Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory Research Articles

Thematic Analysis in Physics Text Entitiled “Energy Can Neither Be Created Nor Destroyed”

Departing from systemic functional linguistics theory, this study is aimed at analyzing textual function found in physics text entitled “Energy Can Neither Be Created Nor Destroyed” . This study used descriptive qualitative method. The data were in the form of clauses totaling to 28 clauses from 8 paragraphs. From the result of the analysis, it was found that marked and unmarked Theme were realized in the data. Then, the dominant Theme found which reaches 20 Themes from the 28 Themes found or it is equal to 71,42%. It can be interpreted that the text use common structure in the clause.

Education for Sale: The Identity Construction of `University’ and `Students’ in New Age University Prospectuses

The commercialization of higher education is a global phenomenon that is catching up with Pakistani higher education institutions. Due to inculcation of marketing practices, the role allocation and social relationship between the university and the students are being defined using new parameters. Through the incorporation of Halliday’s (Introduction to functional grammar, 2nd edition, Edward Arnold, London, 1994) Systemic Functional Linguistics theory with Critical Discourse Analysis, the linguistic analysis of the introductory pages of prospectuses of Pakistani universities is undertaken to examine the assigned role and relationship of the two major parties, i.e., the ‘university’ and the ‘students.’ The results reveal that universities keep formal writing style and maintain an evident distance between the university and students. In general, the results show that marketization aspects are evident in the discourse of prospectuses through various advertisement practices; however, the university’s position as a powerful entity is ideologically strengthened through addressing students from an authoritative place.

Translating English humor into Chinese subtitles: a semiotic perspective

This semiotically-oriented study examined the Chinese subtitle translations for humor in English sitcoms and highlighted the interactions between the verbal and the visual modes. Drawing on the General Theory of Verbal Humor and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this study examined three script opposition types: normal vs. abnormal, actual vs. nonactual, and possible vs. impossible; furthermore, it analyzed three logical mechanism categories: false specification or exemplification; exaggeration or false analogy; and false reasoning on time, space, cause, or condition. It focused on the Chinese subtitles for English verbally-visually expressed humor in the English sitcom Modern Family (Season 5) and found that literal translation and explicitation are the two predominantly employed translation procedures to render script opposition and logical mechanism. This study further demonstrates that the two key concerns for subtitling English verbally-visually expressed humor are highlighting the incongruities embodied in script opposition and triggering the semiotic resolutions represented in logical mechanisms. These findings elucidate the relevance of visual elements for subtitling humor both among subtitle translators and researchers.

Full realization principle for the identification of ideational grammatical metaphor: nominalization as example

ABSTRACTWhen a clause likeglass cracks more quicklyis rankshifted and nominalized asglass crack growth rate, ideational grammatical metaphor (IGM) occurs. However, embedded clauses (e.g. the factthat it had been shown to be aforgery ruined his argument) are also rankshifted and nominalized, but they cannot be regarded as IGMs. This issue of embedding has tended to be relatively under studies within the theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). In order to tackle this issue, we propose a principle (i.e. the full realization principle, FRP) which operates in parallel with the principle of rankshift for the identification of IGMs. Under the FRP principle, a nominalization may be full, intermediate or raw in realization, but only the full nominalization which is compressed both in meaning and form can be regarded as IGM. As a necessary supplement to the rankshift principle, FRP helps distinguish nominalizations which are IGMs from those which are not, and the issue of embedding will not be a problem any longer. This in turn offers a new perspective to the categorization of nominalization in general.

Critical SFL praxis in teacher education: insights from Australian SFL scholars

To acknowledge the lasting and increasing influence of Halliday’s theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) on teacher education, this article outlines Critical SFL Praxis (CSFLP) in teacher education as an activist effort in research and practice. Informed by systemic functional linguistics, the critical approach seeks to push back against minoritization of multilingual youth in schools and communities. Profiling the socio-historical background of SFL-based pedagogy in teacher education in Australia, the authors of this article conducted interviews with four SFL scholars and teacher educators from Australia who were greatly influenced by Michael Halliday and his theory of social semiotics. After a brief definition of CSFLP, we present the findings of our qualitative analysis of the interview with the four Australian SFL scholars. These findings illustrate the historical tensions, challenges, and opportunities in enacting CSFLP and point toward key affordances of the theory for teachers and teacher education.

