Using Functional Grammar An Explorer's Guide Second Edition David But: Rhondda Fahey Susan Feez Sue Spinks Colin Yallop National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research Macquarie University Published and distributed by the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research Macquarie University Sydney NSW 2109 Contents Using functional grammar: An explorer's guide. 2nd ed. Acknowledgments Bibliography. Includes index. Preface * ISBN 1 S640S5S0 9 How to use this book I. English language - Grammar, 2, Fvinctionalisin (Linguistics). .3. Interpersonal relations. 4. Discourse analysis. 1. Butt, David, 1950-. II. National Centre for English 1 Ideas and philosophy underpinning this book Language Teaching and Research (Australia), ? 1 Ll * 2 Towards a functional grammar 3 How speakers represent the world: M Exploring experiential meanings ^ MACQLIARIE 4 How speakers interact with language: Exploring interpersonal meanings ° © Macquarie University 2000 First edition printed 1994 5 How speakers take a position: Reprinted with revisions 1996 Exploring interpersonal meanings further 109 Reprinted with corrections 1997 Reprinted, 1998, 1999 6 How speakers organise their message: lii Second edition: Exploring textual meanings Reprinted with corrections 2001, 2003 1 £Q 7 Patterns of clause combination 1JJ All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a 1Q1 retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, 8 Exploring context photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. 209 The publisher would like to thank the following for permission Co reproduce copyright 9 Exploring text material: 10 Functional grammar and language education 253 Board of Studies NSW for material on pp9, 11-13, 218-20, 222-3, 225-6, 234-5, 241, ?75 243, adapted and reprinted from English K-6 syllabus © Board of Studies NSW, 1998 Further explorations " and English K-6 modules © Board of Studies NSW, 1998 Appendices Federation Press for the right to reproduce an extract on pi 74, from Mtilw: What the High Court said (Butt, P J and R D Engleson, 1993) Appendix A: Summary of metalanguage for each analysis 279 The Macquarie Dictionary Library Pty Ltd for the right to reproduce the following Appendix B: Meaning patterns across a text Z80 definitions: adjective, adverb, article, conjunction, noun, preposition, pronoun, verb Appendix C: Prepositional phrase (and adverbial group) help sheet 281 on p27, from the Macquarie dictionary: Second edition, 1997 News Limited and the authors for the reprinting and adaptation on pp229-3I, 294-6 Appendix D: Templates for summarising experiential meanings 283 of the article 'City bartered by giant hailstones' (Georgina Safe and Matt Price) in The Appendix E: Templates for summarising interpersonal meanings 290 Australian, 15 April, 1999 © Georgina Safe and Matt Price Appendix F: Templates for summarising textual meanings of Theme 292 Phoenix Education for text adapted on pj 79, from Creatine writing skills: Uteraiy and media text types- (H de Silva Joyce and S Fcez 2000). Appendix G: Template for for exploring nominal group structures 293 The National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research (NCELTR) is a Appendix H: Sample text analysis: News story text 291 Commonwealth Government Key Centre of Research and Teaching established at Appendix I: The structure of the Nursery Tale 327 Macquarie University in 1988, The National Centre forms part of the Linguistics discipline at Macquarie University. NCELTR's Key Centre activities are funded by the Answers to exercises « Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Bibliography ' DTP 2nd edition: Helen La very •XA". Printed by: Robert Burton Printers Index Acknowledgments Preface The systemic functional grammar which is explored in this book originated with This is a book which aims to defuse controversy and chart an exploration. Its subject Michael Halliday. His ideas were gathered together in his An introduction to functional matter, Grammar, is one on which pretty well everyone has strong views, even if they (grammar {2nd edition, 1994. London: Edward Arnold), which remains the most haven't had very much direct and thoughtful contact themselves with any of its various important teaching document for this theory of grammar. Others such as Ruqaiya meanings. Grammar simply is a topic which incites an enormous amount of active and Hasan, Christian Match lessen and James Robert Martin have explored Halliday's ideas sharp debate. For a subject which hasn't been highlighted in schools, except in a few and carried the theory further. This book has no such pretensions. Rather it is an places, for a long time, it is curious that it's rarely absent from the newspapers. There introduction to the Introduction. We hope that it encourages people to read Halliday are two main reasons for this: the first is that for many people (and not only those in and Hasan, then Martin and Matthiessen. It necessarily simplifies and leaves out the authority), grammar is seen as a type of selection test - being good at it (whatever harder parts of the grammar without dumbing down the parts it includes. 