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Systemic Functional Grammar Workshop Summary Session One

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) redefines grammar as a resource for language users to express their intentions, contrasting with traditional grammar's rule-based approach. SFG categorizes language into three metafunctions: textual, interpersonal, and ideational, each serving different communicative purposes. The textual metafunction focuses on the creation of texts as multi-use artifacts, while the interpersonal and ideational metafunctions pertain to communication and the representation of experiences, respectively.

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15 views1 page

Systemic Functional Grammar Workshop Summary Session One

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) redefines grammar as a resource for language users to express their intentions, contrasting with traditional grammar's rule-based approach. SFG categorizes language into three metafunctions: textual, interpersonal, and ideational, each serving different communicative purposes. The textual metafunction focuses on the creation of texts as multi-use artifacts, while the interpersonal and ideational metafunctions pertain to communication and the representation of experiences, respectively.

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Rick Arruda
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Systemic Functional Grammar workshop

Session 1 - Introduction and the textual metafunction

Summary

In a nutshell, Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) offers an alternative perspective to that of


traditional grammar. Instead of thinking about grammar as a set of rules which regulate the use of
language, SFG sees it as a resource used by language users to realise their intentions. In other words,
traditional grammar is believed to spouse a form-based perspective: how do we combine words to
create meaningful texts, written and spoken? SFG, on the other hand, departs from the use of
language in different contexts – a function-based perspective: how do language users realise their
intentions through the use of language? This perspective shift leads to conceptualising grammar as a
system of choices designed to fulfil linguistic functions, therefore systemic functional.

Because SFG considers language in context and delineates the various functions of language, it
subdivides language into three separate domains, called metafunctions: textual, interpersonal and
ideational, each of which is classified differently: is comprised of different systems. The textual
metafunction is the domain of language itself. Texts are created as multi-use artifacts. In this
domain, the three metafunctions merge. The interpersonal metafunction is the domain of
interpersonal communication: texts are created to exchange information between interlocutors. The
ideational metafunction is the domain of ‘ideation’: “construing our experience of the world around
us and inside us.” (Matthiessen & Halliday, 2009).

The table below shows the different classifications for each metafunction.

Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. & Halliday, M. A. K. Systemic Functional Grammar: A First Step into
the Theory. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2009.

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