The Process Type and Participant Function of Jiah Khan’s, Kevin Carter’s, and Virginia Woolf’s Suicide Discourses

In this article, the process type and participant function of Jiah Khan’s, Kevin Carter’s, and Virginia Woolf’s suicide notes are analyzed. This article actually is a continuation of the article entitled Experiences around the Clauses: A Transitivity Analysis of Four Famous People’s Suicide Notes published by Vivid: Journal of Language and Literature (see Sawirman and Ridhwani, 2020) about the transitivity system, including process types, participant functions, and circumstantial elements, used in these suicide notes. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory is applied. Not only qualitative approach but also descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Existing documents are one of the instruments to collect the data. Four suicide letters namely a suicide note written by Jiah Khan in 2016, a suicide letter written by Kevin Carter and published by TIME in 2001 entitles The Life and Death of Kevin Carter, and two Virginia Woolf’s suicide discourse published by Quentin Bell entitle Virginia Woolf: A Biography: 1912-1941 (1972) and an autobiography entitles The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: an Autobiography of the Years 1939 to 1970.

SFL praxis in U.S. teacher education: a critical literature review

This literature review analyzes the influences of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in U.S. teacher education from 2000 to 2019. First, we describe how SFL has been contextualized in United States in response to changing demographics, new technologies, policies, and the impacts of globalization. Second, we outline our methodology, which yielded 136 publications from the fields of literacy research, teacher education, and applied linguistics. Third, we present four findings: (1) the main vehicles for introducing U.S. teachers to SFL theory and practice are grant-funded university-school partnerships, courses in colleges of education, and self-contained professional development workshops; (2) most interventions focused on introducing teachers to functional metalanguage and text analysis, with fewer focusing on multimodality; (3) SFL interventions positively influenced teachers’ level of semiotic awareness and ability to design focused disciplinary literacy instruction. Teachers’ critical awareness and confidence for literacy instruction were influenced to a lesser extent; and (4) more sustained investments in teacher professional development led to greater gains in teacher learning as well as a critical awareness of the relationship between disciplinary literacy practices and ideologies at work in K-12 schools. Based on these findings, we conclude with three recommendations for the future of critical SFL praxis in teacher education.

Experiences Around the Clauses: A Transitivity Analysis of Four Famous People’s Suicide Notes

Four suicide notes written by three famous people, Jiah Khan, Kevin Carter, and Virginia Woolf, were analyzed in this study. Systemic Functional Linguistics theory especially about transitivity proposed by Halliday is used to see the ideational meaning of all four suicide notes by identifying the elements of the clauses. This study was conducted with a qualitative method assisted by a descriptive statistical method to see the spread and functions of the elements of transitivity in the suicide notes. To analyze the text based on the theory of transitivity, the text is divided into clauses based on the type of process, then each element of the existing process, participant, and circumstantial element is calculated. The results show that out of 170 total processes found, the material process (42.94%) is the most dominant process, followed by the mental process (28.82%), the relational process (19.41%), the verbal process (5.29%), the behavioral process (2.94%), and the existential process (0.59%). Just like the process type, from the two types of participants (who are directly involved and obliquely involved) that exist, actor (22.88%) and scope (15.36%) which are the participants of the material process are the most dominant participants. While the existent (0.31%) which is the participant of the existential process, has the lowest occurrence frequency. For the circumstantial element, location which consists of place and time is the most dominant circumstantial element. The location accounts for 44% of the circumstantial elements in all four suicide notes. Furthermore, Jiah Khan’s suicide note with the material process as the most dominant process describes the unpleasant behavior she experienced, which then leads to betrayal, sacrifice, self-destruction, loss, and loneliness. Whereas Kevin Carter’s suicide note with the relational process of attributive as the most dominant process describes regret, pressure, and despair. Then both Virginia Woolf’s suicide notes show how she blamed herself for what happened although it has different dominant processes between the first suicide note and the second suicide note.

