Systemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional

linguistics (SFL) is a model of grammar that was developed by

Michael Halliday in the 1960s.[1] It is part of a broad social semiotic
approach to language called systemic linguistics. The term "systemic"
refers to the view of language as "a network of systems, or interrelated
sets of options for making meaning";[2] The term "functional" indicates
that the approach is concerned with meaning, as opposed to formal
grammar, which focuses on word classes such as nouns and verbs,
typically without reference beyond the individual clause.

Systemic functional grammar is concerned primarily with the choices

that the grammar makes available to speakers and writers.[1] These
choices relate speakers' and writers' intentions to the concrete forms
of a language. Traditionally the "choices" are viewed in terms of either
the content or the structure of the language used. In SFG, language is
analyzed in three different ways, or strata: semantics, phonology, and
lexicogrammar.[3] SFG presents a view of language in terms of both
structure (grammar) and words (lexis). The term "lexicogrammar"
describes this combined approach.
 Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a theory
of language centered around the notion of language
function.
 SFL accounts for the syntactic structure of language.
 It places the function of language as central (what
language does, and how it does it), in preference to
more structural approaches, which place the
elements of language and their combinations as
central.
 SFL starts at social context, and looks at how
language both acts upon, and is constrained by, this
social context.
A central notion is 'stratification', such that language is
analyzed in terms of four strata: Context, Semantics, Lexico-
Grammar and Phonology-Graphology.
1. Context concerns the Field (what is going on), Tenor (the
social roles and relationships between the participants), and
the Mode (aspects of the channel of communication, e.g.,
monologic/dialogic, spoken/written, +/- visual-contact, etc.).
2. Systemic semantics includes what is usually called
'pragmatics'. Semantics is divided into three components:
a) Ideational Semantics (the propositional content);
b)Interpersonal Semantics (concerned with speech-function,
exchange structure, expression of attitude, etc.);
c)Textual Semantics (how the text is structured as a message,
e.g., theme-structure, given/new, rhetorical structure etc.
3. The Lexico-Grammar concerns the syntactic
organization of words into utterances. Even here, a
functional approach is taken, involving analysis of
the utterance in terms of roles such as Actor,
Agent/Medium, Theme Mood, etc. (See Halliday
1994 for full description).
Four Stratification of Hallidays Theory:
1. Discourse  need contexts: (1) Socio-
culture and (2) situation
2. Semantics  represented in
metafunction (three meaning):
ideational, interpersonal, and textual
3. Lexico-grammar
4. Phonology Graphology.
The context of situation is made up of all the
phenomena which affect the discourse. In face-to-face
interaction, the context of situation includes the
immediate and wider environment in which the text
actually occurs, like the classroom in the case of a
teaching discourse, the shop or market in a sales
transaction, the workshop in the case of a discussion
about a gearbox replacement.
The context of culture is an intricate complex of
various social phenomena involving historical and
geographical settings but also more general aspects
like the field of the activity: education, medicine,
provision of goods and services in exchange for
money. Car maintenance discourse in a highly
hierarchical society may be different from that which
takes place in a relatively egalitarian society.
Classroom discourse takes place within a wider
cultural context of, say, university education or
secondary school education, or slightly more
specifically African university education, or Kenyan
University education.
The discipline in question also plays a part in the
context of culture: thus a physics lecture takes place
within the cultural practices and traditions of the field
of physics at large as well as in a particular education
system or institution.
 All meaning is situated:
•In a context of situation
• in a context of culture
Context of situation:
through the use of the register variables :
Types of meaning/Functions :

Influenced by the
field of discourse

Influenced by tenor
of discourse

Influenced by the
mode of discourse
 Context and text connection
context text
Semantics Lexicogrammar
(meanings) (wordings)
Context of culture
GENRE
Types of genre
Genre Social Generic Linguistic feature
function/purpose structure/stages

1. narrative To amuse, entertain -Orientation -Focus on specific

and to deal with - evaluation participants
actual or vicarious -Complication - use of material
experiences in -Resolution process
different ways -Re-orientation -Use relational
process
-Use temporal
conjunction and
temporal
circumstances
-Use of past tense
 genre Social Generic Linguistic feature
function/purpose structure/stages

