Scarica Riassunto Systemic Functional Grammar e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity!
LINGUA INGLESE II
[Riassunti]
PARTE I – TEXT AND CONTEXT
In linguistics, the phrase discourse analysis is used to refer to the analysis of both spoken and written texts. The aim is to analyze the way texts work across the boundaries of single sentence or utterances to form whole stretches of language. Discourse means different things inside and outside the academic world. The basic meaning of discourse is “talk”. Originally, the term discourse came from Latin, discursus, meaning “to run”, “to run on”, “to run to and from”. It has been applied more to rehearsed forms of spoken language (like speeches) than to spontaneous speech. The modern meaning of discourse has evolved because conversations “run”. This means that speakers make an effort to give their interactions shape and coherence. The word text originally meant ‘something woven’ (derives from the Latin “texere”- to weave), and you can see a relationship between text, texture (‘having the quality of woven cloth’) and textile (capability of being woven). A text has to be coherent and cohesive. COHERENCE: the most important element is the texture what make a text coherent. COHESION: grammar parts (conjunctions, prepositions etc.), morphological parts, etc. they create the texture. The cohesive features are lexical and grammatical. LEXICAL COHESION: based on the relationship between the words. A more general aspect of lexical cohesion is the use by writers of particular semantic fields : refer to a specific area of experience or knowledge (school, work, etc.). One way of bringing together different fields is to use metaphor : where one thing is described as if it were another. It is a powerful factor in positioning the reader and framing a particular viewpoint. Another important aspect of lexical cohesion is the level of formality in vocabulary. Formality is important because it makes a correct relationship (clear, correct). It can also be a reflection of social-group membership. Language in formality can be formal or informal. GRAMMATICAL COHESION : grammatical features woven together across sentence boundaries. The most important part in a text is the principle of reference it tells the reader that they can only make complete sense of the word of structure if they look elsewhere in text to get a fuller picture ( to refer seek information). There are particular words that are often used for reference purpose: personal pronouns references, conjunctions, ellipsis, demonstrative references, substitutions, comparatives they are always related to something anaphoric and cataphoric references. Anaphoric: when it refers to something we have already seen. Cataphoric: when it refers to something which is coming up. PERSONAL PRONOUNS REFERENCE: personal pronoun are words that can substitute for nouns, and are : I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They. There are also possible variants: me, him, her, us, them. If the pronoun is referring back to something, it is called anaphoric reference; if the pronoun is referring to something coming later, it is called cataphoric reference. We have also exophoric reference (when a reference item moves us outside a text, to its context) and endophoric reference (when we stay within the text). DEMONSTRATIVE REFERENCE (DEICTICS): are used to demonstrate where something is. They are called deictics or ‘verbal pointers’. They are: the, this, that, those, here, there. As with personal pronouns, demonstrative references can work backwards (anaphoric) or forwards (cataphoric). These terms tell the distance from the speaker. In the speech they are used to refer to something physical. In written form they are used to create relationship. COMPARATIVE REFERENCE: tells the reader to look elsewhere for information with a particular aim in mind to compare the items that are being linked. The most common way in English to mark grammatically that two items are being compared is to add “–er” to an adjective. It is also possible to suggest comparison with more than one item, with the superlative form “–est”. Comparison can involve ideas about quantity and number (more, fewer, less, another). SUBSTITUTION AND ELLIPSIS: particularly used in a familiar context and spoken language. They are both powerful elements in textual cohesion. Substitution the writer or speaker has substituted one item for another in the text. It involves long phrases and it is used in order to avoid repetition. Ellipsis involves omitting elements. In some types of written texts, ellipsis can be used in order to create an illusion of closeness between writer and reader (like in spoken language). CONJUNCTIONS: (and, but, etc.) the term conjunction means ‘joining’. They are used in order to see how items should be linked (for example but is an AVVERSATIVE CONJUNCTION).
