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info/ Explain within the Hallidayan framework, what you understand by the textual metafunction in comparison to the interpersonal and ideational metafunctions.

Halliday developed the linguistic theory that became known as Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). There are a number of angles one can take to describe Hallidays model of language. This essay will focus on the semantic system within the linguistic system. That is, the functional aspect of SFG. Rather than taking a critical look at Hallidays theory, this essay attempts to understand the functional elements and apply them to the analysis of two texts. This is begun by outlining Hallidays model of language and how the metafunctions fit into it. The essay then explores the textual metafunction and its components more closely. The essay limits itself to register, reference, ellipsis, conjunctive adjuncts and lexical cohesion. A consideration of thematic and information structures follows. The last section of the essay interprets the theory with analyses of two texts.

Hallidayan framework & Metafunctions Halliday inherited Malinowskis view of language as a function in social contexts. For Halliday, language cannot be disassociated from meaning. He developed his theory of the functions of language into three broad metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Each is concerned with different aspects of the world and the, modes of meaning, that are identifiable in language in social contexts (Halliday, 1994, p.27). The ideational function focuses on the natural world and events, including our own consciousness. Halliday describes this as the content function of language (Halliday, This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 1

This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 1994, p.27). The interpersonal function focuses on the social world. It expresses attitudes, judgements and relationships: the, participatory function of language (Halliday, 1994, p.27). The textual function focuses on the organization of text. It enables language to be, operational in a context of situation (Halliday, 1994, p.27). Each metafunction, therefore, has a different concern and uses particular elements to analyse the clause. The ideational function is concerned with text as a representation, and the clause is analysed into Process, Participant and Circumstance. The interpersonal function is concerned with text as an exchange, and the clause is analysed into Mood and Residue. The textual function is concerned with text as a message, and the clause is analysed by the functions Theme + Rheme. The textual metafunction also enables the other metafunctions to be actualised. Although the metafunctions can be identified separately, they are simultaneous and complementary. The Textual Metafunction & Components The aforementioned definitions of the metafunctions indicate that the textual metafunction provides the author with a strategy for guiding the audience to his/her interpretation of the text. Follows is a look at how register, cohesive devices and thematic and information structures work within the textual metafunction. Register Register is an abstract notion of language variation within a social system, which is determined by use. Halliday describes it as, what a person is speaking, determined by what he is doing at the time (Halliday, 1994, p.26). The concept is therefore contextbound and founded in meaning. That is, semantic options integrated with meaning are

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This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ drawn upon according to the situation. This differentiates from the other variation, accent and dialect, which is determined by user and does not vary meaning. The register of a text is defined by three variables: field, tenor and mode. Each is realised by a metafunction and Mode affects textual meaning. The textual function is evident as Mode includes; the organisation of the text, what the language is doing, what participants expect the language to do in specific situations, rhetorical achievement (persuade, explain), the function of text in context, the medium (written, spoken) and channel (telephone, face to face). Textual Cohesion Analysis at the level of text requires a look into textual cohesion: the continuity of a text. Also known as texture, it is, the quality of being a text, as opposed to, unconnected bits of language (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.86). Reference Reference is a referral back to a person, place or idea in the preceding text. The Hallidayan definition is not necessarily textually cohesive as it can refer to, entities outside the discourse (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.95). Reference is realised by pronouns, demonstratives or the definite article. These items that function as, implicit coding devices have meaning only in connection with the text or context (Hasan, 1994, p.78). The textual function is realised through the co-textual application or, endophoric interpretation (Hasan, 1994, p.79). Ellipsis

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This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ Hallidays, substitution by zero, known as ellipsis, is the, omission of words, groups or clauses (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.98). Nominal ellipsis omits a noun or Head Noun in a Nominal group, Verbal ellipsis omits a verb or finite from the Verbal group, and Clausal Ellipsis positions a word in place of an entire clause. Ellipses enable an author to simplify the text whilst meaning remains recoverable. Conjunction Conjunctive devices use words or phrases to link clauses or parts of a text. Conjunctive adjuncts indicate relationship, time, reason, or cause, between elements being joined (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.99). The relationship connection best illustrates the textual function. An author can use conjunctive adjuncts to signal his/her interpretation of the text or, signpost the direction of argument (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.100). Lexical Words in a text that have a meaningful relationship are said to have lexical cohesion. This relationship is observed by repetition, synonyms, antonyms, association (collocation) and anaphoric nouns, words used to summarize or refer back to sections in a text (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.101). Thematic & Information Structures Halliday acquired the theme-rheme concept from the Prague school. However, his theory departed company by differentiating the systems of text organization: thematic structure, consisting of theme and rheme, and information structure, consisting of given and new. Halliday categorises the thematic position as topical (ideational This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 4

This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ function), textual or interpersonal themes. The Topical theme is, what the clause is about (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.77). This theme is realized by Subject, Predicator, Complement or Circumstantial Adjunct. All clauses have a Topical theme. A clause may also have multiple themes. A Conjunctive Adjunct in theme position performs a textual function. The thematic structure is speaker-orientated, giving precedence to what the speaker chooses as the point of reference. Theme acts as guide, or signpost, for the audience. Given + New is listener-orientated as it requires the listener to possess shared knowledge. Although Bloor & Bloor (1995, p.66) state that Given information is, usually at the beginning of a clause, it is not an essential criteria within this structure. Theme is, therefore, characteristically recognised as a position-determined element and rheme is the development of theme. However, it is crucial to understand that Theme should not be defined as position-based but rather by its functional purpose. Theme + Rheme also serve the textual metafunction by achieving cohesion, or thematic progression, when clauses take up the theme or rheme of a preceding clause as its own theme.

