Choice in Language; Applications in Text Analysis; Gerard O'Grady; Tom Bartlett; Lise Fontaine

Edited by

Gerard O’Grady [+–]

Cardiff University

Gerard O’Grady is a Senior Lecturer in Language and Communication (phonology) at the Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University. His main research interests are intonation, spoken information structure, critical discourse analysis and linear grammars. He is active in the SFL community and co-organized the European Systemic Functional Linguistics Conference and Workshop in 2009. He is also a co-founder of the LinC research network at Cardiff University with Tom Bartlett and Lise Fontaine. His recent publications include two books, A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse: The Intonation of Increments (2010) and Key Concepts in Phonetics and Phonology (2012), as well as the article ‘The unfolded imagining of Segolene Royal’ in the Journal of Pragmatics (2011). He co-edited the volumes, Systemic Functional Linguistics: Exploring Choice (Cambridge 2013) and Choice in Language: Applications in Text Analysis (Equinox 2013).

Tom Bartlett [+–]

University of Glasgow

Tom Bartlett is Professor of Functional and Applied Linguistics in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. His doctoral fieldwork was on intercultural discourse between indigenous groups, national government and international development organisations. His research interests lie in the relationship between culture and genre and in developing hybrid genres that enhance the participation of minority groups in gatekeeping discourses.

Lise Fontaine [+–]

Cardiff University

Lise Fontaine is a Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University. She currently teaches modules in systemic functional linguistics and computer-mediated communication. Her research interests include functional grammar and, more specifically, the study of referring expressions as realised in the nominal group. In addition to grammatical analysis, she is also interested in related fields of linguistics study including corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, and sociolinguistics. She is the author of Analyzing English Grammar: A systemic-functional introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

The notion of Choice provides a constant underlying theme to work in Systemic Functional Linguistics, whether this is concerned with in-depth description of the system of lexicogrammatical options available within specific languages, or with the analysis of the semiotic and/or social implications of the choices taken within specific texts. Yet, to date, little has been published exploring the applicability of choice across various contexts. Choice in Language addresses this gap by presenting a selection of writings from internationally renowned authors that develop the analytical perspective of choice across wide-ranging contexts and, in some cases, in languages other than English. The book demonstrates the value of Systemic Functional Linguistics as an ‘applicable’ linguistics, which is a core tool in broader fields such as pedagogy, literary studies and critical discourse analysis.

Series: Functional Linguistics

Prelims

Introduction [+–] 1-28

Gerard O’Grady FREE

Cardiff University

Within systemic functional linguistics (SFL) the notion of choice provides a constant underlying theme to work. This chapter aims to contextualize the following chapters by sketching the relationship between SFL and choice.

Part A: Interpersonal choice and the construction of author identity

1 ‘Busty babes and passionate pleasures’: A systemic functional linguistic analysis of sex worker discourse in a South African city [+–] 31-54

Ralph Adendorff,Kiran Pienaar £17.50

Curtin University

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Kiran Pienaar’s research focusses on the social constitution of addiction, the body in society, and the biopolitics of health and illness. She has a multidisciplinary background in Gender Studies, Sociology and Applied Linguistics. Previously, she was a lecturer in Linguistics at Rhodes University, South Africa. She has also worked in the Faculties of Arts, and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. Her doctoral research – an analysis of HIV/AIDS in South Africa under the Mbeki government – was concerned with the role of politics in materialising HIV in specific, sometimes damaging ways. The analysis offers a unique recasting of the political conflict over HIV that emerged under former President Mbeki, and a novel approach to understanding some of the most intractable challenges posed by the South African epidemic.

Kiran’s current research program focusses on experiences of addiction, treatment and recovery in Australia. The research will inform the development of an online resource for those affected by addiction, health professionals and policymakers.

Kiran is an invited reviewer for several international journals. She is also a member of the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA) and Nexus: Monash Social Science, Humanities and Medicine Network.

This chapter draws on a corpus of one month’s newspaper advertisements for commercial sex published in the ‘Social’ column of The Herald, a provincial, South African, English-language daily newspaper with a liberal reputation, and a reader base of over 245,000. It reports on the way sex workers construct their identities and the services they offer in these entries. It also considers the inferencing work that readers must do to interpret the entries.

2 Choice in a ‘partly free’ press: Evaluative key in Italian journalistic discourse [+–] 55-85

Elizabeth Swain £17.50

University of Trieste

This chapter is concerned with linguistic indicators of subjectivity in the Italian press, or, put more specifically, with those lexicogrammatical outcomes of choice in the interpersonal discourse semantics, which cumulatively define evaluative key.