PARTE II – DISCOURSE AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Discourse has focally to do with language, meaning and context. Discourse is language reflecting social order but also language shaping social order and individuals’ interaction (with society) with texts. Discourse analysis is a quite new
concern. It can range from the description and interpretation of meaning-making and meaning-understanding in specific situations. Discourse analysis is the study of this communication within linguistics. People communicate through texts meaning derives from rules (which link words) of a specific language which suggest that only some combinations of sounds and form are possible, namely the syntax and the semantics of a language. Text (semantic entity) is a meaning-making event whose function is determined by context (where the text take place). Text derives from the Latin “ texere ”, which means something woven and highlights a relationship between things (in our case, words). We have 3 aspect to consider for text in discourse analysis: -material aspect of language communication; -semiotic aspect of communication; -specific linguistic choices and their organization. Text is a primum datum the smallest definable entity. Assumptions of text-linguistic perspective to discourse: -the basic unit of analysis is text; -the focus of examination is the language of text; -text is structured; -texts are meaningful language units; -there are no privileged texts, but only authentic/attested texts can be the basis of analysis. Text as unit. In 1981 Fowler said that ‘texts are single unified constructions’. Focus of examination is the language of text. In 1954 Hjelmslev made a distinction of 4 planes in semiotic system. He focused on: content (matter of any situation), expression, form, substance (representation of people/objects).
Content Expression Substance Information base Subject matter Form Entities, events, relations Structures
Text is structured. Structure is not only the form but also the organization or articulation of both form and content. Text cohesion semantic relation between sentences achieved through links between grammatical and lexical items. For Halliday and Hasan, cohesion in text is achieved through: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunctions, collocation. There are anaphoric, cataphoric, exophoric and endophoric reference which are cohesive ties. Text and context. Text coherence in 1960 Jakobson mentioned some functions: referential (give info), emotive, phatic (maintain a channel of commun.) , poetic, metalinguistic, directive, contextual (frame a discussion). Text coherence = implicit or inferred relations in discourse which are not explicitly articulated. In 1998, Bublitz said that coherence is a cognitive category of the mind that depends on the user’s interpretation. There are two components of context: situation (immediate setting and behaviour’context of situation’ fot Malinowski) and knowledge (background information of text recipient). Types of context: context of situation and context of culture. The modes of discourse. Word identity which achieves meaning in a specific text. The mind analyse and interpret experiences through abstract mental patterns: recall, revision, reinterpretation in new situations. These mental patterns are stored in long-term memory as data structures that represent sets of associations and knowledge about commonplace and stereotypical situations through these we reconstruct our discourse. They are recognized in schema, frame, script. Frame : remembered framework of knowledge, a network of nodes and relations (1985, Minsky). Schema : not a passive reproduction of information but an inferential reconstruction of it (1932, Barlett). Script : refers to a class of rigid schemata. Text are better classified according to rhetorical modes (Beaugrande and Dressler, 81): -narration: telling/writing of a story, consisting of a unique sequence of events; -description: presentations of how something looks, smells, tastes, etc.; -argumentation: process of supporting or weakening arguments, views, theories etc.
In 1987, Grabe made a distinction between fictional and informative types of texts. In 1990, Bruner identified 2 ways of knowing: narrative mode (knowing human reality, experiences, beliefs, doubts and emotions) and the paradigmatic mode (deals with natural physical reality, truth, observation, analysis, proof and rationalityabstract aspectsnon-narrative mode). Characteristics of the narrative mode (subjectivity and affectivity):
• Temporal ordering (past tense or narrative historic present);
• Disruption of equilibrium;
Tom= subject This sentence explains an action. Just=adverb There is someone that is acting. Has arrived= verb (present perfect) The relationship with the speaker is very close.
