UNIT 1: MEANING IN LANGUAGE
Language→ resource for:
● Construining
● interpreting ➡meanings in the context in which they occur
→ Speakers or writers use language depending on the “topic” or subject matter, who they
are talking or writing to and what the work language is doing in a particular communicative
situation→ Language is always used in context which influences the linguistic choices
that speakers make.
→ When we use language, we represent the world and we interact with others, creating and
maintaining social relations. These are abstract functions of language or metafunctions,
which are represented in all languages. All of them have developed resources to express
ideas and to link them logically (ideational metafunction) and to assign speech roles and
express judgements and attitudes (interpersonal metafunction).
→ All languages have developed resources to organize these meanings in texts which are
coherent and cohesive. These resources belong to the textual metafunction, through which
ideational and interpersonal meanings are organized as a text.
→ These three meanings are present every time we use language, which means that texts
are the product of the interrelation among these three components.
→ Language is always produced, exchanged or received as text, not as isolated clauses and
it is for this reason that the unit of analysis in SFL is the text.
Language opens up a range of options and our choices acquire meaning in relation to the
other linguistic choices that could have been made but were not. Choices can be made in
relation to the organization of information in the clause. These choices realize textual
meaning and are related to the context in which the clause is produced.
The difference between Formal Grammar and Functional Grammar
➔ Formal Grammar sees grammar as a set of rules which specify all the possible
grammatical structure of the language.In this approach, there is a clear distinction
between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. So the basic concern of this
approach is with the forms of grammatical structures and their relationship to one
another. It refers to grammar in isolation.
➔ Functional Grammar sees language as a system of communication and analyzes
grammar to discover how it is organized to allow speakers and writers to make and
exchange meanings. The focus is usually on the appropriateness of a form for a
particular communicative purpose in a particular context.The primary concern is with
the functions of structures and their constituents and with their meaning in context. It
refers to grammar and its context.
THE PLACE OF LEXICOGRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE:
→ Language is a stratified system.
→ The strata vary in their degree of abstraction→ each stratum is realized by the stratum
immediately below.
→ The strata in the organization of this hierarchical system are discourse-semantics,
lexicogrammar and phonology/graphology.
→ Lexicogrammar is organized hierarchically as a rank scale
, → Relationship of composition → The highest unit on the scale of rank is clauses→
Clauses are made up of groups or phrases→ and they are made up of words.
Test for constituency:
There are some tests that can be used to divide a clause into its constituents.
1) Movability: fan element is an immediate clause constituent, it is likely to be
independently movable.
2) Substitution: Elements which are acting together as a single clause constituents should
be reducible to a single substituted item.Forexample,with a nominal group you should be
able to substitute it with a pronoun;with a verbal group you should be able to compress
the verbal meaning into a lexical verb.
Lexicogrammar strata
Rank refers to different levels of organization within grammar.Theranksare: word,
group/phrase, clause and sentence.
Sentences and Words are two ranks of grammatical organization. It is necessary to
recognize ranks between a sentence and a word.These units are called Groups.One group
may consist of one or two words.And the rank between a sentence and a group is called
Clause which consist of a sentence, which also consist of groups.
→ Class Terms like noun and verb are names of word classes.The same class level are also
used to label groups.
Classes of words:
●Noun (Pronouns are a subcategory of a noun, thus they are into the noun class group)
●Adjective
●Verb
●Adverb
→ Phrases: A group can also be called a Phrase,but the only phrase that is not called group
is the Prepositional Phrase.
→ Embedding: it is a case where one of the noun groups contains within it a clause. Cases
of this kind, where one unit is used as a constituent of another unit at the same or at a lower
rak, is known as Embedding.
→ Defining relative clauses will always be embedded. Ex: People who live in glass houses
shouldn’t throw stones.
→ One of the groups in the example(people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones)
contains within it a clause ( who lives in glass houses). Cases of this kind where one unit is
used as a constituent of another unit at the same or a lower rank, are known as Embedding.
Ranking Clauses (Usual order)
●Clause
●Group
●Word
(Embedding)
●Clause ●Clause ●Word
●Group ●Clause ●Word
Meaning in Grammar
There are three types of meanings within grammatical structures and those can be identified
as:
●Experiential Meaning: It has to do with the ways language represents our experiences of
the world as well as the inner world of our thoughts and feelings. It is concerned with how we
Language→ resource for:
● Construining
● interpreting ➡meanings in the context in which they occur
→ Speakers or writers use language depending on the “topic” or subject matter, who they
are talking or writing to and what the work language is doing in a particular communicative
situation→ Language is always used in context which influences the linguistic choices
that speakers make.