Shaping Learning for Young Audiences: A Comparative Case Study of Children’s Texts from Two Parisian Museums

With numerous museums currently targeting children and families, museum texts aimed at a young public are becoming increasingly frequent. There is little literature however concerning the ways in which those texts strive to shape children’s experience and understanding. Using children’s texts collected from two French museums, Paris’s Musée d’Orsay and Musée en Herbe, and drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics theory, this study first seeks to explore the linguistic features of children’s texts. Using Legitimation Code Theory, the study also highlights and contrasts the ways in which the two museums’ practices and beliefs concerning their roles as learning institutions influence the texts they produce, in terms of both learning potential and interaction with their young audience.

ATTITUDINAL MEANING IN MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SPEECH: A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR APPROACH

Racial injustice becomes a primary issue in Martin Luther King Jr’s entitled I have a dream in facing United States social condition. The speech reflects evaluative values to share perspectives toward the issue that can be analyzed by the appraisal system. The use of language certainly constructs different aims in evaluative language, and subjective presence is the target of evaluation in the appraisal system. The subjectivity of Martin Luther King Jr toward racial issues contains various types that can indicate a strategy to persuade people. The objectives of this study are to investigate the evaluative language of Martin Luther King Jr and to infer the meaning of evaluative language use. The strategy of delivering motivational messages is also discussed after acquiring the types of attitudes that will be related to the social issue. The research method employed in this study is descriptive qualitative. Systemic functional linguistic theory pioneered by Halliday and his colleagues becomes the framework in this study, and the tool is an appraisal system pioneered by J.R. Martin to analyze data. There are 90 clauses that consist of 33 judgement, 32 appreciation, and 26 affect. Judgement as the most dominant type reflects the reality of racial injustice to persuade many people to reject the condition. The strategy of critic conveyed in different types of attitudes can share deep messages to many people who listen. The result is hoped to be additional references in revealing speech strategy by using an appraisal system. The study of the appraisal system is useful to observe the subjectivity involvement in every form of language use.

The Shift of the Thematic Structure in English-Indonesian Translation of 'Flipped' Subtitles

This study analysed the thematic structure in English-Indonesian translation of the movie subtitles entitled Flipped in order to explain the shift and modulation occurrences from the source text (ST) to the target text (TT). This research was initiated by the issue that Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory was possible to apply in translation research. This study was a descriptive qualitative research. The subjects of the study were the dialogues (English script and Indonesian subtitles) and the objects were the Thematic Structure Elements (Textual, Interpersonal, and Experiential Themes) of the movie. The findings showed that there were 259 shifts occurred within Textual Theme’s components, Interpersonal Theme’s components, Topical Theme’s components, Theme’s components, and between Theme-Rheme. Those indicated some shift and modulation types. There were 232 shifts found for 5 shift types and 40 shifts found for 6 modulation types. Moreover, there were two shift categories found (double changes). There were 23 shifts for 7 double changes categories. From this new categories, I inferred that it was possible if two types of shift or one type of shift + one type of modulation were together transform a sentence. On the other hand, it was impossible for two types of modulation were found in a sentence. In conclusion, Theme as the beginning of a sentence can be used as the first detector of the shift occurrence from ST to TT. We can see either the structure shift or the perspective shift from it. Therefore, translators and language learners can be helped by seeing this movement.

Systemic functional linguistics, teacher education, and writing outcomes for U.S. elementary English learners: A review of the literature

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the pedagogical applications of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) for improving writing instruction for elementary English learners (ELs) in the United States. However, there are few syntheses of the existing scholarship, particularly with regard to student outcomes. This article reviews the empirical scholarship from the last decade, considering how teacher training in SFL theory and pedagogy impacts writing and disciplinary learning outcomes for ELs. Four central themes emerged from this review, highlighting the potential for SFL-informed pedagogies to support elementary ELs in (1) composing genre-specific texts, (2) mastering academic language and literacy skills, (3) learning across academic disciplines, and (4) developing critical language awareness. We close with a discussion of the implications of these findings, limitations in the existing scholarship, and future directions of this work.

