LSA SymposiumFunctions, Functionalism, and Linguistics

Systemic Functional LinguisticsBasic Principles

The proof of the pudding is in the [piano] playing

Bill Greaves and Jim Benson.

greaves@glendon.yorku.cajbenson@gmail.com

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Outline

• Malinowski • Metafunctions, strata, units, systems,

structures, instantiation. • “Trinocular Vision”• Ape-Human dialogue in English• Literature: 18th C. Pope epigram• References

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Malinowski

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METAFUNCTIONSSFL is all about the work that language does

• Ideational work–Experiential: Representing the world as

symbols–Logical Sorting out the internal connections

in language.• Interpersonal work: Enacting social

relationships• Textual work: Weaving the ideational and

interpersonal work to engender a message

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STRATA

• Context (Culture – Register – Instance)

• Semantics• Lexicogrammar• Phonology• Phonetics

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Where does context come from? 1. It comes from the experiential meanings we create in our semantic choices.

1. Experiential meanings and fields of discourse.

• Experiential choices construe (create) our fields of discourse—and our fields of discourse push our semantics and lexicogrammar as the field expands.

• “A fixed tripple of unit vectors, corresponding to a fixed choice of a (right handed) xyz coordinate system” is an instance of field restricted language necessary to play a role in the context of mathematics.

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Where does context come from? 2. It comes from the interpersonal meanings we enact in our semantic choices.

2. Interpersonal meanings and tenor of discourse.

• Interpersonal choices enact our tenors of discourse – our role relationships.

• And as our society changes in social habits this puts pressure on our semantics, lexicogrammar and phonology to handle, for example, new norms of politeness.

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Where does context come from? 3 It comes from our inventory of genres.

• 3. Textual meanings weave interpersonal and experiential meanings into the various genres we find in our culture.

• Learning how to shape seminar presentations and essays (Theme and Rheme and Given and New information), for example, is as painful a part of university education as learning the experiential semantic categories of the various disciplines.

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UNITS• EXCHANGE: TURN: MOVE (in

interpersonal semantics)

• CLAUSE: GROUP/PHRASE: WORD: MORPHEME (in lexicogrammar)

• TONE UNIT: FOOT: SYLLABLE: PHONEME (in phonology)

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SYSTEMS• In semantics there is, for example, a MOVE

system network:–[Give] / [Demand]–[Goods & Services] / [Information].

• In lexicogrammar there is a MOOD system:–[Indicative] (+Finite +Subject) / [Imperative]–If [Indicative], then [declarative]

(Subject^Finite)/ [interrogative (Finite^Subject]

• In phonology there is a TONE system:• [tone 1] / [tone 2] / [tone 3] / [tone 4] / [tone 5]

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An example: TONE choices in phonology realizing delicate MOOD: KEY choices in

lexicogrammar

Consider the following utterances all containing the [declarative] wording I like it (Subject^Finite^Predicator^Complement), spoken in reference to a painting seen at an art gallery

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5 different DECLARATIVE: KEY CHOICESHallilday – Greaves Intonation in the Grammar of English, pg. 50

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Realization chain: lexicogrammar: phonology: phonetics: instance

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STRUCTURES in lexicogrammar

• Textual work: – Theme ^Rheme: I like hamburg / hamburg I like

• Interpersonal work: – Finite ^ Subject : Do you like hamburg? I don’t!; – Subject ^ Finite: Everyone likes hamburg

• Ideational work:– Actor Process Circumstance: Sue drove carefully

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STRUCTURESThe structures vary independently:

– Sue drove carefully – Carefully, Sue drove (around it)• Same ideational work; different textual work.

– Sue drove carefully – Did Sue drive carefully? • Same ideational work; different interpersonal

work– Sue drove carefully – Sue drove a pickup truck

• Same textual and interpersonal work – different ideational work.

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INSTANTIATIONClimate and weather are the same thing, but they vary in

instantiation. • The Canadian climate is the “big picture” built up by all of the instances of

Canadian weather that we have on record.

• As the instances change, the climate changes. (If global warming continues the Canadian days (weather) will get hotter, and the Canadian climate will support tropical plants.)

– Every time you (and I) (and students in English medium courses in India) talk, it’s an instance of English.

• All the instances of English talk since, say the year 700? Have built the “big picture” of global English.

• More locally, all the instances of English talk in Canada have built the “big picture” of Canadian English.

