Introducing Functional Grammar 3rd editionIntroducing Functional Grammar, third edition, provides a user-friendly overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of the systemic functional grammar (SFG) model.
No prior knowledge of formal linguistics is required.
Rather than simply a record of proceedings (3rd International Conference on Functional Grammar, Amsterdam, June 1988), this volume contains revised and expanded papers from the conference and other papers inspired by the lively discussion there. The volume focuses on the nature of the structures assumed to underlie utterances in natural languages, in two respects. One area is the question of whether to expand the representations accepted in Functional Grammar (FG) in order to capture interpersonal functions, i.e., communication between speaker and hearer in a particular situation and context, to include, for example, aspect, tense, modality and illocutionary force.
This is the first textbook on Functional Discourse Grammar, a recently developed theory of language structure which analyses utterances at four independent levels of grammatical representation: pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic and phonological. The book offers a very systematic and highly accessible introduction to the theory: following the top-down organization of the model, it takes the reader step-by-step though the various levels of analysis (from pragmatics down to phonology), while at the same time providing a detailed account of the interaction between these different levels.
This book describes and evaluates alternative approaches within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to representing the structure of language at the level of form. It assumes no prior knowledge of SFL, and can therefore be read as an introduction to current issues within the theory. It will interest any linguist who takes a functional approach to understanding language.
The shift towards a sociolinguistic approach to the analysis of language in the last few decades has necessitated new definitions for a number of concepts that linguists have taken for granted for a long time. This volume attempts to demystify the important notions of ‘text’ and ‘context’ by providing clear definitions and examples within the assumptions of Systemic Functional (SF) linguistics.
