analyzed in the light of critical discourse analysis (CDA) as both theory and method to reveal how power and ideology are embedded in language in particular and the relation between language and society in general. Initially, the theoretical framework of CDA, the concepts of power and ideology are presented. The social context of women’s position including women’s position in the past and women’s position nowadays is also revealed. The research then briefs on Hillary Clinton’s role in struggling for women’s rights. In terms of methodology, the importance of Systemic Functional Grammar to CDA and a framework of CDA procedure, which set the basis for the analysis of the speech “Women’s rights are human rights”, will be introduced and explained. Thirdly, the article analyzes the speech in the light of CDA. The analysis consists of three stages namely description, interpretation and explanation. The last part summarizes the major findings, provides concluding remarks, gives implication to teaching and learning translation and makes recommendations for further

INGLÉS EN UN PROGRAMA DE FORMACIÓN DOCENTE PARA EMI Y DISCURSO DOCENTE

Objetivamos identificar como a língua inglesa e o docente são representados em uma entrevista com professor adepto ao Inglês como Meio de Instrução (EMI) e um programa de curso de formação docente para EMI, além de identificar como o programa projeta o docente como leitor-no-texto pela sobreposição de aspectos ideacionais e interpessoais. Os termos de interesse foram identificados manualmente e classificados de acordo com o sistema TRANSITIVIDADE (FUZER; CABRAL, 2010; HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2014) da Gramática Sistêmico-Funcional. Observamos que o professor reflete sobre o emprego da língua em sua aula para justificar-se, enquanto o programa trata a língua como ferramenta e não explicita se discute criticamente o uso da língua.

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Walt Whitman’s Poem “O Captain! My Captain!”

“O Captain! My Captain!”, written by Walt Whitman, one of the most talented poets in American history, is an elegy on the death of Pres. Abraham Lincoln. It portrays Lincoln as the captain of a sea-worn ship, which implies the Union triumphant after the American Civil War. By drawing on multimodal discourse analysis and its theoretical framework of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, this paper seeks to explore its meaning from both literary and non-literary aspects. The ideational function of the poem presents readers largely material processes, which post a whole dynamic scene. Whitman calls the captain “captain”, “my captain” and “father”. The change indicates that the author’s mourning seems to transcend the sorrow of a citizen for the assassination of a leader to become more like that of a son for his father. Cohesive markers of conjunction glue everything together and make the poem ship-like. To connect literature with linguistics and multimodal discourse analysis provides a new way to interpret Whitman’s poem and helps to understand the poem better.

Nigerian Online English: An Analysis of Its Nominal Group Structure

Online/Internet English is generally considered by scholars in the field of Information Communications Technology (ICT) discourse research to exhibit usage features which mark it as an emergent sub-variety of the English language (Crystal, 2005, 2011; Posteguillo, 2002). Furthermore, Tagliamonte and Denis (2008) observed that the language used on the internet possesses its own grammar, lexicon, graphology and usage conditions. In fact, there have been proposals advanced for ICT discourse research to treat Internet language as a ‘new medium’ and to investigate it as a discipline on its own terms (Crystal, 2003). This study is aimed at analysing the Nominal Group (NG) structure of English used by Nigerians on the Internet. The NG data analyzed in this study were obtained from written productions by Nigerian users of the Internet of four platforms of the social media: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. The data were obtained by screenshots of discussion threads in the various media group chats, posts and comments found on the platforms studied. Using insights from the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), the isolated NG structures were analysed and found to be mainly syntactic chunks of clauses with expanded structures ‘padded’ with experiential elements which should normally be elements of clause structure. A further syntactic feature of NG constructions which was observed to occur in social media English studied is the tendency to be left-dislocated. It could be concluded that the structural variations observed in the grammar of Internet English derive from constraints of the medium, for instance, character limitation, the creative nature of language and the creative discernment of users of the Internet.

Revelations on Grammar Teaching Based on an Analysis on Syntactic Structure of Transformational Generative Grammar and Metafunctions of Systemic Functional Grammar

English has become one of the compulsory subjects for students in China. As a foreign language, especially one whose grammatical structure is, in some sense, diverse from learners’ mother tongue, it requires teachers to research proper methods to present syntactic patterns for students’ sake. When teachers turn to linguistics, there are two well-known theories about syntax from different points of perspective. They are transformational-generative grammar, proposed by Chomsky, and systemic functional grammar by Halliday. Concerned that most beginners may be challenged to be exposed to a totally new language that embraces foreign cultures; hence, learners are supposed to start with what is called the most fundamental syntax---the five basic English sentence patterns. As for teachers, it is necessary to analyze those sentence patterns and come up with practical teaching methods so that they can help learner study more efficiently. In this sense, this essay is far too meaningful. This dissertation aims to reveal the potential relations between the two theories in analyzing the five sentences as part of the efforts to seek more appropriate ways of discussing English syntactic features. Also, hopefully, it may bring some enlightenment to teachers. The method this paper applied is comparative analysis. After the research, the two theories have their place in explaining different types of sentences.

Meaning behind the Poem: An Analysis of Transitivity of Poems for Students at English Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Mathla’ul Anwar University Banten

The study aims to be analyzed observed meaning in poetry written by English Department at of Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Mathla’ul Anwar University. It applied Halliday Systemic Functional Grammar to identify and analyze the occurrences of processes in the poetry. Gerrot and Wignell (2008:6) explain that the theory of grammar is needed to know the text working. By using the theory, the reader will understand the text clearly. One of the ways to convey meaning is by analyzing the transitivity pattern in the poetry. Transitivity is represented experiential meaning that are meaning about the world experience and what is going on in the clause. The authors applied descriptive analysis method, it was in order to elaborate the appearing process types of transitivity in poems and to describe the percentage of process types. After determining the type of process for each predicator, the percentages were counting and comparing one to another independently in each poem. Further, the choice of processes and patterns lead to the discussion on the purposes and effects. The examination on the transitivity analysis shows that the processes employed to meaning behind the poems using transitivity are material, mental, relational, verbal, and behavioral processes. The processes tell particular significant to the process of meaning. For instance, material processes frequently dominated the meaning of the poems. The other transitivity processes resemble the purpose and effect based on their meanings. Hopefully, this paper might serve an example of how to examine the language patterns in a literary work to further observe the purposes and the effects of the patterns.

Kompas.com and The Jakarta Post Covid-19 news articles representation: A critical discourse analysis

This paper used Critical Discourse Analysis to identify the ideology behind the news article in The Jakarta Post and Kompas.com by exposing the sort of ideology they hold. The pandemic which has become a part of our life since 2020 up until now inevitably change our representation as well. English and bahasa Indonesia-based is used to stress both the languages’ representations. This paper employs Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Framework along with Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and Multimodality by Kress and Leeuwen to obtain further analysis. 20 news articles from each of the newspapers were selected with the total of 40 news articles for both of the newspaper on the Covid-19 related news for Critical Discourse Analysis. From the analysis, it is found that social, political, and cultural ideology existed in the news articles. Both of the newspaper tried to give people’s awareness in the Covid-19 current condition by giving informative news articles.Keywords: three-dimensional framework, systemic functional grammar, multimodality