the definition and the Meta-functions of SFL

1. The metafunctions of SFL
By
Submitted by:Hamid Mnati Dafir
Submitted to
PH.D Adil Al Thamiry
University of Basrah/Iraq 2016

2. 1.Introduction
• 1.1 What is the SFL
• -It is an approach to language developed
mainly by M.K.A Halliday in the U.K during the
1960s and then in Australia .
• -The approach now is used worldwide
particularly in language education and for
purpose of discourse analysis.

3. 1.2 What are the metafunctions of the
SFL
• - The Systemic function grammar advocate
three types of metafunctions : Ideational ,
interpersonal and textual
• - They are interdependent , they affect each
other.
• -Halliday and Mathiesser argue that they don’t
restrict each other.

4. 2.Definitions of The Metafunctions of
SFL
• 2.1 Ideational
• -It is concerned with things existing in the
world .
• - It is concerned with actions , events and
processes
• - it is concerned with participant in those
processes

5. 2.Definitions of The Metafunctions of
SFL
• 1.3. Interpersonal functions- It is the
interaction between participant in spoken or
written texts
• -it deals with use of language related to our
listener .

6. 2.Definitions of The Metafunctions of
SFL
• 2.3 Textual functions
• -It is related to the construction of text i.e.
how it is held together.
• Cohesion
• Types of cohesion , reference , substitution ,
ellipsis , conjunctions , lexical cohesion

7. 3.1 Cohesion
• 3.1.1 Coherence : include personal pronouns
(it , he ,him , her , they , them) or relative pronouns
(who ,which …..) demonstrative pronouns (this ,
that , those …….etc) along with comparative
pronouns (more , less , most …)and the definite
article.
E.g. My father once bought a Lincoln convertible.
He did it by saving every penny he could . That car
would be worth a fortune nowadays. However he
sold it to help pay for my college education.
Sometimes I’d rather have the convertible.

8. 3.1 Cohesion
• 3.1.2 Substitution and ellipsis:
• May be nominal (one ) or verbal (do )
E.g. A. Yesterday we went to see a movie.
B. We did (= went to see a movie) too.
A. Which one(= a movie )did you see?

9. 3.1 Cohesion
• 3.1.3 Cohesive ties: They are indicated by conjunctive
elements as and (additive) ; but , however (adversative)
, because , since , (causal ) ; before , after (temporal);
and well , of course (continuative)
• e.g Ted recently graduated from law school and started
job hunting . Other classmates of his have had difficulty
finding employment ,but Ted quickly found work . Of
course , it probably helped that Ted’s father is a
successful lawyer. Because he is a fresh graduate . Ted
will still need time to gain experience before taking on
the more difficult cases.

10. 3.2 Lexical cohesion
• Halliday and Hasan identify two types of
lexical cohesion Reiteration and collocations
• 1. Reiteration includes synonymy (meaning of
X = meaning of Y e.g stop = cease );
hyponymy(meaning of X is kind of meaning of
Y e.g a car is a kind of vehicle) meronymy
(meaning of X is a part of meaning of Y e.g
steering wheel is a part of car); and antonymy
(meaning of X # meaning of Y e.g cold # hot)

11. 3.2 Lexical cohesion
• 2. collocations : involves regularly co-occurring
words in a given context .
• E.g. If the topic is about a movie , then one
might expect the text to contain words
commonly associated with the topic like .
Actor , star , director , script , sound track …etc

12. 4. References
• (The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics
Series) Jonathan Webster-Understanding Verbal
Art_ A Functional Linguistic Approach-Springer
(2014)
• [Suzanne. Eggins] An Introduction to Systemic
Funct(BookFi.org)
• Yule , George (The study of language)Fourth
edition Cambridge university.
• Halliday , M.K.A and Ruqaiya Hasan
(1979)Cohesion in English . London.longman