• Every instance of a Canadian doctor talking with a clinician has helped build the “tighter picture (register)” of Canadian medical English.

• Every instance of s/he is helping (or failing) to build an English that responds to our current social values.

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The dimensions of Systemic Functional Linguistics

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Trinocular Vision“No man is an island” • Nor is any stratum a thing unto itself.• A one dimensional view just won’t do.• Each stratum exists as a set of relationships with the strata

above and below.• Segmental phonemes, for example, exist as a construal

relationship with WORDS in lexicogrammar. – /k/ is a phoneme class because it helps construe the word cat in the

stratum above.– /k/ is a phoneme class because it can be realized as a recognizable

phonetic class of sounds in the stratum below: [k].

• Segmental phonemes exist as a realization relationship with phonetic classes, e.g. IPA.

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One dimensional vision(for example SEMANTICS)

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Trinocular Vision: Central eye on semanticslexicogrammatical realizations

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Central eye on lexicogrammar:phonological realizations

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Central eye on phonologyphonetic realizations

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Central eye on phoneticsInstantial sound realizations, described through physics or anatomy.

Ape – Human Dialogues

in English

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Two skulls From Benson and Greaves Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse

http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=5

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So what is this a picture of?

• Brain sizes. 3/3 and 1/3.– All sorts of biology is relevant. In this case inter-species

overlap. Bonobos and humans have 99.7% of their genes in common. We diverged only about 6 million years ago.

– A bonobo brain is HUGE in terms of brain – body mass ratio. (Humans are right off the scale.)

• Social context. The position represents dialogue.– We work with enculturated bonobos.– How Kanzi happened.

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Marks (and sound) in a social context

How Kanzi happened• Using a keyboard that “spoke”, Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

was trying to teach Matata, Kanzi’s 30 year old wild caught mother, WORDS.

• Then, so it was thought, Matata could do SENTENCES.• But Matata didn’t like her WORD lessons and didn't learn

WORDS much less do SENTENCES.• Infant Kanzi was a pain in the neck. Always in the way.• But when Mata was sent away Kanzi spontaneously used

the keyboard to communicate with Sue!• Sue said “Skip the grammar lessons. Give him a warm

cultural context and the keyboard.” The rest is history.

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PHONEMES are abstract classes—and so are GRAPHEMES

We are all familiar with the English PHONEME and GRAPHEME systems. But to make their abstract nature perhaps a bit clearer, here is an alternative GRAPHEME system.

It was developed by Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and used by bonobo apes at the Language Research Center.

There are 384 GRAPHEMES. These directly realize a set of 384 LEXICOGRAMMATICAL WORD choices. The next slide shows a number of the tokens:

When one GRAPHEME token is pressed, a computer speaker produces the sound of its word.

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This is part of one of three panels of GRAPHEME tokens

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The lexigram system, which can be drawn on by humans or enculturated bonobos

– These lexigrams constitute a SYSTEM: a choice must be made from the 384 terms in the system

– It is a “flat” system: There is no rank scale. In formal terms, /coffee/ simply means not any of the other 383 choices. It is not a graphological WORD consisting of LETTERS. It is the grapheme /coffee/. Full stop.

– Like other phoneme or grapheme systems, the lexigram system exists as a set of construal and realizational relationships with the strata above and below.

– Looking upwards, the lexigram /coffee/ construes the word coffee in the lexicogrammar.

– Looking down, the word coffee is written on the computer keyboard as one of 384 grapheme choices recognized by the size color and shape of their graphetic realizations, but each word is spoken by the computer speaker as a string of English phonemes recognized by their phonetic characteristics.

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Lexigrams: the graphemes /orange/ /Mary/ /melon/ /coffee/ and graphetic realizations

These graphemes are classes

• Now, here is evidence that a GRAPHEME is a class, with widely differing allographs at the PHON/GRAPHETIC stratum. In the video on the next slide Panbanisha is learning how to produce her allographs for the grapheme [coffee] Click on the image in the next slide.

