Unit 1

FORMAL VS. FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR

FORMAL: Sees grammar as a set of rules (combinations, possibilities and limitations) which specify all the possible
grammatical structures of the language. The focus is the forms of grammatical structures and their relationship to one
another, the unit of analysis is a made-up sentence. Formal grammarians here distinguish between grammatical and
ungrammatical.
FUNCTIONAL: Sees grammar as a resource that language uses to make and exchange meanings. The focus are the
functions of structures, constituents and meaning in context. The unit of analysis is an authentic text.

MEANING IN LANGUAGE

For SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics), language is a resource for construing and interpreting meanings in the context
in which they occur. Grammar is a study of how meanings are built up through linguistic choices. People use language

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differently depending on the topic/subject matter (tenor), who they are talking to (field), and what is the role of language in
a particular communicative situation (mode). Everytime we use language, we represent the world and we interact with
others, creating and maintaining social relations. These are abstract function of language or metafunctions:

Ideational/Experiential metafunction Interpersonal metafunction Textual metafunction

Express ideas and link them logically. Assign speech roles and express Resource to organize ideational and

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judgements and attitudes. interpersonal meanings in texts, which
are coherent and cohesive.

Is concerned with the Is concerned with language as Organizes the former two kinds of
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representation of our experience of the interaction and the expression of meaning into coherent text relevant to
world and of the inner world of our judgments and attitudes. its context.
thoughts and feelings.

Processes→ actions, happenings, has to do with: Has to do with the ways in which a
→ the ways in which we act upon one stretch of language is organized in
feelings, beliefs, situations, states, and relation to its
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another through language – giving and context. Textual meaning is important

so on. (Lexical/Predicator)
requesting information, getting people in the creation of coherence in spoken
Participants→ the people and things to do things, and offering to do things and written text.
involved in them. (S, O, C) ourselves.
→ the ways in which we express our
Circumstances→ the relevant
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judgments and attitudes – about such

circumstances of time, place, manner,
things as likelihood, necessity, and
reason and so on. (Adjuncts)
desirability


Texts are the product of the interrelation among these three metafunctions/components.

→ THE PLACE OF GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE

Language is a resource for making meanings in context, and this resource is organized as a stratified system. The strata
in the organization of this hierarchical system are discourse-semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology/graphology.

→ THE ORGANIZATION OF GRAMMAR

The lexicogrammar provides us with the means to combine words in different grammatical structures to make different
meanings. The lexicogrammar is hierarchically organized as a rank scale. Rank refers to different levels of organization
within grammar. Within grammar itself, four ranks can be recognized: sentence, clause, group/phrase and words. For
example, the stretch of language “Many people were throwing stones” consists of one sentence, three groups (“Many
people”, “were throwing”, and “stones”) and 5 words.

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Each of these ranks refers to a unit of meaning at the level of the clause or below. Each constituent is shown to be made
up of one or more constituents of the lower rank.

➢ Group: a head with an element that expands it, with determiners

➢ Phrase: a head with complements, a mini clause (prepositional phrase)
➢ Sentence: initial capital letter and final full stop
➢ Embedded clause: one unit as a constituent of another unit at the same or a lower rank. They are an obligatory
element and are NOT a clause complex.

● Tests for constituency

○ Movability: if an element is an immediate clause constituent, it is likely to be independently movable. When
an element is not an immediate clause constituent, but a constituent of a group/phrase, it is generally not
independently movable.
○ Substitution: elements which are acting together as a single clause constituent should be reducible to a

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single substituted item. Nominal group → pronoun. Verbal group → single lexical verb

● Variations on the typical constituent structure of the clause

There may be variations on the typical constituent structure of the clause. There are cases in which a unit of one rank is
made up of a unit of the rank above or of the same rank. These are cases of embedding or rank shift. For example:
“(Candidates [who have filled in the forms]) (must wait) (outside)”; there are 3 constituents; however, the first nominal group

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contains within not just words but another clause “who have filled in the forms”.

→ GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS
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Subject NGs - some clauses

Finite VG (the first constituent - marked for tense-agreement or modal aux)

Predicator VG (everything in the VG except the Finite)

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Complement With linking verbs - NGs, Nominal CL, AdjG, PP

Object NGs - can become subject in passive sentence

Adjunct AdvG, PP - cannot function as S and can be omitted.

