Applied Linguistics I

The Systematic Functional Linguistics Theory.

Background
M.A.K. Halliday
Paper :1961
Founder University

of Sidney.

A grammarian.

Language
Systemic A network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning
Language
Functional Language is as it is because of what it has evolved to do.
Language
Language is metafunctionally organized. The raison d'tre of language is meaning in social life.
Grammar (Closed Systems)
Grammatical structure
Language

A choice
Meaning potential

Meaning
Lexical set

Open system

Semantic components
1. Ideational component
2. Interpersonal component
3. Textual function
Ideational component
The speaker`s meaning potential as an observer.

 The content function of language.

Language encodes the cultural experience.
Speakers encode their own personal experience
Meaning
Lexical set

Open system

Semantic components
1. Ideational component
2. Interpersonal component
3. Textual function
Ideational component
The speaker`s meaning potential as an observer.
The content function of language.
Language encodes the cultural experience.
Speakers encode their own personal experience
Interpersonal component
It represents the speaker`s meaning potential.
Language as doing something
The speaker intrudes himself into the context of situation
Textual function
Resources for enabling the Ideational component and the Interpersonal component to come
together in coherent text.
The speaker`s text-forming potential.

Language Acquisition
Language is a part of everyday life and through the childs close relations with parents,
siblings and other constant figures
Learning language
Learning through language
Learning about language
Learning language
A process of construction made up as a three-layered model.
Semantic
Lexicogrammatical
Graphophonic
Learning through language
Learning through language refers to language in the construction of reality: how we use
language to build up a picture of the world in which we live.
The outside language

Imagination

The inside language

Consciousness

Learning about language

Much of our learning about language is concerned with register variation, language and
society and different media of expression within a language
Field: What the content of the text is actually about. Its function of language is ideational as it
puts forward information as to what ideas the author is trying to get across.
Tenor: The relationship between the speaker/writer and the listener/reader. This is an
interpersonal metafunction as the speaker is communicating to the listener either through
informal or formal language.
Mode: Which media is used to convey the message of the text. This is called the textual
metafunction.