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Allographs of /coffee/—click below

Examples of language genre and music genre

Recipe Sonata form• The goal is to make cole slaw• The stages are labeled INGREDIENTS ^ PREPARATION• Each stage contributes a part of the overall meaning: you have to assemble the ingredients before you can combine them• Predictable compositional structure

• The goal is to make the first movement of a sonata or symphony• The stages are labeled EXPOSITION ^ DEVELOPMENT ^ RECAPITULATION• Each stage contributes a part of the overall meaning: you have to have something to develop, and you have to have an end as well as a beginning• Predictable compositional structure

Panbanisha, Sue, and Peter Gabriel co-construct a speech genre (Bakhtin 1986)

• A “jam session”. The goal is for Panbanisha to make music at the keyboard interactively with Peter Gabriel

• The musical interaction is inherently dialogic

• The stages in the surrounding conversations:

• SONG TOPIC NEGOTIATION: Panbanisha takes the lead in deciding on a song topic• SONG PRODUCTION: Panbanisha plays the song (with verbal FACILITATION by Sue and Peter where necessary)• EVALUATION: Sue and Peter appraise the song• CODA: Sue and Peter discuss its significance

1. Ideational work:

Re-presenting sense experience as symbol. FIRST ORDER (Dealing with “the world”)

1) Ideational: An ape and a piano

Peter Gabriel brought three members of his band to interact with the bonobo apes (99.6% of our genes) Kanzi and Panbanisha and their caregiver Dr. Sue Savage Rumbaugh.

He presented them with an electronic keyboard.

Here is a clip of Panbanisha and the keyboard near the beginning of the first day:

(Next slide)

Panbanisha and keyboard:Day 1.

What happens next: 3 days of multi-modal bilingual trialogueThe media:

• Human voices• Computer speaker emitting male English words• Arbitrary Graphic computer keys• Ape voice

The languages: • English; • Western music

The three participants:• Panbanisha (bonobo)• Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (human)• Peter Gabriel (human)

FIELD OF DISCOURSEGoal directed social action. Not the same thing as subject.

“What am I?” is a good test. If our goal is to make music, I’m a musician.

Ideational strata

Bending the Field of Discourse

Panbanisha makes a computer say Orange, Banana.

Opening field: Caregiving: dining: dining on fruit: dining on orange and banana

Peter and Sue bend the field through qualification:

Song about oranges and bananas

The field is now music. oranges and bananas together designate a class of songs.

Other “bends”

• Grape Song

• Grooming Song

2: Interpersonal work:

Enacting social RelationshipsFIRST ORDER (Dealing with “the world”)

From Halliday-Greaves, Pg 50:[declarative]:[key] system

(tone 5 has a second instance with Sue speaking)

Rank Scale: EXCHANGE:TURN:MOVE“Grooming Song” EXCHANGE

• Upper case – sound from a LEXIGRAM

• Sue: QUIET. Quiet things, and grooming is a QUIET THING. It's a quiet thing.

• Peter: That's true. Let's start it.

• Sue whisper: Quiet. Can you play a grooming song.

• Peter: Can you play a grooming song?

• Sue: whisper: I want to hear a grooming song. Play a real quiet grooming song.

• Pan: GROOM.

• Pan (piano): 2 NOTES (followed by jam session)

“Grooming Song” exchange

(Upper case -- /*/1 QUIET=computer saying the word in male voice with falling contour when Sue presses the lexigram key)

Sue: /*/1 QUIET /*/5 quiet things // 5 ^ and */grooming is a /*/ 1QUIET /*/1THING // 5 ^ it's a */quiet thing //

Peter: // 1 ^that's */true //1 ^ let's */ start it //

Sue whisper: // 1 quiet // 2 can you / play a / grooming */ song //

Peter: // 2 can you / play a / grooming */ song //

Sue: whisper: //1 I want to /hear a */grooming song. //1 Play a /real /quiet /grooming */song //

Pan: // 1 GROOM // (Panbanisha presses lexigram)

Pan (piano): 2 NOTES

Grooming Song exchange

Bottom line: The sight, touch and sound of the keyboard have been re-

presented as components of Panbanisha’s new social role as a musician involved in a jam session.

Language? Well, the trialogue didn’t take place in German! Or Chinese! Pambanisha was, by selecting and pressing computer lexigrams keys, producing sounds that were English. The clauses to which she responded were English clauses. The semantic network – the meanings which changed her from a disinterested “couch potato” in front of the keyboard into a full participation in a jam session was enacted through choices in the English mood system. And the culture which was created through this, although a unique bonobo-human culture, was composed of English speakers.

3: Textual work:

Weaving ideational and interpersonal meaning together into message.

