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Lecture 8

Lecture 8. Functional Structures in Communication. What is functional grammar?. Functional grammar looks at how language works in terms of the functional relationships of its constituent parts, and the systems of CHOICES which we make whenever we use language.

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Lecture 8

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  1. Lecture 8 Functional Structures in Communication

  2. What is functional grammar? • Functional grammar looks at how language works in terms of the functional relationships of its constituent parts, and the systems of CHOICES which we make whenever we use language. • The term "functional" is used because it describes the approach which sees grammatical categories in terms of their communicative functions.

  3. Halliday and Hasan Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (born 1925) is a linguist who developed an internationally influential grammar model, the systemic functional grammar, originally by studying Chinese. The model has been applied to other languages as well; it is especially useful for describing non-Indo-European languages.

  4. Michael Halliday was born and grew up in England; he took his B.A. Honours degree in Modern Chinese Language and Literature at the University of London, then studied for three years in China (Peking University and Lingnan University), returning to take his Ph.D. in Chinese Linguistics at Cambridge. Having taught Chinese for a number of years he changed his field of specialization to linguistics and developed the systemic functional grammar, elaborating on the foundations laid by his British teacher J. R. Firth . His seminal paper on this model was published in 1961.

  5. He became Professor of Linguistics at the University of London in 1965. In 1976 he moved to Australia as Foundation Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney, where he remained until he retired. He has worked in various regions of language study , both theoretical and applied, and has been especially concerned with applying the understanding of the basic principles of language to the theory and practices of education. He received the status of emeritus professor of the University of Sydney and the Macquarie University in 1987, and is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong.

  6. Halliday on language “What a person can do in the linguistic sense,” Halliday claims, “that is what he can do as speaker/hearer, is equivalent to what he ‘can mean’; hence the description of language as a ‘meaning potential’”.

  7. When this potential meets a trigger –an intention to speak & an midwife –context, a meaningful sentences is uttered.

  8. Sentence A sentence is the largest unit of grammatical organization. With the capacity of generating sentences, human beings set out to use language to do things. Sentences are to an utterance what bricks are to a building.

  9. Being educated or not, an adult speaker has the ability to produce sentences. Sentences are generated from one’s internalized syntactic knowledge, whereas paragraphs, chapters, and other levels of written texts are organized with the knowledge learned from school training. Oral utterances do not need such rhetorical organization. No matter how long one speaks, what he produces is just a set of sentences

  10. I-language : E-language the internal mechanism of language, i.e. the way the human mind structures language Chomsky’s hobby the general patterns which emerge in the use of language Halliday’s hobby Key concepts

  11. Information structureGiven and new 从前有座山 山上有个庙 庙里有个老和尚 老和尚给小和尚讲故事 故事里说 从前有座山… The new information of a clause may become the given information of the next clause in an utterance so as to make a group of clauses cohesive in meaning.

  12. Conflict information ? • 从前有座山 • 山上有座庙 • 庙前有条路 • 路在山半腰

  13. e.g. A dialogue between a couple Wife:I need something to write with. Husband:There is a pen on the table. / A pen is on the table.

  14. In sayingThere is a pen on the tablethe husband is to provide some new information needed by A. In saying A pen is on the tablethe husband emphasizes the shared information.

  15. By sayingThere is a pen on the table the husband offers help to the wife. By saying A pen is on the table the husband shows his impatience and irritated the wife.

  16. Theme and Rheme -- thematic structure. According to Halliday, a Theme in English is always at the initial position of a clause, as “the point of departure” of the massage carried by one clause. The rest of the clause is called Rheme.

  17. Thematic structure • Theme: the framework or the point of departure of the message. • Rheme: what the addresser wants to convey about the Theme.