2. spoof To retell event with -Orientation -Focus on specific

humorous twist - events participants
- twist - use of material
process
- circumstances of
time and place
-Use of past tense

To retell events for - orientation - focus on specific

3. recount the purpose of - events participants
informing or - re-orientation -Use of material
entertaining processes
-Circumstances of
time and place
-Use of past tense
-Focus on temporal
sequences
A representation of the model of language

mode
nt o ext

SI

CU
TU

LT
nt

A
ex f
t

TI

UR
Co

ON

E
of
Co

LANGUAGE

field REGISTER tenor

GENRE
 What do they mean?
Why can we make meaning from them?
Do they mean the same to everyone?
When I got home
last night, I could
not believe what
………….. had
done.

What choices are possible?

What’s the implication of the choice?
 What is implied about what a language
system has to encapsulate?
Culture What is the broad and specific context?
How does that impact on the text?
Genre What is the specific purpose of the text?
How is it organised to achieve this?
Topic What is being discussed / written
about?

Relationships Who is taking part? What is the nature

of their relationship? What are their
statuses and roles?
Mode Is it spoken, written or multimodal?
 What’s the context of the
A: Yes Please text?
B: Can I have those two? What accompanies the
A: Yes. One’s forty five. One’s twenty language?
five. What kind of a text is it?
B: And have you got ………………….. (genre)
What are the stages of
A: Yes. How many would you like? the text?
B: I’ll take two What is it about? (field)
A: Right. That’s four dollars twenty Who is involved? (tenor)
altogether.
Mode of communication?
B: Here you are. (mode)
A: Thankyou.
B: Thankyou.
Data reveals that the greatest What’s the context of
consumer spending traditionally the text?
What accompanies
occurs during the pre Christmas the language?
period. A consequence of this
spending is debt. The publicity and What kind of a text is
it? (genre)
expectation of a gift laden What are the stages
Christmas has lead some families to of the text?
incur debts beyond their means of What is it about?
(field)
immediate repayment, leading to
Who is involved?
the additional and spiralling cost of (tenor)
interest fees. A substantial Mode of
education program is required to communication?
(mode)
reverse this trend.
The role of language in education according to
Halliday
Knowledge is transmitted in social
contexts, through relationships, like those
of parent and child, or teacher and pupil,
or classmates, that are defined in the
value systems and ideology of the culture.
And the words that are exchanged in
these contexts get their meaning from
activities in which they are embedded,
which again are social activities with
social agencies and goals.
Halliday's  theory of "language as a social
semiotic" is a very sophisticated, elaborate,
"extravagant" (Halliday 1994) sociocultural
theory of language, which really builds upon,
extends, earlier theories of language and
culture and language as social interaction.
Its sophistication is in the way Halliday
specifies the semiotics of the culture at the
level of grammatical constituent, at the level
of clause.
 
The ideational, or cognitive function of
language is realized by choices of process
(verb) type; subject and object choices are
to do with "participants" and their semantic
roles; and "circumstances"  are to do with
adverbial choice:
For example.........

Question:
Is there a relation of Case Grammar theory
to Functional Grammar?
For example, the words which function as the
processes of a clause were classified traditionally
as verbs, and the meaningful unit which they
predicated was classified as a clause;
something/s, person/persons, or ideas or facts
or utterances or thoughts, were directly
involved in the process: these are classified as
'participants' in functional grammar and they are
to do with choices in Subject or Object roles in
the clause. The circumstances of the processes
were classified traditionally as adverbs
The interpersonal function is to do with the kinds
of communication roles chosen, together with
ways of assessing usuallity and probability: For
example, our choice of making a statement, asking a
question or giving an order is the foundation of the
communication roles. Speakers and writers also
position themselves in relation to their statement,
question or command by assessing usuallity,
obligation, probability. These functions are realised
by such modals as: sometimes, ought, perhaps.
The textual function of language;
because word order is central in the
structure of English the first word or phrase
(or clause in a clause complex) in the
clause/clause-complex will be the message
of the clause/clause complex. The thematic
organization of clauses is the foundation of
organization of language into meaningful
extended texts, whether those texts are
conversational or academic.