SECOND ORDER (Dealing with the first order)

Textual work done in different strata

Work done by the lexicogrammar stratum:

Theme – Rheme structure. Grammatical work realized in lexicogrammatical structure

Work done by the phonology stratum:

Given – New structure. Grammatical work realized in phonological structure.

Clause 1: // 5 ^ and */grooming is a /*/ 1QUIET /*/1THING

Clause 2: // 5 ^ it's a */quiet thing //

Grooming is Theme of the first clause. (Grooming is the first ideational element.)

The word it is Theme of the second clause. (It is the first ideational element.)

The first clause is spoken as three information units because the computer speaker always gives a [tone 1] Tonic utterance. The second clause is a single information unit.

Quiet is New in the second clause. (Why? Because the speaker is boss. When she places Tonic (*/ indicates the most significant pitch change) on the syllable quiet she forces us to treat the word as New.)

Thing is Given. (Why? Anything after New is being treated by the speaker as Given.)

PART TWO

DOG and

COURTIER

Register in a written literary text:two spoken interpretations

Frederick, Prince of Wales had a stately home at Kew. In 1736 the poet Alexander Pope gave him a puppy complete with a collar inscribed:

I am his Highness’ Dog at Kew; Pray tell me Sir, whose Dog are you?

BG JB

The way into the poem through CONTEXT

The functional questions are:

–what are the ideational and

–what are the interpersonal choices which create this imagined world, and

– how are these choices woven together into a recognizable literary genre?

GENERAL to SPECIFIC

Generality• We can think of CONTEXT at any level of generality:

– All the contexts that have been created over time• Commerce: The first attempt to barter• Sport: snowboarding• Gender based power relationships in Homer’s Greece• An unlimited (we can always create new ones) number

– Contexts of a clearly defined “register”: a discussion between skipper and crew about whether or not to set a spinnaker at the next mark in the race. This is a slice towards the instance end. In such a tight register huge ranges of language choice are simply not up for grabs.

– The context being construed, enacted and engendered in these instances: two particular readings of Pope’s epigram.

SFL focuses is on the three kinds of work that language does

SFL is an “appliable” linguistic theory. That it to say, it focuses on the three kinds of work that language does.

• Ideational work. Construing FIELD of DISCOURSE:– Experiential: re-presenting, as symbols, the world we

encounter through our senses – Logical: organizing our reasoning on the basis of our

experience

• Interpersonal work. Enacting TENOR of DISCOURSE: Enacting our relationship with others.

• Textual work: Engendering MODE of DISCOURSE: Weaving ideational and interpersonal meaning together to create message.

FIELD, MODE and TENORThree dimensions of CONTEXT

Stratification: from CONTEXT to PHONETICS

The FIELD component of REGISTER

EXPERIENTIAL WORKThree views of a dog’s world

• HISTORY would shed light on cause and effect in the linear flow of events unfolding in time: how “His Highness” came to live in Kew, etc.

• POLITICAL SCIENCE might take a less linear view and focus on the effectiveness of “His Highness’s” place in the governance of England.

• SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS sheds light on the role that language plays in creating and maintaining the social world in which His Highness, His Highness’ dog, and His Highness’ courtiers play out their respective lives (just as language played a role creating the three day context in which Panbanisha grew to be a jazz pianist).

EXPERIENTIAL: construing FIELDCONTEXT isn’t the material setting; it is something we make

• The tool we make field with is (mostly) language.• This room has four walls, a floor, a ceiling, and rows of

chairs with people in them.• The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one

holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire . . .

• See! Just by language I have (sort of) changed the field to a Eighteenth Century religious discussion in which I have great social power because I’m preaching a sermon. But the room hasn’t changed.

The Field of the epigram

In this epigram the work of construing field is done primarily through lexis:– His Highness (Lexical set: My Lord, Your

Majesty, Your Grace, etc.)– Kew (Lexical set: Kew, Windsor, Buck House,

etc.)– Whose dog (Important lexis because the vocative

“Sir” of “Pray tell me Sir,” predicts e.g.Whose Private Secretary, but definitely not whose *dog.

INTERPERSONAL WORK MOVE choice in dialogue creates

coupled roles• The [statement] I am His Highness’dog

places the imagined audience (courtier at Kew) in the complementary role of acknowledger.

• The [command] pray tell me Sir places Sir in the complementary role of complier.

• The [question] whose dog are you? places Sir in the complementary role of answerer.

