Language as a Social Semiotic System: Halliday's Approach to Language and Text Analysis, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Lingua Inglese

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Context of situation, texts and

languages

Lingua e Traduzione – Lingua Inglese II a.a. 2022- Prof.ssa Elena Manca University of Salento

Our approach to language

• (^) The general approach to language adopted in this course is very much in line with Halliday’s view of language which understands language in its relationship to the social structure. Social structure Social structure Social structure

Language

SEMIOTICS

STUDY OF MEANING

Mode Mode Mode HUMAN CULTURE

Language as a social semiotic system

• (^) The term ‘ social ’ in Hallidayan terms refers to the relationship between language and the social structure so that language is related to one particular aspect of human experience, the social dimension.
• (^) The social dimension involves the transmission of knowledge in social contexts where social activities with social goals are carried out.
• (^) The social system may be studied from different point of views and our focus here is mainly linguistic.

Context and text

• (^) Successful communication strictly depends on the knowledge of the context of situation that interlocutors of that situation have. Interlocutor 1: I’ll get it Interlocutor 2: ok Context of situation: doorbell ringing

Texts

• (^) If we accept Firth’s definition that all linguistics is the study of meaning and all meaning is function in context (Firth 1935; as cited by Halliday in Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 8), when we study texts the determination of the environment where text unfolds is prior to any other activity.

What is a text?

• (^) Halliday defines the text (ibid.:10ff), as “language that is functional ” that is to say language that is playing a role in a context of situation.

Text as a product and as a process

• (^) The text is a product in the sense that it is an output, something that can be recorded and studied, having a certain construction that can be represented in systematic terms.
• (^) It is a process in the sense of a continuous process of semantic choice, a movement through the network of meaning potential, with each set of choices constituting the environment for a further set.

Text in context

• (^) Halliday argues that such an analysis of the context helps us represent the system that lies behind the unconscious process of producing and understanding texts in some context of situation.

Register variables

• (^) Field, tenor and mode, therefore, are also called register variables , and a description of the values of each of these variables, in a particular context, in which a particular text is being created, consequently gives us a good working description of the register to which the text can be said to belong.

Register

• (^) In order to understand better the kind of restraints operated by the situation we can consider the definition of register provided by Halliday (1985:38-39):
• (^) A register is a semantic concept. It can be defined as a configuration of meanings that are typically associated with a particular situational configuration of field, mode and tenor. But since it is a configuration of meanings, a register must also, of course, include the expressions, the lexico-grammatical and phonological features, that typically accompany or REALISE these meanings.

Closed and open registers

• (^) As Halliday explains (1985:39) the category of register may vary. There are registers where the range of possible meanings that can be exchanged is fixed. These registers are called closed registers.
• (^) Examples are AIRSPEAK, SEASPEAK

AIRSPEAK

Closed and open registers

• (^) Most registers are not closed but are more open varieties. Halliday (1985:40) provides the examples of tickets, greeting cards, headlines, recipes, technical instructions, legal documents and other more open registers such as buying and selling in a shop or in a market. Halliday (ibidem) stresses the fact that there are styles of meaning associated with these registers which have to be learnt.