'good' and 'it' mean) is regarded as a form of educational quality control exercise, serving to separate the linguistic sheep from the linguistic goats. The second is that it's Michael Halliday has also underlined the links between learning language, learning a kind of mystery, full of arcane terms which hardly anyone understands, but the through language and learning about language. This book now includes some re­ mastery of which is seen to be good for you, like cod liver oil, or part of growing up. flections on these connections directed especially to those involved in language You get inducted into it. On both counts, grammar is everyone's property; it is not education and TESOL, but it is written for everyone who puzzles over the patterns of directly linked with effective context-sensitive communication and everyone has a language and their place in the system as a whole, strongly-held view on what grammar is. In both cases its effect is pretty alienating. The writing of this book has been very much a team effort - in fact the efforts of a So, if we want to turn that perception around, the first obvious place to begin is to un­ community of linguisty at Macqiiarie University over a considerable period of time. A pack the metaphor of grammar and set out what these meanings might be. To do that, significant debt goes back to those who set up the context for our work, in particular, though, we need to place our study of grammar in a broader framework of language and our teachers and supervisors: Professors Arthur Delbridge, Michael Halliday, Ruqaiya understanding, and to reaffirm from the start that grammar as a means of explaining Hasan and Jim Martin. the significant and functional patterning of words in the making of meaning can't be Also part of the community effort are the many colleagues who have offered advice and wished away. After all, if language was just a random collection of words, you couldn't encouragement over the many years of development of this textbook. Special thanks acquire it, you couldn't learn it and you'd be imprisoned in the here and now because must go to Professor Chris Candlin for his support and for writing such an enthusiastic you couldn't talk about what was, what might be and what will be. You couldn't express preface to the book. someone else's point of view any more than your own and you couldn't evaluate what someone else had said. You couldn't construct complete and coherent texts. You In addition to colleagues, we need to thank the several generations of linguistics couldn't distinguish one type of writing or speaking from another. You'd be in a 'me students at Macqiiarie University who have offered constructive criticism along the way Tarzan~you Jane' situation, swinging from the wordtrees, pointing at things with little as each new edition (published initially as course notes and since 1995 in book form) labels on them to try to make your partner understand. Grammar frees you from the was tested in our teaching program. We also want to express our thanks to the children shackles of vocabulary in that sense, so we had better work out how these conventional (some of them now young adults) who have allowed us to use their texts; to our editor patternings liberate rather than imprison us. and designer; and to our families and friends. In a sense, I've already given the game away. I've introduced the idea of grammar as And finally each one of us would like to thank the other four for the unfailing friend­ language patterning and by that implied some system that allows principled choices to ship, generosity and support which has meant that, at the end of a long and sometimes be made. What we say or write is always a matter of exercising these choices, designing difficult process, we are still all friends as well as colleagues. our texts with some purpose in mind. I've also implied, by using the metaphor of David Butt patterning, that the patterns don't have to have the same dimensions. You can talk Rhondda Fahey about the grammar patterns of clauses and you can talk about the grammar patterns of Susan Feez whole texts. It's all a matter of perspective, but it's crucial to agree what the focus is. Sue Spinks Make sure that whoever you're talking to about grammar, you're talking about the same Colin Yallop view of grammar. Not doing that is most of the problem. So, there are two central February 2000 points to make: grammar is a matter of meaningful, flexible but patterned choice and vi Using Functional Qrammar Preface vil grammar is not just a matter of labelling classes of words - it's a purposeful, constructive and laid out, so it's not going to be a hard map to follow.