Christian Matthiessen

The second volume of Systemic Functional Linguistics contains Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen's papers on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) spanning forty years from 1981 to the present. This updated volume builds on the foundation developed in Volume 1, focusing on theoretically guided modelling of language in computational linguistic systems and on key aspects of the theory such as metafunction, rank (the conception of morphology), indeterminacy, and probability. This volume also includes a treatment of systemic functional metatheory - the theory of the nature and applicability of theory. The new chapter written for Volume 2 extends the discussion of the challenge of theorizing language to the challenge of modelling language for neurosemiotics, thus paying attention to the applicability of systemic functional linguistics. This volume captures Matthiessen's expanding research and addresses core aspects of SFL to help students, instructors, and all readers discover the wealth of Matthiessen's systemic functional work.

The Collected Works of Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen covers more than 35 years of work by one of the world's leading scholars in the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) school. It examines the nature, functions and structure of human language from a number of points of view within the framework of contemporary scientific thought. The series is organized into a number of distinct topics that reinforce each other, and together constitute a coherent, cutting-edge body of theoretical and descriptive work. VOLUME 1 provides the foundation for the whole series of collected works, and includes chapters that serve as introduction of and summaries of Systemic Functional Linguistics. It is concerned with the nature of systemic functional linguistics as theory, as framework and as a school of linguistics. It includes an overview of the organization or the architecture of language according to SFL and of the lexicogrammatical subsystem of language, and of Halliday's conception of language as a resource for making meaning. It is also concerned with the history and development of SFL. A new chapter written for this volume addresses the theme underpinning all chapters in the volume: the challenge of theorizing language. It introduces the metaphor of cartography, used by Matthiessen in his work on language, as a way of mapping linguistic theory, showing how all areas relate to one another.

The second volume of Systemic Functional Linguistics contains Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen’s papers on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) spanning forty years from 1981 to the present. This updated volume builds on the foundation developed in Volume 1, focusing on theoretically guided modelling of language in computational linguistic systems and on key aspects of the theory such as metafunction, rank (the conception of morphology), indeterminacy, and probability. This volume also includes a treatment of systemic functional metatheory – the theory of the nature and applicability of theory. The new chapter written for Volume 2 extends the discussion of the challenge of theorizing language to the challenge of modelling language for neurosemiotics, thus paying attention to the applicability of systemic functional linguistics. This volume captures Matthiessen’s expanding research and addresses core aspects of SFL to help students, instructors, and all readers discover the wealth of Matthiessen’s systemic functional work.

This title details the key terms, thinkers and texts in systemic functional linguistics. The field of Systemic Functional Linguistics is a social semiotic approach to language pioneered by M. A. K. Halliday, which has assumed a central importance in linguistics in recent years, anchored by a growing body of work. This book details the key terms, the key thinkers and the key texts in this field in an approachable, easy to understand and accessible manner. It is authored by leading names in the field and is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates studying linguistics and language studies. "The Key Terms" series offers undergraduate students clear, concise and accessible introductions to core topics. Each book includes a comprehensive overview of the key terms, concepts, thinkers and texts in the area covered and ends with a guide to further resources.

The field of Systemic Functional Linguistics is a social semiotic approach to language pioneered by M. A. K. Halliday, which has assumed a central importance in linguistics in recent years, anchored by a growing body of work. This book details the key terms, the key thinkers and the key texts in this field in an approachable, easy to understand and accessible manner. It is authored by leading names in the field and is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates studying linguistics and language studies.

This is a study edition of this important work by M A K Halliday. The subject of this book is how human beings construe their experience of the world. The construction of experience is usually thought of as knowledge, represented in the form of conceptual taxonomies, schemata, scripts and the like. The authors offer an interpretation that is complementary to this, treating experience not as knowing but as meaning; and hence as something that is construed in language. In other words, the concern is with the construal of human experience as a semantic system; and since language plays the central role not only in storing and exchanging experience but also in construing it, language is taken as the interpretative base. The focus of the book is both theoretical and descriptive. The authors consider it important that theory and description should develop in parallel, with constant interchange between the two. The major descriptive component is an account of the most general features of the ideational semantics of English, which is then exemplified in two familiar text types (recipes and weather forecasts). There is also a brief reference to the semantics of Chinese. Theoretical issues are raised throughout as they become relevant to the discussion, with the theoretical base being drawn from systemic functional linguistics. Both the theoretical and descriptive proposals offered in the book are compared and contrasted with approaches deriving from Al, cognitive science and cognitive linguistics.