Understanding the meaning of support in the Australian disability context – an analysis of the term “support” in seven key documents

ABSTRACT In the past four years, Australia has undergone a major change in the way it funds supports and services for people living with disability. Part of this change has, of course, occurred in the discourse of disability, and the emergence of the term “support” rather than “care” has been a feature of this discursive shift. In this paper we used aspects of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory to analyse how the term “support” is used in a seven key policy and program documents related to disability written over a ten-year period. We aim to understand what is meant by the term “support” and how its meaning is built up, deepened and made more complex over time through its use in Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. The findings reveal that the meaning of support is relatively flexible, and as such develops meaning and complexity over time, reflecting a shift from a values and rights-based understanding of the concept to the operationalisation of the term in policy and practice.

Infusing moral content into primary school English textbooks: A critical discourse analysis

Situated in character-based education, the Indonesian Government mandates all teachers to incorporate moral values into school subjects. Teaching English to young learners (TEYL) is no exception. Little empirical evidence reports how school textbooks (e.g., language textbooks) discursively teach particular values explicitly and implicitly. To validate whether English for young learners (EYL) textbooks teach particular moral values, the present critical discourse study (CDA) reported in this article examines how moral content is discursively infused into EYL textbooks. Framed in Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory, it looks specifically at how particular moral values are represented in three nationally-adopted EYL textbooks through lexical choices, the representation of images, and selected texts that the textbook writers use to represent their attitudinal discourse. The findings show that the value of helping others is predominantly represented in the textbooks. The other dominant values encapsulated in the textbooks include politeness and caring. We conclude that the textbook writers place greater emphasis on such values as helping others, being polite, and caring in the textbooks in as much as they may want to teach these values at an early age.

On the grammar of scam: transitivity, manipulation and deception in scam emails

This study examines the language of scam, focusing on one key lexicogrammatical system for representing experience, the system of transitivity. The study is informed by systemic functional linguistics theory and is based on a clause-by-clause analysis of forty scam email messages, comprising 860 clauses. The frequency distribution of process types shows that scammers mimic the everyday taken-for-granted construction of experience in discourse in producing scam, thereby concealing the motive of the scammer. Second, scammers favor three sub-types of material processes, namely communication-oriented clauses, clauses of transfer of possession and use-oriented clauses. In addition, scam emails are shown to be interpersonally rich in the use of personal pronouns to index and position scammers relative to their target email recipients in manipulative ways. Also, the possessive determiners my, your and our are used in nominal groups functioning as participants to position the scammer and target recipients differently. Notably, the pronoun my (representing the scammer) normally collocates with social relationship/kinship terms or a noun denoting the condition of the scammer, your (representing the recipient) collocates with nouns denoting material possessions or semiotic activities, while our often collocates with nouns that evoke some institutional commitment, locating the scammer within a network of relations.

Discourse of “Thing” as Sesotho Personal Names: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach

This paper explores the discourse of “Thing”, the core element in the nominal group in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory, when deployed as Sesotho names awarded as enacted messages. Sesotho names normally operate as authentic social discourse for they reflect real experiences embedded in these name structures. Social functions embedded in these structures elevate their significance which is embraced by socio-cultural consensus. They reflect awarders’ modality or evaluation of birth contexts. This study is qualitative and data is collected from lists prepared for graduation ceremonies, employment, admission into educational institutions, neighbourhood, orphanages, telephone directories, phone-in radio programmes. The aim is to establish that Basotho use “Thing” and its dynamic forms as personal names that are socially accepted, used and revered as ancestral resemblances. The study employs form-meaning description of these names including their sub-modifications. It concludes that “Thing” reflects the interpersonal function in the field of onomastica and thus extends and strengthens the newly observed intimacy of SFL-Onomastica relationship. It contributes that deployment of “Thing” as onomastica complements its basic reference as a member of the nominal group. It also fathoms the inevitable relevance of form-meaning interdependence in describing language including onomastica. Speakers’ and linguists’ awareness of this interdependence is rekindled or inaugurated and name owners may develop informed meaning and pride in their names. The demeaning attitude within the word “Thing” may be eradicated by reverence of contextual adaptation. The study extends reciprocation of Phonetics, Morphology and Syntax and Semantics. The study has implications for Linguistics, Education, Media studies, Socialand Cultural studies, Journalism, Communication.

