it is about grammar as Systemic Functional Grammar of Gerot and Wignell Say.

1. INA ROSITA ARUMSARI
(2003512048)

2. What
• What is Grammar ?
Why
• Why do we need to know
about grammmar ?
How
• How can we characterise or
talk about grammar ?
1. Traditional Grammar
2. Formal Grammar
3. Functional Grammar

3. What is Grammar ?
 Based on Gerot and Wignell (1994: 2), “Grammar is a
theory of language, of how language is put together and
how it works. More particularly, it is the study of wordings”.
 Example :
- Time flies like an arrow.
- Flies an arrow time like. Although this passage
presents linguistic units (in this case, words) which
individually convey (some) meaning, the words do not
‘hang together’.
- T-i-m-e = Time
- E-i-m-t = Eimt the passage cannot be read as
sequenced language constituents functioning together
to communicate meaning.

4. Folk Terminology
Letters/
sounds
Wordin
g
Meanin
g

5. Linguistic Terminology
Orthograph
y/
phonology
Lexicogramm
ar
Semantic
s

6. What is Grammar ?
 Language is semiotic system. Grammar is
the sign to organize the language.
 Grammar is the system of language.
People sometimes describe grammar as
the “rules” of a language.
 Grammar is the structural foundation of
our ability to express ourselves.
 The whole system and structure of a
language or of languages in general,
usually taken as consisting of syntax and
morphology and sometimes also
phonology and semantics.

7. Traffic Lights Language
Meaning Meaning
Words
Expression Lighting Sounds
Language
Grammar
Meaning and Expression
in traffic lights
and language
Grammar

8. Why do we need to know about
grammar ?
• We need a theory of grammar or language which
helps us understand how texts work. As teachers
we need to know how texts work so we can
explicitly help learners learn how to understand
and produce texts – spoken and written in various
contexts for various purposes.
• If there are no rules, or if everybody follows their
own rules, it creates problems in communication
for everyone. So we can finalize grammar is an
important factor to learn a new language.

9. How can we characterise or talk about grammar ?
 Theories of language or grammar are not inherently good
or bad, right or wrong, true or false. Rather, grammar are
validated by their usefulness in describing and
explaining the phenomenon called language.
 There are three grammars which have had a major
influence on schools in the western world in this century:
- Traditional Grammar
- Formal Grammar
- Functional Grammar

10.  Traditional grammar aims to describe the
grammar of standard English by comparing it
with Latin. As such, it is prescriptive. Students
learn the names of parts of speech (nouns,
verbs, prepositions, adverbs, adjectives). Parts of
speech tend to be defined semantically, such as
a noun is the name of a person, place or thing; a
verb is an action word and so on.
 Traditional grammar focuses on rules for
producing correct sentences.
 Traditional grammar tends to focus on the
individual role of words.

11. FORMAL GRAMMAR
 Formal grammars are concerned to describe the
structure of individual sentences. It is as a set of
rules which allow or disallow certain sentence
structures. Knowledge of these rules is seen as
being carried around inside the mind. The central
question formal grammars attempt to address is:
“How is this sentence structured?”.
 So, formal grammar concentrates on structure, that
is the way in which classes of words and phrases
are combined.

12. Example of traditional and formal
grammar :
Noun Verb
(Simple
Past)
Verb
(infinitive)
Possessive
determiner
Adjec
tive
Noun Prepo
sition
Determiner Noun
Verb Phrase Noun Phrase Prepositional Phrase
Annie wanted to play her new clarinet in the Band.
Noun Verb (Simple
Present)
Prepositional
phrase
Time flies like an arrow
Noun Verb (Simple Past) Prepositional
phrase
Tim told of a tragic case

14.  It can be used to teach the lexical density in
writing.
 To teach the structure of grammar namely
simple present tense, simple past, etc for the
intermediate or advance level of students.
 To teach parts of speech in every sentence.

15.  Functional grammars view language as a
resource for making meaning. These grammars
attempt to describe language in actual use and
so focus on texts and their contexts.
 Systemic functional grammar, on the other
hand, labels elements of the clause in terms of
the function each is playing in that clause
rather than by word class.

16. The Example of Functional Grammar in Sentences
Participant:
Actor
Process:
Material
Participant Circumstance:
Place
Annie wanted to play her new clarinet in the band.
Participant :
Actor
Process :
Material
Circumstance:
Manner
Time flies like an arrow.
Participant:
Sayer
Process :
Verbal
Circumstance :
Matter
Tim told of a tragic case.

17. FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
 The 'experiential' in Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG)
identifies real functional building blocks of word-groups rather
than the more abstract traditional concepts such as verb, noun,
adjective etc.
The systemic approach to language is functional in two main
feature:
1. Asking FUNCTIONAL QUESTION
How do people use language?
2. Interpreting the LINGUISTIC SYSTEM functionally
How is language structured for use?
Halliday (1994) Language : structured to make 3 main kinds of
meaning simultaneously, which allows ideational, interpersonal,
and textual meaning.

18. A basic phrase or sentence can thus be broken up into three
basic types of building blocks as follows:
Participant ('Who or What' )
Process ('Does, makes or is (by something or
someone)'
Circumstance ('When, where, how‘)

19. The Example
'who or what' , 'the doing and being words' and 'when,
where and how'

20. Remo Dance is a welcoming dance. It is
performed by a single dancer or by a group of
dancers. Remo Dance has two styles, masculine
and feminine. Women dancers often perform
masculin-style and men dancers perform feminine-
style.
Remo Dance was originally danced at the
beginning of a ludruk performance. Now, it is
performed at parties, folk festivals, or the
commemorations of national holidays. Remo Dance
is performed to welcome guests. Therefore, it is
called a welcoming dance.
Its characteristic movements are the beats of the
feet. A set of small bells is tied around the right
ankle. The bells tinkle when the dancer walks or
beats the floor with his or her right foot.
( Bima, M; Winardi, A; and Nurmalina, S. 2005.
Let’s Talk for Junior High School, Grade IX, p.

21.  This text can still be identified the topic easily even without a title
(field).
 There are some clues that help indicate topical coherence: key
words and lexical chain as well as the choice of processes.
 There are key words in this text, namely Remo Dance which occurs
4 times, dancer which occurs 5 times, welcoming dance which
occurs 2 times, and perform in 5 times.
 The choice of processess
doing being or having
perform is (6 times)
tinkle has
walks was
beats are
Most of the Processess are of the ‘being’ or ‘having’ type. These serve
to tell what Remo Dance ‘is’ and what they, as a class ‘is like’. So,
based on the key words and the choices of processess of this text, it
can be seen that the purpose of this text is to tell facts about Remo
Dance or to describe the Remo Dance.

22. IDEATIONAL SCHEMA
It’s about Remo
Dance
INTERPERSONAL
SCHEMA
To describe
Remo Dance

23. Pedagogical Implication of Functional
Grammar
 It can be used to teach both of written (lexical density)
and spoken language (negotiation, mood, etc).
 To teach students how to produce the text (spoken and
written) which is cohesive and coherent.

24. Pedagogical Implication of
Grammar
 to aid in the teaching and learning of that language, so
pedagogical phonetics and phonology can be regarded
as a description of the sound system and
pronunciation of a language for the purpose of
allowing teachers to teach it more effectively and
learners to learn it more effectively.

25. The Example of Ambiguous text
just cup your hand together and roll close to the outlet
It’s almost impossible to work out what this sentence means unless there is a
co-text.
Evaporation is the most hygienic of the practical methods of hand drying.
just cup your hand together and roll close to the outlet
• Originally, this text was found on a hand-dryer in a wash room (it’s context).
• Texts not only connect internally, but they connect with their contexts of use.

26. The Differences
Formal (+Traditional) Functional
Primary
Concern
How is (should) this
sentence be structured ?
How are the
meanings of this
text realised ?
Unit of
analysis
Sentence Whole texts
Language
level of
concern
Syntax Semantics
Language = a set of rules for
sentence construction
= something we know
= a resource for
meaning making
= something we do

27. Conclusion
 Traditional and formal grammar will more focus on the
parts of speech like noun, verbs, prepositions, adverbs,
adjectives and the structure of sentence. They are set of
rules for sentence construction.
 functional grammars are very complex -much more
complex than traditional school grammars and including
many more labels than formal grammars (which are
more concerned with rules). It is about the organization
of context correlates with the organization of grammar. It
will more focus in constructing the whole text that is
cohesive and coherent.
 In functional grammar we can look at the types of
meaning in two ways: from the perspective of context or
from the perspective of grammar.
 In systemic functional grammar the organization of
context correlates with the organization of grammar. This
means that there is a strong association between the
register variable field and ideational meaning, between
tenor and interpersonal meaning and between mode and
textual meaning.