Differences between formal and functional approaches: -Functional= considering the language in context of use. A functional approach is concerned with the functions and the roles played by language in real context; -Formal=analysis of grammatical (syntactic) structures. A transformational-generative approach to grammar (originally named by Noam Chomsky), insisted that linguistics should not content itself with providing description of syntactic structures. Their role was to explain the inner reasons as to why language is organized the way it is, why some structures are not possible in a given language. For Chomsky language is innate (it is in our mind). He also said that rules are important and they need to be explicit because there are necessary in order to construct correct sentences. So he pinned down some of these rules, for example: Sentence (S) is made up of NP (Noun Phrase) we can have also determiners VP (Verb Phrase)we can have composed forms or passive forms.
- The church (NP2) was built (VP) by Normans (NP1). This construction emphasises the fact that the church was built by this civilization. It helps the listener to understand the circumstances.
- Normans (NP1) built (VP) the church (NP2). Generative grammar is considered the most outstanding formal approach to grammar. However, it differs from traditional formal approaches, as it uses formal and explicit descriptions for grammar labels instead of conventional terms. Many approaches to grammar are based on collections of language data, called corpora , ranging from very small to huge in the form of electronic databases. These corpora of language and multisemiotic data are used to make direct observations on language overall and on sets of linguistic features that may be analyzed through the collection and analysis of real examples of both spoken and written language. Chomsky was convinced that what may be observed in a corpus of data is not crucial in the study of language. He holds that grammars should be able to generate sentences in a given language, highlighting the fact that it should not generate the ungrammatical ones. Chomsky was always been concerned with inner brain mechanisms that produce language. He maintains that each individual is born with an innate system of grammar rules, thus being able to produce and understand language. Language and social man. A functional approach is mainly concerned with meaning and use. Language is related with social man Halliday presented some of his insights focusing on what he believed the role of language is in the life of man as a social being. Education was paramount in such an approach, as it was the key institution providing children with the tools to become social beings. For him, a men is “social” thanks to language functional tool. Language shapes experience and helps people connect and establish relationships with other people and with the world. Without language there will be no social man, and viceversa. Society is at the core of Halliday’s thinking and language is the fundamental medium through which individuals have access to the process of socialization, by occupying different social roles and establishing and negotiating these roles thanks to language. We come thus to the notion (central for Halliday) that language is functional , in the sense that he looks at what speakers can do with language. A functional theory is not interested in how the brain works or in the mental processes, but in the social processes, relationships and interactions which take place through the medium of language. So language is seen primarily as a form of interaction and learnt through interaction. But how is it learnt? The child learns “how to mean” through the acquisition of a range of possibilities made available by language, what Halliday calls meaning potential. This consists in the mastery of a number of functions of language and of a range of choices among them. The full potentialities of language can be accessed through a mastery of language potentialities fully possessed in adulthood. When they are very young, children’s language is limited in that they can choose among a small number of functions with a limited number of choices among them. Halliday studied children and identified behaviour potential and meaning potential. Language is the encoding of a behaviour potential into a meaning potential a means through which people can express what they “can do”, by establishing relationships with other people and by converting this into what they “can mean”. What they “can mean” ( semantic system ) is encoded into what they “can say” ( lexicogrammatical system grammar and vocabulary ). So, we use language as metafunction. SFG (Systemic Functional Grammar) focuses on the three metafunctions: ideational (experiential and logical), interpersonal and textual. Each individual uses a different portion of what the system allows and this depends on what she/he believes is needed in a certain context of situation. How the language system is interpreted depends on each individual interpretation of what the situation requires, but also on social and cultural expectations. All adult members of a community have access to the meaning potential of the system, but how they use it is a different question, depending on a number of different personal, social and cultural variables. Language is thus a potential, this means that it is about what a speaker can “mean” (meaning potential) the potential is directly connected to what really is or means.
Register. People use language in everyday situations according to register (different variables). It may be subdivided into three different categories:
• Field of discourse: refers to the setting in which communication take place, the topic or subject matter and the
participant(s) involved. Registers are classified according to the whole communicative event: if language plays a fundamental part, the field will be the subject matter (like when you write an essay), while if language plays a minor role, the field will be the whole situation type (like when there is an ordinary situation).