3 The use of appraisal resources in the construction of second language teacher-researcher identity [+–] 86-108

Norma Barletta,Jorge Mizuno,Gillian Moss £17.50

This chapter interprets the meanings of choices from the appraisal system made by a group of Colombian postgraduate students. It focuses on how these choices are used by these writers in the process of constructing for themselves a new identity as teacher-researchers. The appraisal resources considered to be of particular relevance in this process of identity construction are the resources of attitude and engagement.

Part B: Choice in political speech: Tension between the need to inform and project solidarity

4 The use of grammatical metaphor in French political tracts [+–] 111-124

David Banks £17.50

Université de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest)

David Banks is Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France, where he was formerly chairman of the English Department, director of ERLA (Equipe de Recherché en Linguistique Appliquée), and director of the Masters programme in Translation and Technical Writing.. He is also a former chairman of AFLSF (Association Française de la Linguistique Systémique Fonctionnelle). He has published over 90 academic articles, and authored or edited over 20 books. His publication, The Development of Scientific Writing, Linguistic features and historical context (Equinox 2008), won the ESSE (European Society for the Study of English) 2010 Language and Linguistics Book Award. His current research interests include the linguistic analysis of scientific text, and its emergence in English and French in the late seventeenth century, and the application of SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics) to English and French.

This chapter looks at the use of grammatical metaphor phenomenon in French, and more precisely, it considers how it is used in the peculiarly French genre of the political tract.

5 Choices in Tony’s talk: Phonological paragraphing,information unit nexuses and the presentation of tone units [+–] 125-157

Gerard O’Grady £17.50

Cardiff University

This chapter aims to examine the neglected role intonation plays in projecting the texture of a spoken text. Texture refers to the way a text is given unity within the particular context in which it is produced.

Part C: The effects of choice in text-type

6 Choice and domain: A corpus-based study with special reference to the BNC Baby [+–] 161-186

Inas Mahfouz £17.50

This chapter adopts Fairclough’s (2003) view that a text cannot be separated from the context of its production, distribution and reception. The meso-level links the linguistic features of text at the micro-level to wider social, political, economic and cultural contexts. The chapter further focuses on focuses on WSD and transitivity analysis through investigating domain as an extra-linguistic constraint on the choice of meanings and the influence of this on process type.

7 Investigating thematic choices in two newspaper genres: A methodological proposal [+–] 187-214

Julia Lavid,Jorge Arús Hita,Lara Moratón £17.50

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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Julia Lavid is full profesor of English Language and Linguistics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics related to the functional analysis of English (often in comparison with Spanish and other European languages), using computational and corpus-based methodologies. She has published extensively on these topics, being the author of the book Lenguaje y nuevas tecnologías: nuevas perspectivas, métodos y herramientas para el lingüista del siglo XXI (Madrid, Cátedra, 2005), and coauthor of the research monograph Systemic-Functional Grammar of Spanish: a Contrastive Account with English (London: Continuum, 2010). In her lecture she discusses theoretical and methodological issues related to her most recent research on contrastive corpus annotation methodologies.

Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

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Jorge Arús Hita is senior lecturer in English language and linguistics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.

This chapter investigates the linguistic phenomenon of thematization in two newspaper genres using an empirical methodology which combines a preliminary corpus analysis with a number of corpus annotation tasks, as proposed and developed within the CONTRANOT project.

8 A probabilistic approach to choice: The impact of contextual factors on the tactic system in research article abstracts [+–] 215-242

Akila Sellami-Baklouti £17.50

University of Sfax, Tunisia

Akila Sellami-Baklouti is Associate Professor of English language and linguistics at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Sfax, Tunisia.

This chapter argues for the suitability of a conditional probabilistic approach to Choice, which constitutes a defining concept in systemic functional theory, where structure is to be interpreted as ‘the outward form taken by systemic choices’.