Text Analyses (use Appendix 1) Linguistic features TEXT 1 (T1) While the first we, in Clause 2, is a contextual reference, the, we, in Clauses 3 and later in Clause 8, refer to the first we and can be considered a co-textual personal reference. In Clauses 4, 6 and 9, the elliptical it, refers to the Combined School This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 5

This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ Sports event, the time run and the orienteering respectively. Clause 7 demonstrates the same referential function but with an explicitly mentioned demonstrative. The phrase, fun to be in, in Clause 4 is similar to an exclamation, and it is embedded. This allows the author to omit the object and verbal group with the use of ellipsis. Similarly, Clauses 6 and 9 are embedded clauses that use ellipsis to refer back previously mentioned items. The conjunctive adjunct in Clause 3, so, functions similarly to, therefore or subsequently, tying the clause in with the preceding idea of failing the inspection. The conjunctive adjunct, as, provides Clause 7 with the authors reason behind the previous declaration. The use of, then, in Clause 9 could be considered a circumstantial adjunct due to its relation to time. However, it is closer to the conjunctive adjunct end of the cline a gradation between two clear ends of a line- as it is relating this clause to the previous information (Bloor and Bloor, 1995, p.53). In this text, texture is most strongly created by lexical cohesion. There is a relationship between the events and by temporal progression. TEXT 2 (T2) Text 2 generally relies on elliptical references for cohesion. 50% of the clauses, 2, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16 and 18 use demonstrative references and clause 15 uses a personal reference. There may be some contention to the existence of textual cohesion. For instance, applying the system of co-textual referencing, the demonstrative in Clause 10 refers to the object of the previous clause. However, the demonstratives in clauses 11 and 12 are not referring to a previously mentioned item. The object in each clause is not in the text but rather a cooking mixture that has occurred contextually. A conjunctive adjunct is used in Clause 7, when, which ties This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 6

This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ the previous step with the preceding one. Likewise, Immediately, in Clause 9, until, in Clause 13 and as Clause 16, have the same function.

Comparative Linguistic Analysis It feels essential to consider register and genre to compare the choice and use of linguistic features in the texts. T1 is of the composition genre, and is associated with a participant situated in temporal events. T2 is a recipe and is associated with a sequential process. The distinct genres, to some extent, prescribe the style of register. Additionally, the communicative goal of T1 is to narrate, while T2 has an instructional communicative aim. This provides a predicted set of registers. It may be expected that T1 should be declarative while T2 was constructed of imperative clauses. Table 1 demonstrates a summary of the findings.

Text

Register mode Narrative Written Declarative Instruction Written Imperative

Subject Matter Participant & Events

Thematic Process Temporal Un/marked

Cohesion

ACompositi on BRecipe

Lexical

Stage in Process

Procedural Sequential /Temporal

Elliptical

Table 1: textual comparison

The recipe genre necessitates ease of reading to carry out the instructions. They usually include a list of ingredients and utensils to use. Additionally, it is assumed that there is a subject or actor involved. This leaves the core of the recipe, the instructions, condensed to clauses of verbal and nominal groups, with the occasional prepositional This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 7

This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ group: functionally speaking, to predicator, complement and adjuncts. Ellipses are a useful textual device to reduce redundancy and it was found that T2 used the elliptical feature for textual cohesion. Narratives are founded in imagination and personal information. Ellipsis can only be of use to reduce obvious redundancy, such as repetition. T1 seems to a composition from a young author, and therefore is not as complex or lexically rich as other narratives, such as a novel. In fact, some clauses seem individual declarations apart from the text. However, there is enough lexical cohesion to provide texture. The use of time, day or hour, throughout, provides the tie between the clauses. Comparative Thematic Analysis T1 uses temporal connectives, tomorrow, yesterday, today, and the participant, I, in theme position. It also uses conjunctions and conjunctive adjuncts thematically. These are effective choices for a genre that is concerned with events. A reader is interested to know, among other things, what happened, to whom and when. The author is following that convention, and in this narrative chose to use the time frame in which to place the events. Rheme sections are also taken up into theme position. In Clause 3 the theme, so, is the rheme of Clause 2. This adds to the thematic progression and cohesion of the text. What is crucial in thematic position, time, is implicitly taken up in rhematic position. The reader can infer time such as in Clause 5; the thematically implied race stems from the rheme of Clause 4, the school sports and therefore must have taken place yesterday. The strong temporal development gives T1 strong cohesion. In T2, the genres use of imperatives determines the word form in thematic position. The majority of themes are therefore predicators. This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 8

This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ It is evident that context controls the choice of theme. If the communicative goal is to narrate and the subject matter deals with participants and events, then an effective cohesive strategy is a temporal theme. If the communicative goal is instructional and the subject matter is a process, then an effective strategy is a temporal/sequential theme. Depending on genre, in this case a recipe, a predicative theme is expected. Conclusion The discussion indicated that Hallidays model is above all cemented in context. The metafunctional systems aid in separating what the language is doing. The textual metafunction was seen to shed light on the organisation of a text. Various components such as, mode, cohesive devices and thematic structure, were shown to realize the textual metafunction. The textual analyses demonstrated the textual function at work. Both texts displayed texture through cohesion and thematic progression. As predicted by Hallidays framework, the context ultimately determined the overall contextual choices within the texts. His SFG, then, fundamentally aids people in using and understanding the language as appropriate to specific contexts. References Bloor, T. and Bloor, M. (1995) The Functional Analysis of English: a Hallidayan approach, London, Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. (1994) Language as Social Semiotic in Maybin, J. (ed.) Language and Literacy in Social Practice, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters in association with Open University. Hasan, R. (1994) The Texture of a Text in Graddol, D. and Boyd-Barrett, O. (eds) Media Texts: authors and readers, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters in association with Open University. This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database - http://www.coursework.info/ 9

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