• Mode of discourse: mainly intended as the medium used (or mode of language), explicitly explained by
Halliday as the role played by the language activity in situation. This distinction refers primarily to the spoken or written mode. Speech and writing cannot be considered as opposing each other or as discrete units, but as operating along a continuum (in Halliday’s terms: cline ).
• Tenor of discourse: refers to the relationships established and maintained among participants.
Register is the product of the interplay between these three categories and it is a variety established by USE. Halliday has also made a reference to dialects , which he considers as central to the relationship of language and social man. Unlike registers, dialects are varieties established by the USER. Context of culture and context of situation. Context of culture defines the potential or possibilities which language makes available to the community of speakers. Context of situation is related to register and is defined by the notion of field, mode and tenor , which help establish the real choices operated by speakers among the possibilities of language as system. The nature of social actions is the field , which determines the selection of choices from the experiential system. Social and role relationships are encoded by the tenor , which determines the selection of options in interpersonal choices. Text is symbolically organized through the mode , which determines the selection of options in the organization of the information flow. Language is organized around a small number of discrete clusters of systems with strong internal interconnections but with weak external connections. These clusters are what Halliday called metafunctions. The ideational metafunction is the sum of the experiential and logical metafunctions and has been defined by Halliday as the “understanding component” or a function which helps construct our experience. The interpersonal metafunction enacts social roles and relationships, operating the interpersonal intercourse that constitutes human social experience. The textual metafunction creates a relationship between the first two. This is concerned with the creation of discourse in terms of organization and structuring of information in a text. This metafunction helps the order in which reality is constructed in the discourse of speakers who construct and enact reality through language. The textual metafunction thus displays an operational role in that it gives structure to the clause as a piece of information. In language, metafunctions are interconnected and work together to produce meanings. It is like observing a phenomenon from different perspectives or angles, but these do not exclude one another and add on further levels of meaning to this phenomenon. The theory of grammar includes categories such as unit, structure, class and system. Language is a patterned activity and units are pattern carriers, in the sense that they carry grammatical patterns. Rank is the scale on which units are arranged. The minimum number of units required by a language is two, but in English there are 5 such units.
BASIC NOTION ON THE EXPERIENTIAL METAFUNCTION. The experiential metafunction is concerned with the topic, or content message of each clause. It is about our experience of the world, in its external manifestations (actions, events, etc.) and inner dimensions (states of mind, feelings etc.). The experiential metafunction refers to things in the world and how these things are related to each other and is not concerned with other aspects. Meaning expressed with the experiential metafunction can be classified as: participant (subject/object), process (verbs), circumstance (adverbial prepositional phrase). The clause could be described as a process involving some participants in some circumstances. A clause is a stretch of language dealing with an action, which involves some participants. This general property is called process , which is realized by verbal groups. Those involved in the process are the participants , usually realized by nominal groups. There could be up to two participants in each clause. Circumstances are usually realized by adverbial groups or prepositional phrases. A central notion of experiential analysis is that of transitivity putting together the experiential and interpersonal analyses, the actor will coincide with the Subject, and the goal with the Object. When the verbal groups take an object , that makes the clause transitive. When the object is absent, we have an intransitive verb. Material processes. We have six different kinds of processes (also called figures). The more immediate and basic process is that of the material process clause : what participants do, what happens in the world and what participants make happen. The material process clause constructs the outer world in terms of action, such as walking, running, eating, travelling etc. The performer of the action is called Actor who brings about change, Halliday. The other optional participant is the Goal , at which the action is directed. Another term for Goal is Patient , because it “suffers” or “undergoes” the process.
