Functional Grammar in Practice
Functional Grammar in Practice
The following description shows the ways Functional Grammar can be used in the language learning classroom.
When using Functional Grammar, a teaching learning cycle can be used including scaffolding for students when teaching texts. The cycle scaffolds and supports learning. As Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p. 97) explains, “texts are explored in terms of their social and cultural, as well as their functional and linguistic, purposes."
Figure 5.2 Hinkel (2016, p. 98).
As can be seen from the diagram, the
cycle includes four interrelated phases to increase knowledge. Firstly,
building knowledge of the field, the cultural knowledge. The second step
involves modelling of the text. The teacher shows sample texts of the target
genre. Thirdly, joint construction of text where the teacher and student work
together to create a text. Finally, independent construction of the text where
the learner can independently construct the text. The steps in this model are
cyclical so they can be used in varying orders according to the learner’s
needs.
In Functional Grammar a clause is the highest unit. Halliday (1994) advocated that
a clause has three dimensions of structure a subject, actor and a theme, each
with its own meaning. According to Halliday (1994), the system of theme is in the textual metafunction of
language. The system of mood is part of the interpersonal metafunction of
language which is linked to the roles the speakers are using when using
language. The system of transivity belongs in the ideational metafunction,
focusing on the content of a message.
As Thompson (2014, p.29) notes, Halliday (1994) used the term ‘lexicogrammar’ “to capture his view that lexis and grammar form a continuum of linguistic resources for the expression of meaning, with lexis as the most delicate set of choices and grammar as the most general."
An example given by Thompson (2014, p. 32) shows the three different functional roles that the elements including Actor, Process, Goal and Circumstance, in a clause can serve, according to Functional Grammar. I will show some of the examples given by Thompson (2013).
In the sentence for instance “Did you take her calculator just now?”, Thompson (2013, p. 32).
An analysis from the experiential perspective, according to Thompson (2013, p. 32) would be as follows:
Did you take her calculator just now?
Actor Process Goal Circumstance
This clause views the actor as the doer.
The analysis from the interpersonal perspective is as follows:
Did you take her calculator just now?
Finite Subject Predictor Complement Adjunct
Thompson (2013, p. 33) explains that 'you' as subject shows how the speaker is negotiating meaning with the listener.
The analysis from the textual perspective is as follows:
Did you take her calculator just now?
Theme Rheme
According to Thompson (2014, p.33), viewing 'Did you' as Theme "means that we are looking at the clause from the textual perspective of how the speaker orders various groups and phrases in the clause - in particular, which constituent is chosen as the starting point for the message."
As Thompson (2013, p. 38) notes, “it is in the clause that the main functional choices operate…the clause is the main resource through which we express meaning." When clauses are combined, a fourth metafunction is involved, the logical metafunction, which is the similarities and differences between the clauses or messages. In Functional Grammar, clauses have one or more groups or phrases. A clause complex includes one or more clauses. Subjects are usually nouns and finites, the first item in a verb group.
Halliday et al., (2014, p. 64), discussed the “unity of lexis and grammar, as the two poles of a single cline, or continuum ." In between these end points are propositions, adverbs and conjunctions. According to Halliday et al., (2014, p. 74), “the clause…is the mainspring of grammatical energy; it is the unit where meanings of different kinds, experiential, interpersonal and textual, are integrated into a single syntagm." Halliday et al., (2014), discussed grammatical class, which are items that are similar such as classes of words, verbs and nouns. According to Halliday et al., (2014), there are also classes of phrases, clauses and morphemes. The functional labels show the process and goal of the clause.
Subject,
Actor, Theme
According to Halliday et al., (2014, p.78) the Subject is
the concern of the message, that of which something is being predicted the
truth of the argument, the doer of the action.
In the Clause: the duke gave my aunt this teapot , according to Halliday et al., (2014, p. 76) , the duke is the subject in this clause in these three senses.
This
teapot my aunt was given by the duke
As Halliday et al., (2014) notes, which part
is the subject? The duke is still the doer, but the teapot is now the main
message and the aunt the truth of the of the argument.
This example
showed according to Halliday et al., (2014, p. 80), that “as soon as we take account of natural
living language, and of the kinds of variation that occur in it, in which the
order of elements can vary…it is no longer possible to base an analysis on the
assumption that these three concepts are merely different aspects of one and
the same notion." They are three separate functions.
Psychological
Subject:Theme
Grammatical
Subject:Subject
Logical
Subject:Actor
According to Halliday et al., (2014), the duke combines
the roles of Theme, Actor and Subject.
Each of these forms according to Halliday et al., (2014, p. 83), have a different function and change the meaning of the clause. As Halliday et al., (2014, p. 83) states, the theme functions as a message, the Subject functions as an exchange, “a transaction between speaker and listener” and the Actor functions as representation, “a clause has meaning as a representation of some process in ongoing human experience: the Actor is the active participant in that process." These three functions according to Halliday et al., (2014), are integrated with other functions that have a similar meaning. The Actor for instance is related to the functions of Process and Goal.
Halliday (2014, p. 84) applied this to the sentence, I caught the first ball.
In this sentence the I is the Actor. According to Halliday et al., (2014, p. 84), this is meaningful as “we interpret the verbal group caught as Process and the nominal group the first ball as Goal." These relationships create the structure of the clause. According to Halliday et al., (2014), the Subject and Theme behave in the same way, aligning with similar functional elements. As Halliday et al., (2014, p. 84) explains, each of these elements creates its own meaning, the ‘clause as message’, ‘clause as exchange” and ‘clause as representation’. This can be applied to all language according to this theory.
Table 2-8 Halliday et al., (2014, p. 85)
Metafunctions and their
reflexes in the grammar
Table 2-7 Halliday et al., (2014, p. 83)
Three lines of meaning in the clause
As Halliday et al., (2014, p. 83) explains, it is the
structure as a whole, the total configuration of functions, that construes, or
realises, the meaning."
Fig. 2-8 Word classes recognised in a functional grammar of English
Fig. 2-8 Halliday et al., (2014, p. 75)
In a diagram created by Halliday et al., (2014, p.75) he showed word classes recognised in a functional grammar of English. The word is shown as the smallest unit, followed by nominal, verbal and adverbial words, then breaking into larger word groups.
Functional grammar looks at the effect changing the word order, such as the Actor, in a clause, to the meaning of the clause, such as placing it at the end.
For example, Sarah
went to the shops to buy milk versus
The milk
was bought at the shops by Sarah
A phrase in functional grammar is called a prepositional phrase, which is treated like a clause, consisting of a preposition and noun group. For example. The kind teacher will give the students an extra lesson even though he will not get a lunch break.
The
prepositional phrase is he will not get a lunch break
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold
Hinkel, E. (Ed). (2016). Teaching English grammar to speakers of other languages. London: Routledge.
Thompson, G. (2014). Introducing functional grammar (3rd ed.). Routledge.
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