→ When we use language, we represent the world and we interact with others, creating and
maintaining social relations. These are abstract functions of language or metafunctions,
which are represented in all languages. All of them have developed resources to express
ideas and to link them logically (ideational metafunction) and to assign speech roles and
express judgements and attitudes (interpersonal metafunction).
→ All languages have developed resources to organize these meanings in texts which are
coherent and cohesive. These resources belong to the textual metafunction, through which
ideational and interpersonal meanings are organized as a text.
→ These three meanings are present every time we use language, which means that texts
are the product of the interrelation among these three components.
→ Language is always produced, exchanged or received as text, not as isolated clauses and
it is for this reason that the unit of analysis in SFL is the text.
Language opens up a range of options and our choices acquire meaning in relation to the
other linguistic choices that could have been made but were not. Choices can be made in
relation to the organization of information in the clause. These choices realize textual
meaning and are related to the context in which the clause is produced.
The difference between Formal Grammar and Functional Grammar
➔ Formal Grammar sees grammar as a set of rules which specify all the possible
grammatical structure of the language.In this approach, there is a clear distinction
between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. So the basic concern of this
approach is with the forms of grammatical structures and their relationship to one
another. It refers to grammar in isolation.
➔ Functional Grammar sees language as a system of communication and analyzes
grammar to discover how it is organized to allow speakers and writers to make and
exchange meanings. The focus is usually on the appropriateness of a form for a
particular communicative purpose in a particular context.The primary concern is with
the functions of structures and their constituents and with their meaning in context. It
refers to grammar and its context.
THE PLACE OF LEXICOGRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE:
→ Language is a stratified system.
→ The strata vary in their degree of abstraction→ each stratum is realized by the stratum
immediately below.
→ The strata in the organization of this hierarchical system are discourse-semantics,
lexicogrammar and phonology/graphology.
→ Lexicogrammar is organized hierarchically as a rank scale
, → Relationship of composition → The highest unit on the scale of rank is clauses→
Clauses are made up of groups or phrases→ and they are made up of words.
Test for constituency:
There are some tests that can be used to divide a clause into its constituents.
1) Movability: fan element is an immediate clause constituent, it is likely to be
independently movable.
2) Substitution: Elements which are acting together as a single clause constituents should
be reducible to a single substituted item.Forexample,with a nominal group you should be
able to substitute it with a pronoun;with a verbal group you should be able to compress
the verbal meaning into a lexical verb.
Lexicogrammar strata
Rank refers to different levels of organization within grammar.Theranksare: word,
group/phrase, clause and sentence.
Sentences and Words are two ranks of grammatical organization. It is necessary to
recognize ranks between a sentence and a word.These units are called Groups.One group
may consist of one or two words.And the rank between a sentence and a group is called
Clause which consist of a sentence, which also consist of groups.
→ Class Terms like noun and verb are names of word classes.The same class level are also
used to label groups.
Classes of words:
●Noun (Pronouns are a subcategory of a noun, thus they are into the noun class group)
●Adjective
●Verb
●Adverb
→ Phrases: A group can also be called a Phrase,but the only phrase that is not called group
is the Prepositional Phrase.
→ Embedding: it is a case where one of the noun groups contains within it a clause. Cases
of this kind, where one unit is used as a constituent of another unit at the same or at a lower
rak, is known as Embedding.
→ Defining relative clauses will always be embedded. Ex: People who live in glass houses
shouldn’t throw stones.
→ One of the groups in the example(people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones)
contains within it a clause ( who lives in glass houses). Cases of this kind where one unit is
used as a constituent of another unit at the same or a lower rank, are known as Embedding.
Ranking Clauses (Usual order)
●Clause
●Group
●Word
(Embedding)
●Clause ●Clause ●Word
●Group ●Clause ●Word
Meaning in Grammar
There are three types of meanings within grammatical structures and those can be identified
as:
●Experiential Meaning: It has to do with the ways language represents our experiences of
the world as well as the inner world of our thoughts and feelings. It is concerned with how we