Participant Material process Goal A terrific blow Hit him
Existential processes. Indicate something that exists. The participants have the name of existent and the process is called existential. “There” plays the role neither of a participant nor a circumstance, because it merely introduces the existential process. there are 7 species of ungulates […]
BASIC NOTIONS ON THE INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION. The clause determines an interaction between participants. The common way of doing so is establishing a dialogue, with questions and answers. The speaker may be either giving or demanding. Cutting across these categories, we have the distinction of what can be given or demanded, namely good-and-services or information. Halliday and Matthiessen adapted 4 main speech functions in a dialogic exchange and they are: offer, command, statement and question. Statements are typically expressed by declarative clause, question by interrogative clause and commands by imperative clauses. When language is used to exchange information, the clause becomes a preposition it can be affirmed, denied, rejected, argued etc. The exchange expressed by goods-and-services speech functions (usually associated to a specific grammatical structure) is a proposal. Mood. Students of English as a foreign language usually find “question tag” structures difficult to handle as they are found only residually in many European languages. To check information or ask for agreement, we most often put negative tags after affirmative sentences, and non-negative tags after negative sentences. Example: -Jim isn’t expected to arrive by noon, is he? -No, he isn’t. This way of circulating meaning across sentences is called mood and is formed by a Subject (made up of nominal group), followed by a finite operator, which is part of a verbal group. The subject is repeated in the question tag if it is a personal pronoun, but it becomes a personal pronoun if it is a different nominal group ( Jim becomes he ). The finite operator is similar to the notion of Auxiliary, but it is called finite in Halliday’s terms. What remains of the clause will be called the residue (traditionally called “proposition”). The finite makes the proposition finite. It characterizes and circumscribes it, relating it to a context. The verbal component makes the clause “arguable”, something that can be accepted or rejected. Another associated notion is that of polarity , that is the choice between a positive or a negative statement (positive are much more frequent than negatives). The subject is a nominal group that creates the “substance”, someone or something to which the speaker assigns responsibility for what is being said. The residue is what remains apart from subject and finite, and is made up of 3 different kinds of functional features: predicator (adds something and it is part of the verbal group- it specifies active/ passive), complement (it is not a subject, but it can be choose as subject any nominal group which are not playing the role of subject are Complement) and adjunct (circumstances – when, why, how, where). Appraisal (in functional terms) is a strategy to express judgements and evaluations that cannot be limited to definite grammar structures. Martin elaborated the idea that interpersonal discourse systems include negotiation , by which speakers enact exchanges in interaction and appraisal , by which speakers negotiate their attitudes, opinions, beliefs. appraisal is a way to understand whether the speaker believes something is good or bad, positive or negative, advisable or unadvisable and so on. Martin argues that we may divide these scales and systems into definite categories, constructing a tripartite system constituted by affect (when we tend to put more emphasis on what is felt by the speaker) , judgement and appreciation , when we put more emphasis on the people or things we feel something for.
BASIC NOTIONS ON THE TEXTUAL METAFUNCTION. The textual metafunction is a connection between the experiential and the interpersonal ones. It gives amalgam to discourse foregrounding the most important element of the clause, or better, what the speaker wants to foreground in the clause. We have seen that the experiential metafunction is concerned with the content, with how we construct the world, while the interpersonal metafunction deals with or way of establishing and enacting relationship with one another. How these two are connected to one another? We need a third metafunction, which is concerned with how meanings are arranged in the clause. Halliday said that for this third metafunction clause expresses a message, under the experiential light it is a representation and from the perspective of the interpersonal metafunction it is an exchange. In English the foregrounded element in the clause is called the Theme it is the element which goes first in a clause. What comes after is labelled the Rheme. We can find them in a title or advertising because they are catch phrases.
Record companies Plan affordable alternatives Theme Rheme
Directly connected to thematic equative is the predicated theme , which formal grammar labels as a “cleft sentence”. It may be the subject, complement or adjunct.
