Sociolinguistics: Context of Situation Field, tenor, mode

1. Context of situation
field , tenor , mode

2. Context of situation
• The Context of Situation is the “environment in which meanings are being exchanged”.
• Text is generate through context of situation.
• Context of situation is a set of three different types of information that is available in the place
(or setting) where the text is produced.
1- Field
2- Tenor
3- Mode

4. • Field :
• The field of discourse is concerned with what is happening in the text.
• Taking an example of a newspaper article reporting a cricket game, the field of
discourse can be described as 'reporting a cricket game'.
• Subject matter (Field) is an abstract concept. In order for it to be measured,
subject matter (Field) needs to be realised or encoded in linguistic forms in a text
through the system of transitivity (Halliday, 1994). This system is concerned with
Participants, Processes and Circumstances.

5. • Tenor :
• The tenor of discourse is concerned with who writes for/to whom.
• Tenor expresses relationships between participants in a text (e.g., writer and reader)
• Taking the above example, the tenor of discourse can be described as 'a news reporter
reporting it to a general readership.'
• Tenor can be realised through interpersonal source.

6. • Mode :
• The mode of discourse is concerned with the
nature/characteristics of the means of communication.
• Mood can be realized in three ways: the indicative (consisting
of the Declarative and the Interrogative), the Imperative, and
the Subjunctive.

7. • In the case of the above cricket reporting, the mode of
discourse can be described as 'a written mode of
communication' and the text created is 'descriptive.'

8. Research by Budi Rahayu
 The research investigate the three dimensions of context ( field,
tenor, mode) in a sample of Indonesian university students’
academic writing.
 he explores how the subject matter (Field) was realized, how the
attitudes (Tenor) were expressed, and how the ideas were
organized (Mode) in the students’ texts.
He found that the students have used 47.2% field , 33.1%tenor
and 19.8%mood.

11. Thank you!