  18. John sat in the front seat. Analysis: John sat in the front seat. Theme Rheme subject predicate

  19. In the front seat sat John. Analysis: In the front seat sat John. Theme Rheme complement verb predicate subject

  20. Mary, would you like to go shopping with me? But I have to do some reading today!

  21. Interpersonal Theme: address listeners directly eg: Mary, would you like to go shopping with me? • Textual Theme: signal the beginning of a new move in the exchange eg:But I have to do some reading today! • Topical Theme: express the main topic of the clause eg: ButI have to …

  22. Well, children, the story is about to continue. Analysis: Well, children, the story is about to continue. textual interpersonal topical Theme Rheme Topical = experiential (Geoff Tompson)

  23. Marked & unmarked Theme: Definition: A Theme in declarative clauses is marked , if it is not the Subject. I had a little nut-tree. A wise old owl lived in an oak. What I want is a proper cup of coffee. Merrily we roll along. On Saturday night I lost my purse. A bag-pudding the King did make. What they could not eat that night the Queen next morning fried. Forgetit I never shall. Subject Subject Subject Adjunct Adjunct Complement Complement Predicator NP NP CP ADVP PP NP CP Fin. V unmarked marked

  24. Conclusion Information Structure (Listener- oriented) Thematic structure (Speaker- oriented)

  25. Topic-comment Jonathan has never been to America. subject predicate topic comment As for food, Jonathan prefers bread. subject predicate topic comment

  26. In Chinese • 要说饭量，谁 也没法跟他比。 subject predicate topic comment

  27. Chinese is a topic-prominent language • Li and Thompson (1976) have proposed a language typology which includes topic prominent language, in which noun phrases of a sentence are unordered and unmarked for case relations (e.g. Mandarin), and subject prominent languages, which are characterized by abstract grammatical markers of case relations or by strict word order (e.g. English). The comprehension of sentences of a topic prominent language often depends on semantic and speech contexts, whereas the comprehension of subject prominent sentences may be independent of context.

  28. A topic-prominent language is one that organizes its syntax so that sentences have a topic-comment (or Theme-Rheme) structure, where the topic is the thing being talked about (predicated) and the comment is what is said about the topic. This structure is independent of the syntactic ordering of subject, verb and object, and may be marked by word order (typically mentioning the topic first in the sentence, and then the comment), or by explicit morphology (as in Japanese with the clitic particle wa).

  29. 张杰 明天 去美国 我觉得很突然。 Zhang Jie mingtian qumeiguo wo juede hen turan Zhang Jie tomorrow go America I feel very abrupt “I feel very surprised that Zhang Jie will go to America tomorrow.” 五个苹果 两个 坏了。 wuge pingguo liangge huaile five CL apple two CL bad ASP “Of these five apples, two have gone bad.”

  30. 这 几个 学生 他最聪明。 zhe jige xuesheng ta zui congming This several CL student he most clever “Among these students, he is the cleverest.” 住， 广州 最 方便; 吃， 还是 香港 好。 Zhu Guangzhou zui fangbian chi haishi xianggang hao living Guangzhou most convenient eating still is Hong Kong good “As for living, Guangzhou is the most convenient area. As for food, Hong Kong is the best place.”

  31. Base-generated topics in Chinese (1) [CP[NP她 家 里的人,] [IP我 [VP只见过 她妈妈 ]]]。 “People in her family, I’ve only met her mother” (2) [CP[NP那台计算机] [IP[CP你想 现在 用 e] [VP是不可能的 ]]]。 * “That computer that you want to use now is impossible.” (3) [CP[NP这座房子] [IP我不 [VP知道 [CP他打算什么时候 卖e]]]。 * “This house I don’t know when he is going to sell.”

  32. More examples of base-generated topics • 一只烤鸭，他一人就吃掉半只。 • 这趟生意，我赔了两千。 • 李先生，那是一个守信用的人。 • 足球、篮球、乒乓球他样样都喜欢。 • 酒他已经戒了，你不知道？ • 这些东西别动！ • 这张画我真喜欢！

  33. 王力 就句子结构而论，西洋语言是法治的，中国语言是人治的，法治的不管主语用得着用不着，总要呆板地求句子形式的一律；人治的用得着就用，用不着就不用，只要能使对话人听懂说话人的意思，就算了。

  34. Examples • 广东话他会讲你信不信？ • 他会讲广东话你信不信？ • 研究方向您是什么？ • 我是海洋鱼类。 • 农村是很艰苦的。 • 这病只要出身汗躺两天就好了。 c.f. How is your headache? It’s much better.

  35. Focus • Chinese has a strong psychological tendency of stressing the most important new information at the end of a sentence, i.e. the position for end focus. • More and more people are surfing Internet. • 上网的人越来越多。

  36. Word order A bomb cast from behind the booth blew up undamagingly in a ditch. 从电话亭后面扔出一颗炸弹，落到一条沟里，没造成破坏。

  37. So much for today

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