9 Contentful and contentlight subject themes in informal spoken English and formal written English [+–] 243-268

Margaret Berry £17.50

University of Nottingham (retired)

Margaret Berry, now retired, was Reader in English Language at the University of Nottingham, UK. She has published introductory books on systemic linguistics: An Introduction to Systemic Linguistics (Vol. 1): Structures and Systems (1975) Batsford and An Introduction to Systemic Linguistics (Vol. 2): Levels and Links (1977) Batsford. She has also published articles on a wide number of aspects of SFL, including context of situation, exchange structure, theme and rheme, given and new, register variation, and the application of SFL to the teaching of English. Her current research interests are in context of situation, exchange structure, theme and rheme and the written language of school children. She has lectured in China, Australia and Canada, as well as in Europe. She was instrumental in the organisation of a series of SFL workshops in Nottingham (1989-1992) which led to the formation of the European branch of the Systemic Functional Linguistics Association.

This chapter reports on part of a long term study which provides helpful information to teachers of English. The general purpose of the chapter is to offer an understanding of the differences between the informal spoken English that children grow up with and the formal English they will need to learn to write if they are to succeed in various careers.

10 The differential patterned occurrence of ellipsis in texts varied for contextual mode: Some support for the ‘mode of discourse-textual metafunction’ hook-up? [+–] 269-297

Ben Clarke £17.50

University of Portsmouth

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Ben Clarke is a Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His research interests include functional descriptions of language and grammar, the relationship between language and semiotic context, and multimodality – particularly the relationship between language and embodied forms of communication.

This chapter attempts to test the relationship between language and context as it is theorized in systemic functional linguistics.

Part D: The interplay of choice across different modalities

11 Textual and compositional choices in hotel brochures [+–] 301-322

Arsenio Jesús Moya Guijarro £17.50

This chapter attempts to analyse how the verbal and visual modes are co-deployed to construct textual and compositional meanings in a sample of ten hotel brochures. It also aims to investigate the extent to which the ideologies of luxury and exclusivity underlying the marketing philosophy of the Leading Hotels of the World brand may influence the semiotic choices made by marketers at textual and compositional levels to promote the recommended hotel destinations globally.

12 A multimodal perspective on the front cover choices of Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar [+–] 323-343

Ann Montemayor-Borsinger,Eija Ventola,Célia M. Magalhães £17.50

National University of Rio Negro, Argentina

Ann Montemayor-Borsinger has held professorial posts in several Argentinean universities in graduate and postgraduate programs in linguistics and discourse analysis. Her research interests focus on functional grammar, discourse analysis, genre studies, literary stylistics and translation issues. She has widely published drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics to investigate different types of discourse in English, Spanish and French. She has recently been appointed director of a research centre on Language and Literature Studies (LELLAE) at the National University of Rio Negro in Argentina.

Aalto University

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Major research areas are:
international business and corporate communication and language;
multimodal and –medial text- and discourse analysis;
intercultural and contrastive communication and linguistics,
systemic-functional linguistics, discourse analysis,
multisemiotic discourses of written and spoken genres of various kinds
academic discourses: academic writing and presentations
(hobby area: linguistic stylistics, Australian and South Pacific language, literature and culture)

In systemic functional linguistics (SFL), the core concept is choice. This notion covers not only the choices in meaning-making in texts, but also the choices in visuals, for example on book cover designs. This chapter illustrates this point by discussing the choices ‘of’ and ‘on’ the front covers in the successive editions of Michael Halliday´s Introduction to Functional Grammar (IFG).

End Matter

Index [+–] 344-347

Gerard O’Grady FREE

Cardiff University

The notion of Choice provides a constant underlying theme to work in Systemic Functional Linguistics, whether this is concerned with in-depth description of the system of lexicogrammatical options available within specific languages, or with the analysis of the semiotic and/or social implications of the choices taken within specific texts. Yet, to date, little has been published exploring the applicability of choice across various contexts. Choice in Language addresses this gap by presenting a selection of writings from internationally renowned authors that develop the analytical perspective of choice across wide-ranging contexts and, in some cases, in languages other than English. The book demonstrates the value of Systemic Functional Linguistics as an ‘applicable’ linguistics, which is a core tool in broader fields such as pedagogy, literary studies and critical discourse analysis.

Reviews

A valuable contribution to SFL… This book well displays the significance of choice and how choice works in meaning-making across various genres in English. Readers who are interested in SFL and discourse analysis will benefit from this collection.
Discourse Studies

The present volume is testimony of SFL as an applicable theory which can be employed to tackle topics of varied nature.
Functions of Language

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Books and Journals in Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts

Choice in Language

Applications in Text Analysis

Gerard O’Grady [+–]

Cardiff University

Tom Bartlett [+–]

University of Glasgow

Lise Fontaine [+–]

Cardiff University

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