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The “...” function in this clause is realized by the noun/verb/adv group “...” / prep phrase “...”

→ FROM CLAUSE TO TEXT



Clauses are lexicogrammatical units that realize texts. Texts are not lexicogrammatical but semantic units. A sequence
of clauses creates a text when there is unity among them. A passage is a text when there are continuities and semantic
relations between the individual messages that realize it. We should be able to identify the schematic or generic structure
of the text, which is what allows us to recognize it as a socio-culturally conventionalized way of achieving a communicative
goal through language.
Halliday & Hasan → 'The word TEXT is used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length,

that does form a unified whole.' That is to say, that does conform a semantic unit (a unit of meanings) which expresses,

simultaneously, ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings.

Text is not just a sequence of unrelated sentences. On the contrary, it is a unit provided with “texture”.

TEXTURE is an essential property of text, which holds the clauses of a text together to give them unity. The textual
component of grammar consists of the features associated with two groups of resources:
● The Structural Component ● Cohesive Component
- Information Structure and Focus: Given and New - Reference
- Thematic Structure: Theme and Rheme - Ellipsis
- Substitution

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 - Lexical Cohesion

→ GENRE

When we produce texts, we engage in an activity which involves the use of language with a purpose in mind. These
purposeful activities we engage as social beings are called genres. Genres are “staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activities
in which speakers engage as members of a culture”. Genre has developed as predictable and relatively stable language
patterns.
The way in which texts that belong to the same genre are similar has to do with the text’s semantic structure and the
patterns of lexicogrammatical choices.

❖ Schematic structure

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The purpose that we have in mind when we produce a text is achieved in different stages that contribute to fulfilling the
purpose of the text as a whole. Each stage in the genre contributes a part of the overall meanings that must be made for
the genre to be accomplished successfully. In turn, stages consist of one or more phases that vary in relation to their subject
matter.
❖ Patterns of lexicogrammatical choices
Since genres are ways of achieving different communicative goals, speakers will make different lexicogrammatical choices
according to the different purposes they want to achieve. If each genre is made up of a number of different stages, then

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differents elements of schematic structures will reveal different lexicogrammatical choices.

→ SPEECH AND WRITING

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The meanings that we make in context are realized through lexicogrammatical choices which are in turn realized through

a network of expressions. The expression makes use of the medium of sound or the graphic medium → Medium: how we
transmit the message. Means the channel through which meanings are expressed: spoken, because sounds are used; and
written, since the expression is graphic.
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It is the context in which language is used and not just the medium that influences linguistic choices. The variable of

context that influences the language plays in an interaction is called mode. → Mode: means the characteristics of a text.
The two dimensions along which mode can be analyzed are:
➢ the immediacy of feedback → classifies situations according to the possibilities of immediate feedback between
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participants.

○ spoken, chat → immediate feedback

○ emails → not so much delayed feedback



○ written tasks → no immediate feedback

➢ the role of language as action or as reflection → ranges situations according to whether language is used to

accompany an activity participants are engaged in or to reflect an experience

If we combine these two dimensions of mode, we can characterize the basic contrast between spoken and written
situations of language use.

MODE: TYPICAL SITUATIONS OF LANGUAGE IN USE (general)

SPOKEN WRITTEN

- Interactive (2 or more participants) - Non-interactive (1 participant)

- Face-to-face (same place at the same time) - Not face-to-face (diff. places at diff. times)
- Language as action (using language to accomplish a - Language as reflection (language as the only way of
task) making meanings)

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 - Spontaneous (not rehearsal) - Not spontaneous (planning)
- Casual (informal and everyday) - Not casual (formal and in special occasions)

These two polar extremes of spoken and written language situations influence linguistic choices, which are likely to be
made independently of the medium through which communication takes place.

