Text and Context in Functional Linguistics

367 Pages·1999·3.815 MB·English

by  Mohsen Ghadessy (Ed.)

TEXT AND CONTEXT IN FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.)

Volume 169
Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.)
Text and Context in Functional Linguistics
TEXT AND CONTEXT
IN FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS
Edited by
MOHSEN GHADESSY
University of Brunei Darussalam

JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
8 National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Text and context in functional linguistics / Mohsen Ghadessy [editor].
p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV,
Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 169)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Context (Linguistics) 2. Discourse analysis. 3. Functionalism (Linguistics) I. Ghadessy,
Mohsen, 1935- . II. Series.
P325.5.C65T48 1998
410’.1’8--dc21 98-50930
ISBN 90 272 3674 7 (Eur.) / 1 55619 885 X (US) (Hb; alk. paper) CIP
© 1999 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means,
without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
Table of Contents
Foreword vii
Notes on the Contributors ix
Introduction xi
1. The notion of “context” in language education 1
M. A. K.Halliday
2. Modelling context: a crooked path of progress in contextual
linguistics 25
J. R.Martin
3. Context in dynamic modelling 63
MichaelO’Donnell
4. Acting the part: lexico-grammatical choices and contextual
factors 101
GeoVThompson
5. Textual features and contextual factors for register identification 125
MohsenGhadessy
6. Investigating institutionalization in context 141
WendyL.Bo wcher
7. Context, material situation and text 177
CarmelCloran
8. Speaking with reference to context 219
RuqaiyaHasan
vi TABLEOFCONTENTS
Name Index 329
Subject Index 333
Foreword
The shift towards a functional (sociolinguistic) approach to the analysis of
languageinthelastfewdecadeshasnecessitatednewdefinitionsandmodelsfor
a number of concepts that linguists have taken for granted for a very long time.
Twoofthemainareasofconcernhavebeen:Whatistext?and,Whatiscontext?
The present volume attempts to demystify these important notions by providing
clear definitions and a number of theoretical models by analysing relevant
exampleswithintheassumptions ofSystemicFunctionalLinguistics(SFL).The
eight chapters collectively present a comprehensive picture of the fundamental
issues in text analysis and context modelling not given in any other single
volumetodate.Allthecontributorsbasetheiranalysesongenuinedatacollected
from a variety of spoken and written registers of contemporary English.

Notes on the Contributors
WendyBowcher is Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages
andLiteratureatTokyoGakugeiUniversity,Japan.Herresearchinterestsinclude
context and language, English intonation, and applications of SFL to TESOL.
She is currently completing a doctoral dissertation on the relation between
context, language and institutionalisation focusing on radio sports commentary.
CarmelCloranspentsomeyearsatMacquarieUniversityworkingwithRuqaiya
Hasan on her semantic variation project and teaching systemic functional
linguistics. She taught semantics in the Department of English Language and
Literature at the National University of Singapore. She is currently back in
Australia working on research into aspects of child language development, and
developing “student friendly” texts on (i) some discourse analytic tools, and (ii)
the use of networks in linguistic investigation. She co-edited (with David Butt
and GeoV Williams) a collection of Hasan’s papers entitled Ways of saying:
WaysofMeaning, published by Cassell in 1996.
Mohsen Ghadessy is a Professor in the Department of English Language and
Applied Linguistics at the University of Brunei Darussalam. He has taught
English language and applied linguistics courses in a number of countries
including USA, UK, Iran, Singapore and Hong Kong. His research interests
includelanguageteaching,writtenregisters,andthematicorganisation.Hisrecent
publications incl ude three edited books, Registers of Written English, Pinter,
1988; RegisterAnalysis:TheoryandPractice, Pinter, 1993 and ThematicDevel-
opmentinEnglishTexts, Cassell, 1995.
Michael Halliday is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics (University of Sydney).
His research interests cover every area of language from social context right
through to phonology. His most recent major publications are WritingScience:
Literacy and Discursive Power (co-authored with J.R. Martin), Falmer Press,
x NOTESONTHECONTRIBUTORS
1993; LanguageinaChangingWorld, Occasional Papers No. 13 ALAA, 1993;
andIntroductiontoFunctionalGrammar(2ndedition),EdwardArnold,1994.He
has received honorary degrees from several universities in Europe and Asia.
RuqaiyaHasan is Professor Emerita of Linguistics (Macquarie University). Her
research interests include stylistics, discourse analysis, lexis and grammar,
semantic networks and socio-semantic variation. Her most recent publications
include “Contexts for Meaning” in Language, Communication and Meaning,
editedbyJ.E.Alatis,GeorgetownUniversityPress,1993;“OnSocialConditions
for Semeotic Mediation: The Genesis of Mind in Society” in Knowledge and
pedagogy: The Sociology of Basil Bernstein edited by A.R. Sadovnik, Ablex,
1995. She has most recently edited Literacy in Society (with GeoV Williams),
Longman,1996;OnSubjectandTheme:ADiscourseFunctionalPerspective(with
Peter H. Fries) and Functional Descriptions (with Carmel Cloran and David
Butt), both published by Benjamins, 1995 and 1996, respectively.
Dr. J. R.Martin is currently Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University
of Sydney. His research interests include systemic theory, functional grammar,
discoursesemantics,register,genre,multimodalityandcriticaldiscourseanalysis,
focusing on English and Tagalog — with special reference to the transdisciplinary
fields of educational linguistics and social semiotics. Relevant publications
include English Text: System and Structure, Benjamins, 1992; Writing Science:
LiteracyandDiscursivePower (With M.A.K. Halliday), Falmer, 1993; Working
with Functional Grammar (with C. Matthiessen & C. Painter), Arnold, 1997;
GenreandInstitutions:SocialProcessesintheWorkplaceandSchool(editedwith
F.Christie),Cassell,1997;ReadingScience:CriticalandFunctionalPerspectives
onDiscourseofScience (edited with R. Veel), Routledge, 1998.
Dr. Michael O’Donnell is a Research Fellow in the Department of Artificial
Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his Ph.D. at the
University of Sydney, 1994. He has worked on several projects involving
machine impleme ntation of linguistic theory.
GeoVThompson is a lecturer in the Applied English Language Studies Unit of
the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Liver-
pool. His research interests centre on projection (reported speech), evaluation in
discourse, and interaction in both written and spoken text. Recent publications
includeReporting,1994andIntroducingFunctionalGrammar,1997.Hehasco-
edited (with Susan Hunston) a collection of papers on Evaluation in Text:
AuthorialStanceandtheConstructionofDiscourse, 1999.