Developing Systemic Functional Linguistics

The volume presents current views on the achievements made in the study of Systemic Functional Linguistics in both theory and application, and on the potential domains and directions for its further development. The first part addresses issues on strengthening theoretical research and description in system network, on deepening our understanding of the concept of choice and of consequences arising from making choices in particular social contexts. It also makes comparisons of different models within SFL and if similarities and differences between SFL and another linguistic model. Part Two deals with issues on further developing SFL as an applicable linguistics. After summing up its fifty years of refinement as a theory through constant endeavours of application, the volume offers an explicit definition of Applicable Discourse Analysis, and presents views on the potential areas, methods and criteria for verbal and multimodal discourse analysis, with examples. The final part of the volume discusses potential directions for SFL, including expanding SFL typological research into other languages than English, an in other countries than the major English speaking ones, exploring solutions to the challenges faced by multimodal discourse, extending traditional translation studies to other modes, making stylistics studies across different disciplines, exploring the potential of SFL to tackle the challenges confronting language education at both macro and micro levels, and seeking the road of globalizing SFL by developing an ideal software and establishing a global cyberspace institution.

This volume offers a comprehensive account of language development from a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) perspective, integrating theory and data from a wide range of research studies. The book begins by taking an in-depth look at SFL theory and its focus on texts, highlighting the metafunctional nature of language and the ways in which individuals’ repertoires of meaning-making resources develop as they interact with the world and with others. Grounded in an SFL approach, the successive chapters consider in turn the key stages of language development, from infancy to school settings to additional, second, and foreign language learning contexts. Each chapter incorporates a range of SFL studies to demonstrate shifts in language development across these stages, but also the discussion of other functional perspectives to examine the ways in which these different approaches inform one another. A concluding chapter considers the implications of these studies for future research as well as for pedagogical practices in literacy teaching. In its consideration of the relationship between SFL theory and its application to language development, this book will be key reading for students and scholars in Systemic Functional Linguistics, language and education, and literacy studies.

Presenting a field-defining overview of one of the most appliable linguistic theories available today, this Handbook surveys the key issues in the study of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), covering an impressive range of theoretical perspectives. Written by some of the world's foremost SFL scholars, including M. A. K. Halliday, the founder of SFL theory, the handbook covers topics ranging from the theory behind the model, discourse analysis within SFL, applied SFL, to SFL in relation to other subfields of linguistics such as intonation, typology, clinical linguistics and education. Chapters include discussion on the possible future directions in which research might be conducted and issues that can be further investigated and resolved. Readers will be inspired to pursue the challenges raised within the volume, both theoretically and practically.

The field of translation studies has grown rapidly over recent decades, with critical questions being investigated across the globe. Drawing together this scattered research, Systemic Functional Linguistics in Translation Studies consolidates important propositions by drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL). Using the SFL dimensions of stratification, rank, axis and delicacy to show how languages are more similar or more different, this book provides a state-of-the-art critical assessment of the interaction between SFL and translation studies. Highlighting the major contribution SFL can make in developing translation theories, a team of world-leading experts investigate how intricate and wide-ranging translation questions, such as re-instantiation and multimodality, can be most efficiently explored through a detailed meaning- and function-oriented linguistic theory. Examining the theoretical concepts and practical applications of SFL in the translation of a range of languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese, Systemic Functional Linguistics in Translation Studies provides a stimulus for new work spanning the two fields and suggests new directions for future research.

This book introduces the notion of system as the foundation of the systemic functional architecture of language.

This book provides an overview of the dialectic of theory and practice through which SFL positions itself as an appliable linguistics with reference to the theory of Verbal Art. A concise history of the linguistic study of literature tout court is sketched, as well as the roots of specifically SFL approaches to it. A detailed theoretical description is given of the emergence of systemic functional stylistics and, in particular, of the overall architecture of Systemic Socio-Semantic Stylistics (SSS), the central descriptive-analytical model created by Ruqaiya Hasan. Subsequently, the correspondences between Hasan's framework and what Jakobson theorized as the empirical linguistic evidence of his 'poetic function', grammatical parallelism and with what he calls 'pervasive parallelism', are delineated and illustrated via the analysis of one poem by D.H. Lawrence, 'Bei Hennef' (1913). Further, the teaching of the language in literature with the tools of SFL/SSS is addressed, and a case study of the experience of guiding students towards this 'special' register awareness in an undergraduate EFL curriculum in Bologna, Italy is offered. Aiming to provide as wide-ranging a view of systemic functional stylistics studies as possible, the volume also presents a synopsis of stylistics research wedded to multimodal/multisemiotic, corpus and translation approaches, broaching certain of the many theoretical issues intrinsically entailed. With special attention to Hasan's stylistic legacy, in closing the author speaks to the future directions systemic functional stylistic studies might take.

This innovative collection brings together contributions from established and emerging scholars highlighting the "appliability" of Systemic Functional Linguistics and the ways in which theoretical and analytical conclusions drawn from its applications can inform and advance the study of language. The book discusses SFL’s theoretical foundations and development in recent years to demonstrate its evolution into a more effective analytical tool. Building on this theoretical framework, the volume showcases the theory’s applications in case studies exploring four sub-disciplines of language study: multilingual studies; translation studies; language learning and language teaching; and genre analysis. This all-inclusive volume demonstrates both Systemic Functional Linguistics’ efficacy as a means of theoretical analysis, but also its value as a unique approach to the study of language and meaning, making this an indispensable resource for researchers and scholars in applied linguistics, discourse analysis, genre studies, translation studies, and multilingualism.

Designed to be the essential one-volume resource for students and researchers on Systemic Functional Linguistics.