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THE LINGUISTICS IMPLICATIONS OF MODE
SPOKEN LANGUAGE WRITTEN LANGUAGE

- Context dependent - Context independent

- Dynamic structure (interactive, open-ended utterances) - Synoptic structures (closed/rhetorical organization)
- Spontaneity phenomena (false starts, hesitations, - - No spontaneity (time to think what to write, final draft,
Interruptions, overlap, incomplete clauses, fillers) edited text)

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-Everyday lexis - Prestige lexis
-Non-standard grammar (coordination, many more - Standard grammar (complex clauses, subordination,
clauses/sentences) fewer sentences)
-Lexically sparse (unpacked) - Lexically dense (packed)
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Linguistic choices are influenced by the context in which language is used.

→ LEXICAL DENSITY
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Lexical density is the proportion of lexical items (content words) to the total discourse, this means: the amount of
information packed in each clause. It is the number of content words per clause in a text. Lexical density is closely related
to whether the text is most active or reflective. By making the text more spoken, meanings get unpacked and texts end up
having lower lexical density.


★ the higher lexical density, the more compressed/packed the information in the text.
★ the lower the lexical density, the more decompressed/unpacked the meaning in the text.
★ the more reflective a text is, the higher the lexical density will be. (relation between mode and lexical density)

NOMINALIZATION is a strategy to pack information and make texts lexically denser. It creates nouns from verbs, adverbs,
adjectives, etc. These nouns can be pre- and post modified

→ A text is lexically dense because it has packed many content words in only one clause through the strategy of

nominalization of an adjective into a noun, which has pre and post modifiers and also has an embedded clause.

→ The variation in lexical density results from the increase in the total amount of clauses (and also in the increase in the

number of grammatical words).

→ Lexical density = lexical items : clauses

Unit 2
COHESION

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 Cohesion has a semantic relation which can be realized through the lexicogrammatical system → the grammar of the

language (grammatical cohesion) and through vocabulary (lexical cohesion). It has to do with the internal properties of the

text. It is the means whereby elements that are structurally unrelated to one another are linked together, through the

dependence of one on the other for its interpretation.The one PRESUPPOSES the other, in the sense that it cannot be

effectively decoded except by recourse to it.

This link is known as semantic tie or cohesive tie between the two elements. In this way, cohesion contributes to the
unity of the text

→ ENDOPHORIC (in the text)

- Cohesive (referent is not inside the same clause)

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- Esphoric (referent inside the same clause,
- Anaphoric (referent at an earlier point in the text)
- Cataphoric (referent has not yet appeared)
→ EXOPHORIC/SITUATIONAL (outside the text)

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→ GRAMMATICAL COHESION (function words do not carry meaning: prep., pron., articl., aux. verbs, det., conjunct.)
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❖ Reference: how the writer/speaker introduces participants and then keeps track of them once they are in the text
➢ Personal reference: personal pronouns, object forms, possessive forms
➢ Demonstrative reference: this, that, these, those, the
➢ Comparative reference: comparative reference items (same, equal, such, similar, other…), adj. and adv.
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in the comparative degree

❖ Substitution
➢ Nominal substitution: one, ones
➢ Verbal substitution: do, do so (en todas las conjugaciones). Substitutes the verb AND all its complements
➢ Clausal substitution: so. Substitutes the entire clause (S + V + …)
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❖ Ellipsis: leaves out a word or phrase rather than repeat it

➢ Nominal ellipsis: noun + complements
➢ Verbal ellipsis: verb + complements
➢ Clausal ellipsis: the entire clause


→ LEXICAL COHESION (operates between units which encode lexical content; placed in same or different clauses)

❖ Repetition: of a word or phrase

❖ Synonymy
❖ Antonymy
❖ Hyperonymy: (a type of sth) hyperonym, hyponym, co-hyponyms
❖ Meronymy: (a part of sth) a par of a whole, co-meronym
❖ Semantic Field: texts involves relations of meanings, same general area of vocabulary, or same field

→ COHESIVE AND NON-COHESIVE “IT”

● Pronominal anaphoric reference - cohesive - referring - intersentential

✓ They were all shouting and fighting when I got home. It was a terrible mess.

