6. A Functional Study of Transitivity and Attitude in Student Writing in Spanish across Disciplines: Making Connections
Language in Action - SFL Theory across Contexts - María Estela Brisk
Natalia Ignatieva [+ ]
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Daniel Rodríguez-Vergara [+ ]
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Victoria Zamudio Jasso [+ ]
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Description
This chapter presents a systemic analysis of process types in academic student texts in Spanish in three different disciplines: literature, history and geography. It also analyses these texts from the Appraisal perspective and how appraisal differs by discipline. Lastly, it establishes connections and observes the interaction of the experiential and interpersonal metafunctions and the systems of Transitivity and Attitude. Our purpose is to explore how student writers use process types to construe their specific disciplinary experience and what options they choose for encoding semantic categories of Attitude. The results suggest that each system (Transitivity and Appraisal) shows a strong connection to each of the three disciplines (literature, history and geography) while the relation between the two metafunctions (experiential and interpersonal) is much weaker.