Flashcards on Systemic-Functional Grammar and Language Analysis
Systemic-Functional Grammar & Language Analysis Explained
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Systemic Functional Grammar Theory
61 cards
Card 1
Question: What are the three metafunctions in Systemic Functional Grammar and their primary purposes?
Answer: Experiential (representing/organizing our interpretation of the world), Interpersonal (interacting with others to enact change), Textual (organizing t
Card 2
Question: What does the experiential (ideational) metafunction express?
Answer: It expresses how we construe and represent our interpretation of the world (organizing experience and conceptualization).
Card 3
Question: What does the interpersonal metafunction express?
Answer: It expresses how language users interact in their social environment to enact change on others (social interaction, roles, and alignment).
Card 4
Question: What does the textual metafunction express?
Answer: It organizes the message so it makes sense and coheres to interlocutors (how the content is structured within the text).
Card 5
Question: How does Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) view language in relation to context?
Answer: SFG sees language as varying according to contexts of use; language is a system of options for making meaning shaped by its social functions.
Card 6
Question: What is register in SFG and what variables does it include?
Answer: Register is the set of context variables that systematically correspond to the three metafunctions: field, tenor, and mode.
Card 7
Question: What does the register variable 'field' denote?
Answer: Field denotes the type of social activity, topic (about-ness), degree of specialization, perspective of representation, and communicators' placement i
Card 8
Question: What does the register variable 'tenor' denote?
Answer: Tenor denotes social roles and alignments, relative social status and power, social distance (familiarity vs. distance), and the clause's mood structu
Card 9
Question: What does the register variable 'mode' denote?
Answer: Mode denotes language medium (spoken/written), communication channel, interactivity (dialogue/monologue), spontaneity, relation to the immediate situa
Card 10
Question: How does the systemic component of SFG differ from traditional formal approaches?
Answer: The systemic component foregrounds the paradigmatic axis (sets of options available to users) rather than focusing solely on syntagmatic structures.