Editing Systemic functional grammar (section)

==Metafunctions==

From early on in his account of language, Halliday has argued that it is inherently functional. His early papers on the grammar of English make reference to the "functional components" of language, as "generalized uses of language, which, since they seem to determine the nature of the language system, require to be incorporated into our account of that system."<ref>Halliday, M.A.K. 1970. Functional Diversity in Language as seem from a Consideration of Modality and Mood in English. Foundations of Language: International Journal of Language and Philosophy, 6. Reprinted in full in Studies in English Language, Volume 7 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by J. J Webster. London and New York: Continuum. p. 167.</ref> Halliday argues that this functional organization of language "determines the form taken by grammatical structure".<ref>Halliday, M.A.K. 1970. Functional Diversity in Language as seem from a Consideration of Modality and Mood in English. Foundations of Language: International Journal of Language and Philosophy, 6. Reprinted in full in Studies in English Language, Volume 7 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by J. J Webster. London and New York: Continuum. p. 166.</ref>

Halliday refers to his functions of language as [[metafunction]]s. He proposes three general functions: the ''ideational'', the ''interpersonal'' and the ''textual''.

===Ideational metafunction===
The ideational metafunction is the function for construing human experience. It is the means by which we make sense of "reality".<ref>Halliday, M.A.K. The Essential Halliday. London and New York: Continuum. Chapter 12: Metafunctions.</ref> Halliday divides the ideational into the logical and the experiential metafunctions. The logical metafunction refers to the grammatical resources for building up grammatical units into complexes, for instance, for combining two or more clauses into a clause complex. The experiential function refers to the grammatical resources involved in construing the flux of experience through the unit of the clause.

The ideational metafunction reflects the contextual value of ''field'', that is, the nature of the social process in which the language is implicated.<ref name="Halliday, M.A.K 1985"/> An analysis of a text from the perspective of the ideational function involves inquiring into the choices in the grammatical system of "transitivity": that is, process types, participant types, circumstance types, combined with an analysis of the resources through which clauses are combined. Halliday's ''An Introduction to Functional Grammar'' (in the third edition, with revisions by [[Christian Matthiessen]])<ref>Halliday, M.A.K. and Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. 2004. [https://books.google.com/books?id=JM3KAgAAQBAJ An Introduction to Functional Grammar]. Arnold.</ref> sets out the description of these grammatical systems.

===Interpersonal metafunction===
The interpersonal metafunction relates to a text's aspects of ''tenor'' or [[interactivity]].<ref>O’Halloran, K.A. (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 2: Getting inside English'' (2006), The Open University, p. 15.</ref> Like field, tenor comprises three component areas: the speaker/writer [[persona]], social distance, and relative social status.<ref>Coffin, C (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 3: Getting practical'' (2006), The Open University, p. 11</ref> Social distance and relative social status are applicable only to spoken texts, although a case has been made that these two factors can also apply to written text.<ref>O’Halloran, K.A. (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 2: Getting inside English'' (2006), The Open University, p. 22.</ref>

The speaker/writer persona concerns the stance, personalisation and standing of the speaker or writer. This involves looking at whether the writer or speaker has a neutral [[attitude (psychology)|attitude]], which can be seen through the use of positive or negative language. Social distance means how close the speakers are, e.g. how the use of [[nicknames]] shows the degree to which they are intimate. Relative social status asks whether they are equal in terms of power and knowledge on a subject, for example, the relationship between a mother and child would be considered unequal. Focuses here are on [[speech acts]] (e.g. whether one person tends to ask questions and the other speaker tends to answer), who chooses the topic, turn management, and how capable both speakers are of [[evaluation|evaluating]] the subject.<ref>Coffin, C (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 3: Getting practical'' (2006), The Open University, pp. 22–23</ref>

===Textual metafunction===
The textual metafunction relates to ''mode''; the internal organisation and communicative nature of a text.<ref>O'Halloran, K.A. (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 2: Getting inside English'' (2006), The Open University, p. 36.</ref> This comprises textual interactivity, spontaneity and communicative distance.<ref>Coffin, C (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 3: Getting practical'' (2006), The Open University, p. 245</ref>

Textual interactivity is examined with reference to [[speech disfluency|disfluencies]] such as hesitators, pauses and repetitions.

Spontaneity is determined through a focus on [[lexical density]], grammatical complexity, [[coordination (linguistics)|coordination]] (how clauses are linked together) and the use of [[nominal group (language)|nominal groups]]. The study of communicative distance involves looking at a text's [[cohesion (linguistics)|cohesion]]—that is, how it hangs together, as well as any abstract language it uses.

Cohesion is analysed in the context of both lexical and grammatical as well as [[intonation (linguistics)|intonational]] aspects<ref name="Coffin, C 2006 p. 158">Coffin, C (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 3: Getting practical'' (2006), The Open University, p. 158</ref> with reference to [[lexical chain]]s<ref name="Coffin, C 2006 p.158">Coffin, C (ed.) ''English Grammar in Context, Book 3, Getting Practical'' (2006) The Open University, p. 158</ref> and, in the speech register, tonality, tonicity, and [[tone (linguistics)|tone]].<ref>Coffin, C (ed.) ''English grammar in context, Book 3: Getting practical'' (2006), The Open University, p. 184</ref> The lexical aspect focuses on sense relations and lexical repetitions, while the grammatical aspect looks at repetition of meaning shown through reference, substitution and [[Elliptical construction|ellipsis]], as well as the role of linking [[adverbial]]s.

Systemic functional grammar deals with all of these areas of meaning equally within the grammatical system itself.