THE REALIZATION OF METAPHOR OF MODALITY USED IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECH IN UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2017

This Study investigates modality used by Donald Trump in his speech in United Nations General Assembly 2017. Modality is expressed as the speakers’s judgment of the Obligation, or probabilities involved what is saying. The speech was conveyed by Donal Trump as the representative of America in United Nations General Assembly 2017. Three objectives of the study are the describtion of kinds of the modality used on Donald Trump’s speech in United Nations General Assembly, the analyze of realization of modality and the describtion of the reasons of modality.the data were obtained from Donal Trump’s speech . The speech transcription was analyzed by applying Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory. The Occurences of modality were qualitatively analyzed by converting them into persentages to determine the proportions namely (i) explicitly subjective, (ii) imlicity subjective, (iii) explicitly objective and (iv) imlicity objective. The findings indicates that imlicity subjective (68.75 %) , ) explicitly subjective (17.19%), imlicity objective (7.81%) and explicitly objective (6.25%). It means that the speech is also conveyed methaphorically or congruently by grammatical variation which occurs is based on the logical semantic relationship projection and exert the pragmatic function to connct the listener perception toward the speaker judgmentKeywords: modality, explicitly subjective, imlicity subjective, explicitly objective, imlicity objective

THE CLAUSE COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS REALISED IN THE SHORT STORY ENTITLED “THE WITCH’S BREW”

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is the choice of analysis theory offering the effective tools to analyse the language difficulties and vagueness. One of the systemic analysis tools is clause complex which can simplify the structural and grammatical meanings of the analysed texts through the use of taxis systems and logico-semantic relations (Sagheer Eid, 2016). The proposed study is aimed at analysing systemic functional analysis of clause complex realised in a short story adopting Hallidayan linguistics perspective. The short story is taken from the collection of short stories entitled “The Whispering Knights” by Clare West. From the aforementioned short stories collection, the writers take a short story entitled “The Witch’s Brew” written by Penelope Lively. By means of a descriptive study under Systemic Functional Linguistics theory as suggested by Halliday & Matthiessen (2014), the writers employ the analysis of taxis systems which cover elaboration, extension, and enhancement. Besides, logico-semantic relation is also analysed which covers projection and expansion. The findings reveal that there are 158 clause complexes which consist of 58 clause complexes of parataxis which are realized 37%, and 40 clause complexes of hypotaxis which are realised 25.3%. In conclusion, the short story is written by the dominant of parataxis then hypotaxis constructions.

Sounds of the game: An interpersonal discourse analysis of ‘on field’ language in sports media

The new media representation of ‘on-field’ sports discourse presents an exciting opportunity for social linguists to engage with an uncharted, pervasive and mediatized discourse. This paper begins by introducing on-field language tracking and briefly reviewing the research in sports mediatization and the application of linguistics to sports discourse. Drawing on the applied social-linguistics theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin and Rose, 2007), with mediatisation as a second-order investigation (Livingstone and Lunt, 2014), the paper examines a range of examples of on-field language tracking from several professional sports including basketball, cricket, and Australian football. An interpersonal discourse semantic analysis (Martin and White, 2005) is applied to the data, with the aim to bring to consciousness the ways in which players construe solidarity and power through language with each other, as well as audience. The results and discussion reveal the emergence of three distinct on-field ‘stances’ – the communing, the condemning and the instructing. The paper then concludes in a more speculative mode, considering key future directions, particularly language tracking in sports mediatization research.

Scientific grant application writing: Re/packaging text to enhance its impact

Although most universities and research institutes employ staff who assist their academics in the preparation of high stakes research funding proposals, one research institute invited the authors to provide them with a different type of assistance: linguistic analysis and guidance. Informed by Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory (2014) and work on the register of scientific English (Halliday & Martin 1993, Halliday 1998, 2004) we were mindful of the fact that we could not contribute much to what is being said (ideational meaning), so we focused on how it is being said (textual meaning). In particular, our analysis explored how the applicants use Theme + Rheme and Given + New to create textual patterns of emphasis that help persuade reviewers the proposed ideas are worth funding. The results of our SFL analyses of 18 applications revealed three different types of thematic patterning, which vary according to the stage of career of the main writer. Our results also shed light on how choices of textual meanings play a crucial role in addressing assessment criteria throughout a grant proposal. The insights gained may also have important implications for research into scientific discourse within the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) community.