[sys-func] Re: Two Types Of Relationship Between Semantic And Lexicogrammatical Systems

From: "David Rose" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ("david.rose")
To: "sys-func@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <sys-func@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 06:05:27 +0000

Thanks Chris, it’s always good to read IFG closely (and critically)...

It’s interesting that the terms figuration and expansion in Figure 10-2 below
are printed in small caps, as though they are systems. It’s noteworthy that
Halliday 1985/1994 (IFG 1/2) didn't describe expansion in general as a system,
but as a ‘semantic motif’ that is dispersed across the grammar. A system in SFL
is defined by axial relations between features and their realising structures.
expansion is such a system in the grammar, at clause rank within clause
complexing (IFG 7.4), and at group/phrase rank within verbal group complexing
(IFG 8.6). But it is not a described semantic system.

‘Figuration’ on the other hand corresponds to a described semantic system, of
lexical relations within figures, entitled nuclear relations in ET 5.3, WWD
3.3. Figures are typically realised as clauses (IFG 5.1.1)...

...experientially, the clause construes a quantum of change in the flow of
events as a figure, or configuration of a process, participants involved in it
and any attendant circumstances.

Nuclear relations vary with types of expansion, denoted with =/+/x. They have
the variable realisations in the grammar depicted for ‘expansion’ in Figure
10-2.
The canonical description of nuclear relations, and their stratal relations to
grammar and field, is

Hao, J. (2020). Analysing scientific discourse from a systemic functional
linguistic perspective: A framework for exploring knowledge building in
biology. Routledge.

Jing also carefully relates the discourse semantic ideation systems to the
ideational semantics in Construing Experience.

See also
Hao, J. (2020). Nominalisations in scientific English: A tristratal
perspective. Functions of language, 27(2), 143-173.

David

From: sys-func-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <sys-func-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf
of Dr ChRIS CLÉiRIGh <c.cleirigh@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, 18 July 2022 at 9:00 am
To: sys-func@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <sys-func@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [sys-func] Two Types Of Relationship Between Semantic And
Lexicogrammatical Systems
Dear Colleagues,

The following might be helpful for those who are unfamiliar with the
distinction between compact and dispersed grammatical realisations of semantic
systems.

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 666-7):
The grammatical realisation of FIGURATION is ‘compact’, being confined to the
TRANSITIVITY system of the clause. In contrast, the grammatical realisation of
EXPANSION is ‘dispersed’, ranging over more than one grammatical unit. (We
shall see later that compactly realised systems such as configuration may
become dispersed in their realisation through the process of grammatical
metaphor.)
[cid:ii_l5hf20c40]
--

dr chris cléirigh
For they do not like to confess that their pretence of knowledge has been
detected.
— Socrates

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References:
- [sys-func] Two Types Of Relationship Between Semantic And Lexicogrammatical Systems
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[sys-func] Re: Two Types Of Relationship Between Semantic And Lexicogrammatical Systems

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