Systemic Functional Linguistics and Context
From Theory to Model and Application
Rebekah Wegener [+–]
University of Salzburg
Rebekah Wegener is a senior researcher in linguistics and semiotics at the Institute for English and American Studies at Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Austria, and co-founder of learning technology startup Audaxi in Sydney, Australia.
Context is crucial for advances in artificial intelligence and AI researchers look for models that will help them to solve the challenges that they face in understanding emotion, building dialogic systems and other problems that fall under contextual AI. Some model of context will also be needed in many other fields which explore causation. Without a strong contribution from context, the description of semantic behaviour is not enough for the solution of real world problems to which we bring our linguistic models. While it has typically been conceded that context is fundamental to meaning, it had been, and in some quarters still is, considered too amorphous for scientific investigation. Indeed, unless the bounds of context are very carefully defined, there is certainly a risk that it becomes a description of everything (see for example Cook 1990). Within linguistics this concern has often been addressed by reducing the concept of context to the micro scale of the surrounding words or sounds (what we might call co-text). The obverse of this is the Ethnographic approaches, including Hymes (1962) and later Duranti (1992) and others, who have conceptualized context as the framework of arrangements that pertain to the understanding of the whole communicative event and indeed multiple events. The formalization of a level of context as part of a poly-systemic representation of language has long been emphasized in the work of systemic functional linguists, especially Halliday and Hasan (e.g. 1985). Their approach can be traced back to J.R. Firth’s early collaborations with the anthropologist Malinowski (Butt and Wegener, 2008 but also Butt, 2001). These linguists have worked to systematize the concept, and provide a comprehensive account of the relations of context and text (Hasan, 1999).
This monograph provides a background to the role of context within SFL historically and at a theoretical level before looking at how we model context for different applications. It concludes by considering how SFL approaches to context relate to other functional models as well as looking at some of the challenges and future directions for research on context.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Context has probably always been recognised as essential to meaning, since, at least at some level, theorists have needed to incorporate the idea that meaning must depend on context, even if that is only at the level of the surrounding sounds, words, sentences. In this chapter we introduce the notion of context and some of the key concepts that we need to consider when we deal with context.
Chapter 2
Just as the discourse that linguists study does not take place in a vacuum, neither do the theories that are developed for the purposes of studying this discourse. Theories have their own context: they do not exist independently of the physical, social or mental environment in which they were developed. In this chapter we explore the history and context of modelling context in SFL.
Chapter 3
SFL has always provided an integrated theory of language and context through the incorporation of context as a stratum in the theory of language. But that does not mean that context sits easily within the theory. In this chapter we consider the place of context within the theoretical architecture of SFL and look at some of the problems and possible solutions.
Chapter 4
Functional approaches to language necessarily consider context in some way. In this chapter we look at some of the different approaches to context. By examining a little of the history of context, the similarities and differences between different approaches become clearer in their motivation. While the approaches may differ in details, many of the foundational concerns are similar and there is a great benefit to considering what these different approaches might have in common and what they might have to offer.
Chapter 5
SFL provides a strong focus on the application of theory and model to everyday situations that demands of the theory an ongoing connection with its users. But, what is required from a model of context varies greatly depending on the task to which it is put and this becomes clear when we apply a model. In this chapter we consider the changes that are needed to move from a theory of context to a model of context and finally the application within a specific domain.
Chapter 6
A model of context that makes no contact with the questions that people have or the problems which need to be solved will have no use value. To break the cycle then we need to look at what is needed in the field. There are many challenges in working with context and these are at the level of theory, model and application. In this chapter we explore some of the more pressing challenges and look at how these might be resolved.
Chapter 7
By putting a theory to work we inevitably move it forward, making any application a step in theory building. So where then does the consideration of language in context, the examination of the challenges for theory, model and application leave us and what changes are necessary? In this chapter we consider some of the future directions for work on context.
ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9780000000000
Price (Hardback)
£75.00 / $100.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9780000000000
Price (Paperback)
£24.95 / $32.00
ISBN (eBook)
9780000000000
Price (eBook)
Individual
£24.95 / $32.00
Institutional
£75.00 / $100.00
£24.95 / $32.00
Institutional
£75.00 / $100.00
Publication
01/04/2026
Pages
224
Size
254 x 178mm
Readership
students
Illustration
30 figures