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 ✓ She was very scared. But she tried not to show it.
● Anticipatory it (anticipates “to-inf” Cl., “wh” Cl., “that” Cl, “-ING” Cl; NEVER a noun group) - in the same clause
✓ It is impossible to plan for the future. (to inf)
✓ It is uncertain whether he will come. (wh cl)
✓ It was a terrible disappointment that he failed the exam. (that cl)
✓ It has been very nice talking to you. (-ing cl)
● Dummy it (subject or object position) - doesn’t have a meaning - non referring - non cohesive
✓ It is eight o’clock ✓ I like it here ✓ I am not with it today
✓ It is really cold ✓ How is it going ✓ If it hadn’t been for your help

Unit 3
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Clauses that contribute to textual continuity are those in which appropriate choices of thematic and information structures

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are made: both the theme (point of departure) of the clause and what is presented as given/new should be adequate for its
textual context. Whereas appropriate selections contribute to textual unity, inadequate ones interrupt information flow. The
thematic and information structure principles help organize the message within and between clauses and are thus part
of the textual metafunction.

→ THEMATIC STRUCTURE

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Theme → what the message will be about and takes initial position in the clause. The rest of the clause is the Rheme.
Marked vs Unmarked: we say that a clause is unmarked when the theme coincides with:
➢ Declarative cl → subject
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➢ Imperative cl → predicator

➢ Wh interrogative cl → wh element

➢ Yes-no interrogative cl → finite + subject

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● Multiple vs Simple themes: textual or interpersonal themes can combine to create “multiple themes”, but it is the
experiential theme that anchors the starting point of the message.

→ INFORMATION STRUCTURE
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Given-New makes up the informations structure of the clause. While Given refers to the previously-mentioned and is not
obligatory (un-newsworthy), New reveals new information and is obligatory (newsworthy/focus). However, we may present
as new information that was already mentioned but to which we refer again with corrective, contrastive or emphatic meaning.

➢ Method of Development (choices of theme)



✓ chronological (adjs of time)

✓ from whole to parts (meronymy)
✓ from general to particular (hyperonymy)
✓ topographical (place)

➢ Thematic progression (choices of theme & rheme)

✓ Linear Thematic Progression (the Rheme of the first clause becomes the Theme of the following clause)
✓ Derived themes (there is a hypertheme from which the subsequent Themes derive)
✓ Topic continuity, constant Themes or Theme reiteration (the same Theme repeated in different clauses
and new Rhemes are added)
✓ Theme with divided Rheme (the Rheme is made up of two or more elements that are taken up as Themes
of the following clauses)

→ SYNTACTIC STRATEGIES TO MANAGE INFORMATION

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 We tend to organize the information with certain discursive strategies that allow us to draw the interlocutor’s attention to
the particular focus of our message and/or select a desired Theme

❖ Fronting/Thematization
➢ Without Inversion: when fronting circumstance adjuncts we do not alter the normal placement of subject

and verb → “at that moment, he didn’t say a word because…”

➢ With Inversion S-V: when fronting some adjuncts of place (position), objects, complements or participles

we may need to reverse the normal order of subject and verb→ “here is your card”, “in the library was a
small boy” (adj of position + be); “stuck in the branch of a willow tree was a note”, “clapping his hands
enthusiastically was my beloved son” (participle and its modifiers are fronted); “More annoying than the
noise has been the dust” (comparatives + be); “so afraid were the children that…” (so + adj/adv that)
➢ With Inversion S-O: negative and restrictive adverbials require an inversion of subject and operator → “not

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one cloud could he see in any direction”.
❖ Postponement
➢ The anticipatory/Introductory “it”: when the subject or object is either complex and lengthy or the focus or
both, it is shifted to the end of the clause (commonly in infinitive cl, gerundial cl, that cl or wh-cl)
- “I found it impossible to tell him the truth”
➢ Existential clauses: The real subject is placed in end position to observe the principle of end-focus

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- “there is a letter for you on the desk”
❖ Cleft sentences: change the normal sentence pattern, the main purposes are to give extra focus and for contrastive
purposes
➢ It-clefts: “my brother bought his new car” → “It was my brother that/who bought his new car” (extra focus);
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“It was Jan that wanted to travel, not Marian” (contrastive)
➢ Pseudo or Wh-clefts: “we now need actions rather than words” → “what we now need is actions rather than
words” or “actions rather than words are what we need now”

❖ Passive voice: for discursive purposes when the structure of the clause determines that the “New” should come
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last. The passive allows us to select a desired Theme or avoid an undesired one. The use of passive does not
produce a change in focus, what changes is the Theme.
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