INTERPERSONAL WORKSEMANTICS: MOVE system

[statement] I am His Highness’ Dog at Kew

[command] pray tell me Sir

[question] Whose dog are you?Projected by the previous [command]

Pray tell me Sir!

[projected]:[question]:[lexical]Whose dog are you?

How do we respond to the created situation?

We can read this as though we are overhearing one half of a conversation between the dog and a courtier

Or we can read it in the shoes of the courtier, as though the dog is speaking to us.

In the first case, we may be amused. In the second case, even though we know

full well that it is fiction, it might not seem quite so funny.

TEXTUAL WORK: Weaving Field and Tenor in the [spoken] Mode.

What follows are annotations in Praat of these two different spoken version of the epigram.

The top tier displays the waveform and the second the spectrogram.

The third tier displays the words, with */ indicating that a particular word is Tonic.

The fourth tier distinguishes Given from New information (Location of the Tonic).

The fifth tier explains interpersonal meaning (shape of the Tonic).

The bottom tier identifies the speaker.

Summary of Praat displays

Similarities: Greaves and Benson wove field and tenor together in identical ways in the first line of the couplet with two information units, and the same distribution of Given and New information.

Differences: In the second line they also had the same number of information units, but these were distributing New and Given information differently.

The main difference in sound was not textual but interpersonal: Benson’s voice quality was markedly nasty and signaled his ironic interpretation.

Greaves: I am His Highness Dog at Kew

Greaves: Pray tell me Sir, whose Dog are you

Benson: I am His Highness Dog at Kew

Benson: Pray tell me Sir, whose Dog are you

The End.

But if your appetite is whetted . . . . .

Amuse gueule

1) Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse

http://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=5&keyword=benson Edited by: James D. Benson, William S. GreavesSeries: Functional LinguisticsHardback Price£60.00/$95.00Paperback Price£15.00/$25.00DescriptionPAPERBACK PUBLISHED JULY 2009

Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse asks the question ‘what do interactions between apes and humans mediated by language tell us?’. In order to answer this question the authors explore language-in-context, drawing on a multi-leveled, multi-functional linguistics. The levels are context of culture, context of situation, semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology; and the functions are ideational, interpersonal, and textual.

2) http://onthehuman.org/2011/01/human-language-human-consciousness/comment-page-1/ “Human Language—Human Consciousness” Sue Savage Rumbaugh. See also the comments by Tom Givon and Paul Thibault.

AppetizersLeong Ping Alvin:

http://www.alvinleong.info/sfg/sfgtrans.htmlThis cheerful website is a great help when getting into the

lexicogrammatical stratum.

Key Terms in Systemic Functional Linguistics [Paperback] (Continuum, 2010) by

Christian Matthiessen (Author), Marvin Lam (Author), Kazuhiro Teruya (Author). This is very useful for all strata.

Working with Functional Grammar (Arnold, 1997) by J. R.

Martin, Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen and Claire Painter also focuses on the lexicogrammar. 

Appetizers

An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. (2nd ed. Continuum 2005) by Suzanne Eggins.

 Intonation in the Grammar of English

(Equinnox 2008) by M.A.K. Halliday,and William S. Greaves.

http://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=7

Focuses on phonology and phonetics, but is also an introduction to SFL theory. Has a CD with “hot” sound and video icons.

 

Appetizers

Analysing Casual Conversationby Suzanne Eggins, Diana Slade

http://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=96&keyword=

 Introducing Functional Grammar (2nd ed

Arnold Publication) by Geoff Thompson. 

Entrees LEXICOGRAMMAR: SYSTEM NETWORKS

Lexicogrammatical Cartography: English Systems by Christian Matthiessen (Tokyo: International Language Sciences Publishers, 1995) http://www.isfla.org/Systemics/Print/Books/Book.lexcartog.

Expensive. Hard to get. Important.

Entrees SEMANTICS: IDEATIONAL METAFUNCTION

 

Construing Experience Through Meaning: A Language-Based Approach to Cognition (Open Linguistics) [Paperback] (Continuum 1999/2006) by M.A.K. Halliday , Christian Matthiessen.

Important.

Entrees LEXICOGRAMMAR

(Although the title says “introduction”, this is much more easily digested as an entrée.)

An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd ed Hodder Arnold 2004) by M. A. K. Halliday and Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen

Important.

Other restaurants

• http://www.isfla.org/Systemics/index.html

• http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/• http://www.yorku.ca/cummings/nasfla/

links/index.html