A brief introduction to the work of

M.A.K. Halliday and Systemic-Functional Linguistics

M.A.K. Halliday has sought to create an approach to linguistics that treats language
as foundational for the building of human experience. His insights and publications
form an approach called systemic-functional linguistics. A student of JR Firth (a
British linguists who himself was influenced by Malinowsky), Halliday's work
stresses that language cannot be dissassociated from meaning. Systemic-functional
linguistics (SFL), as it's name suggests, considers function and semantics as the basis
of human language and communicative activity. Unlike structural approaches that
privilege syntax, SFL-oriented linguists begin an analysis with social context and then
look at how language acts upon, and is constrained and influenced by, this social
context. A key concept in Halliday's approach is the "context of situation" which
obtains "through a systematic relationship between the social environment on the
one hand, and the functional organization of language on the other" (Halliday,
1985:11).

DESCRIPTION and TERMS for analysing SPOKEN and WRITTEN

LANGUAGE

• Tokens: the number of individual items/words

• Types: the different kinds of words used, e.g., lexical (content) items and
grammatical (function) items
• Lexical Density: The ratio of lexical and grammatical items in an utterance or
text; a "measure of information density within a text" (Yates, 1996:37).
• Take-home message: Written language is lexically dense, while oral language
is syntactically more complex.

SYSTEMIC SEMANTICS: TEXTUAL, INTERPERSONAL, and

IDEATIONAL aspects of LANGUAGE

• Textual: type/token ratios, vocabulary use, register

• Interpersonal: speech-function, exchange structure, involvement and
detachment, personal reference, use of pronouns, "interactive items" showing
the position of the speaker (just, whatever, basically, slightly), discourse
 markers (words that moderate/monitor the interaction, e.g., well, might, good,
so, anyway)
o A spoken corpus is primarily an "I", "You" text; the world as seen by
you and me.Illustrates INVOLVEMENT
o A written corpus often takes 3rd person and objective reporting styles (it,
he, she, and passive voice).Illustrates DETACHMENT
• Ideational: propositional content; modality through (in English) modal
auxiliaries, e.g., (in Yates, 1996:42)
o modals of obligation (must, need, should)
o modals of ability and possibility (can, could)
o modals of epistemic possibility (may, might)
o modals of volition and prediction (will, shall)
o hypothetical modals: (would, should)

The ANALYSIS of CONTEXT is broken down into FIELD, TENOR, AND

MODE, which collectively constitute the "register" of a text (from Halliday,
1985:12)

• Field: what is happening, the nature of the social interaction taking place: what
is it that the participants are engaged in, in which language figures as an
essential component?
• Tenor: who is taking part; the social roles and relationships of participant, the
status and roles of the participants
• Mode: the symbolic organization of the text, rhetorical modes (persuasive,
expository, didactic, etc); the channel of communication, such as
spoken/written, monologic/dialogic, +/- visual contact, computer-mediated
communication/telephone/F2F, etc.

Recommended READINGS and WEBSITES

What is Systemic-Functional Lingustics? , maintained by Mick O'Donnell.

Some notes on Systemic-Functional linguistics, by Carol Chapelle

A glossary of Systemic-Functional Terms, by Christian Matthiessen

Select Bibliographies of Systemic Functional Linguistics, compiled by M.A.K.

Halliday, Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen & Alice Caffarel
Halliday, M.A.K., & Hasan, R. (1985). Language, context, and text: aspects of
language in a social-semiotic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Spoken and written language. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Characteristics of Text Form

PERSUASIVE TEXT

Purpose

• To present an argument or point of view, to influence

Characteristics

• begins with a position statement supported by evidence and examples

• attempts to persuade by using logic and appealing to the reader’s emotions

or sense of moral justice

• may include research data

• may compare or contrast