On the Idea of Theory-neutral Description
Systemic Functional Linguistics, Part 2 - Volume 2 - Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen
Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen [+]
University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing
Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is a Swedish-born linguist and a leading figure in the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) school, having authored or co-authored more than 160 books, refereed journal articles, and papers in refereed conference proceedings, with contributions to three television programs. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Linguistics at University of International Business and Economics,
Beijing, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, in the School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Guest Professor at Beijing Science and Technology University, and Honorary Professor at the Australian National University. Before this, he was Chair Professor, Department of English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Professor in the Linguistics Department of Macquarie University. Professor Matthiessen has worked in areas as diverse as language typology, linguistics and computing, grammatical descriptions of various languages, grammar and discourse, healthcare communication studies, functional grammar for English-language teachers, text analysis and translation, multisemiotic studies, and the evolution of language. He has supervised over 40 research students.
Description
Chapter 7 offers a solution to the problem of the disjunction between theory and description, which is to reconstrue theory and its role in description. Such solution construes linguistic theory as a semiotic resource to meet the unprecedented demands and technological possibilities for the new production of linguistic descriptions in the transition to the 21st century. After revealing how the complementary goals of theory and description have become polarized for some influential linguists and showing how some do not hold the notion of theory-neutral descriptions, this chapter further uses case marking systems as an example to indicate that theory is a resource for enriching description.