It is you Who has been blamed It is a commonplace That women need more care and support It wasn’t until late night That we heard of him
Theme Rheme
Theme and mood. In declarative clauses, usually subject and theme are conflated. This is referred by Halliday and Matthiessen as unmarked theme. when the theme is other than the subject, we will call it marked theme , which is usually an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase. Interrogative clauses are of two kinds: yes/no question (where the theme is made up of the finite) and wh-questions (where the theme is the element that embodies the requested information: who, what, where, how, when). In imperative clauses the basic message is “I want you to do something”. So the verb is in the thematic position. The theme includes only one of the experiential elements: it can thus be either the process, the participant or circumstances topical theme. We may encounter a multiple theme , that is a theme preceded by one or more of the elements like process, participant etc. Another important concept is that of Information Unit. The resources that are deployed to construct a text are structural and cohesive. The structure is given by the resources yielded by grammar. It represents what is already known ( given ) and what is still unknown ( new ). The new element is obligatory, while the given may be optional. The theme is what the speaker selects as starting point, while the given is what the listener already know. Seminal concepts for the understanding of how texts function is provided in the analysis of cohesion and coherence. A thext is an intersubjective event, in which speaker and listener exchange meanings. Texture is what makes a text into a coherent piece of language. One aspect is cohesion, which deals with how clauses are integrated to become a whole. Coherence is about the relationships between texts and may or may not be indicated by markers of cohesion. Clauses in combination. Another important metafunction is the logical metafunction it goes beyond the single clause and allows the production of larger units, where two or more clauses are strung together to produce new configuration of meanings. Punctuation in written language serves the purpose to signal points of connection from one clause to another. In spoken language, we perceive chunks of language which go beyond the clause. Relationships between clauses are of interdependency or taxis. Depending on the status of the relationship, we may have paratactic or hypotactic relationships , also known in traditional grammar as co-ordination and subordination, where we find logical dependency whether the clauses stand to one another in a relationship of equal status or subordination. These dimensions are called taxis or dependency and logico-semantic relations. As regards logico- semantic relations, a basic distinction is between expansion and projection. Broadly speaking, the expanding clause expands on the meaning of the other clause, while the projecting clause (usually called reported speech ) “project” another clause. Within the category of expansion , we have 3 sub-categories: elaboration (=, equals), extension (+, “is added to”), and enhancement (x, “is multiplied by”). An elaborating clause does not add any new element to the message, but is limited to provide more information about what has already been said. In many cases, paratactic elaborating clauses are apposition to the preceding clause. Extending: the extending clause extends another by addition, replacement or alternative. Paratactic extension is what is traditionally called co-ordination. Enhancing : hypotactic enhancing clauses are traditionally called adverbial clauses, as they are very similar to the role played by adjuncts. Projection: is described by Halliday as “the logical-semantic relationship whereby a clause comes to function not as a direct representation of experience but as a representation of a linguistic representation”. Projections of verbal clauses (what is said) are called locution , while projections of mental clauses (what is thought) are called ideas. As regards the mode of projection, we have quotes (paratactic quoting) and reports (hypotactic reporting).
AN INTRODUCTION TO MULTIMODAL STUDIES.
What is multimodality? Multimodal studies are based on approaches that provide a method of analyzing texts that include a range of sets of semiotic resources that users draw o and put together in a given communicative event to produce an intended meaning. SEMIOTIC RESOURCE: meaning-making source/element represented by colors, gestures, postures, images, music etc. They assume importance from the context and produce meaning working together (through the context). Semiotic resources may be arranged by people in different ways to produce and exchange meanings in a communicative environment. Language can be more complex than the mere notion of clause or even clause complex allows us to think. Multimodal approaches to communication claim that language alone cannot account for the whole range of potentialities that communication affords. No text is monomodal. This means that all kinds of texts present an array of features that cannot be ascribed to just one semiotic resource. Even though this densely written page may seem monomodal at first glance, it is actually also constructed around the logic of the spatial and graphical arrangements of items. For example, bold or italics signal a specific textual message. Jewitt argues that multimodality is based on 4 basic theoretical assumptions:
