London School of Linguistics

Introduction
This school can quite fairly be called the creation of one man, John
Rupert Firth, and its date of origin can be given as 1944, the year in
which Firth acceded to the Chair of General Linguistics at the University
of London. He held this position until his retirement in 1956, and his
death in 1960 marked “the end of an era in the study of linguistics in
Great Britain” . (TERENCE,1968:1) He took what was best in
structuralism and functionalism and blended it with insights provided by
the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942). Because both
Firth and Malinowski were based in London, they and their followers,
including Halliday and R.A. Hudson (b. 1939), are sometimes referred to
as the London School (Sampson 1980:212 ).Firth's ideas on meaning and
context now find echoes, sometimes with citation, in discourse analysis,
corpus linguistics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics.
Malinowski carried out extensive fieldwork in the Trobriand
Islands and argues that language is not a self-contained system – the
extreme structuralist view – but is entirely dependent on the society in
which it is used . He maintains that language is thus dependent on its
society in two senses:
1 A language evolves in response to the specific demands of the society in
which it is used.
2 Its use is entirely context-dependent: ‘utterance and situation are bound
up inextricably with each other and the context of situation is
indispensable for the understanding of the words’ (Malmkjær:1991:167).
He maintains (Sampson 1980: 225) that a European, suddenly plunged
into a Trobriand community and given a word by- word translation of the
Trobrianders’ utterances, would be no nearer understanding them than if
the utterances remained untranslated – the utterances become
comprehensible only in the context of the whole way of life of which they
form part.
Malinowski is perhaps best known, however, for his notion of phatic
communion. By this he means speech which serves the function of
creating or maintaining ‘bonds of sentiment’ between speakers ; English
examples would include idle chat about the weather, and phrases like
How are you? (Konward, 1996: 322)
Michael.A. Halliday ,who founded Systemic Functional Linguistics,takes
up several fundamental ideas of Firth. Halliday’s ideas, originally labelled
‘neo-Firthian’, picked up Firth’s general approach of considering the
function of language in context, working in realm of grammar (which
Firth himself had not), expanding on the notion of linguistic systems as
paradigmatic sets of choices, and developing new ideas, arguably
compatible with Firth’s.( O’Donnell,2004:89)

Context of Situation
Context is the linguistic or extralinguistic situation in which an
utterance is made.(Trask,1998:59) As utterances occur in real-life
contexts, Firth argued that their meaning derived just as much from the
particular situation in which they occurred as from the string of sounds
uttered . For him, all of the circumstances in which a spoken utterance
occurs that are relevant in making sense of it. He emphasized that
meaning is context-dependent. This integrationist idea, which mixes
language with the objects physically present during a conversation to
ascertain the meaning involved, is known as Firth’s ‘contextual theory
of meaning’ or his theory of ‘context of situation’, a phrase which he
borrowed from Malinowski.
Malinowski coined this phrase in 1923 to refer to the cultural context of
use in which an utterance was located; furthermore, ‘the whole way of
life’ (cultural context) had to be borne in mind in interpreting an
utterance.

For Halliday, extralinguistic circumstances of use that influence the

linguistic form of an utterance: not only the social and physical setting,
but also such factors as social relationships, the nature of the medium, the
task, and the topic. He proposed that there is a systematic relationship
between ‘typical’ situations and the types of language employed within
them (register).

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Halliday developed an analysis of context in terms of field, tenor and

mode. These three components offer a system which help illustrate any
socio-linguistic occurrence.
�. Field: it refers to the subject matter and it may be similar to
certain uses of the term domain in computational linguistics: what
is happening, to whom, where and when, why it is happening, and
so on…
�Tenor: it refers to the social relation existing between the
interactants in a speech situation. It includes relations of formality,
power, and affect (manager/clerk, father/son). Tenor influences
interpersonal choices in the linguistic system, and thereby it affects
role the structures and the strategies chosen to activate the
linguistic exchange.
�Mode: it describes the way the language is being used in the speech
interaction, including the medium (spoken, written, written to be
 spoken, etc.) as well as the rhetorical mode (expository, instructive,
persuasive, etc.). These three elements make possible for the
speaker/writer to orient himself in the context of situation. The
translator must try and maintain the situational and cultural context
by finding the corresponding three components in the target
language. (Taylor, 1998 :77)

London School Phonology

Phonetic study in the modem sense was pioneered by Henry Sweet
(1845-1912). Sweet was the greatest of the few historical linguists whom
Britain produced in the nineteenth century to rival the burgeoning of
historical linguistics in Germany, but, unlike the German scholars, Sweet
based his historical studies on a detailed understanding of the workings of
the vocal organs. Sweet's phonetics was practical as well as academic;
was among the early advocates of the notion of the phoneme, which for
him was a matter of practical importance as the unit which should be
symbolized in an ideal1 system of orthography .Sweet's general approach
to phonetics was continued by Daniel Jones (1881-1967). Daniel Jones
stressed the importance for language study of thorough training in the
practical skills of perceiving, transcribing, and reproducing minute
distinctions of speech-sound; he invented the system of cardinal
reference-points which made precise and consistent transcription possible
in the case of vowels.(Sampson,1980:217)
Firthian Phonology, better known as (Firthian) Prosodic Analysis (FPA)
is a technique of phonological analysis associated with J.R. Firth and his
colleagues at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the
University of London. .(Plug,2008:337) Prosodists operate with the
notions of system and structure. The former relates to the concept of
paradigmatic relation and the latter to the concept of syntagmatic relation,
two concepts commonly ascribed to the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de
Saussure (1857– 1913). Prosodists often use the following diagram to
indicate the concepts of system and structure:

(Malmkjaer,1995:485)
Linguistic units function in terms of the interaction between system and
structure. In so far as linguistic units follow and precede one another, they
form sequential syntagmatic structural relations with each other. This
term used in suprasegmental phonetics and phonology to refer
collectively to variations in pitch, loudness, tempo and rhythm. Heading
of prosody, but such features as secondary articulations would also be
included, e.g. lip-rounding or nasalization, when these are used to account
for phonotactic restrictions.(Crystal,2008:394)

1. Systemic functional Grammar

Systemic Functional Grammar or SFG or Functional Grammar FG

or also called Systemic Functional Linguistics, is well-recognized
contribution in the study of language with regard to language-context and
language-function. The person who propounded this grammatical theory
is Austrian linguist Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday, well-known
as M.A.K Halliday. He after analyzing different linguist theories and
systems reached to the idea of exploring the function of language playing
in the discourse or literary expressions. In theoretical perspective SFG
consists of two components: SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR and
FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR. Both are foremost basis of the grammatical
and linguistic theory. Systemic grammar aims to explain the internal
relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential. And this
network consists of subsystems from which language users make choices.
While, Functional grammar aims to reveal that language is a means of
social interaction, based on the position that language system and the
forms that make it up are inescapably determined by the uses or functions
which they serve. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988:307).

Functions of Language

Halliday developed a theory of the fundamental func�ons of language, in

which he analysed lexicogrammar, Lexicogrammar is a term used in
systemic func�onal linguis�cs (SFL) to emphasize the interdependence of--
and con�nuity between--vocabulary (lexis) and syntax (grammar).
According to systemic func�onal theory, lexicogrammar is diversified into
a metafunc�onal spectrum, extended in delicacy from grammar to lexis,
and ordered into a series of ranked units." . so that , Halliday analyzed
lexicogrammar into three broad metafunc�ons: idea�onal, interpersonal
and textual. Each of the three metafunc�ons is about a different aspect of
the world, and is concerned with a different mode of meaning of clauses.

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1. The Ideational function

The first function Halliday points out is the ideational function.

What is ideational function? It is through this function that the speaker or
writer embodies in language his experience of the phenomena of the real
world; and this includes his experience of the internal world of his own
consciousness: his reactions, cognitions, and perceptions, and also his
linguistic acts of speaking and understanding (Halliday, 1971: 332). The
ideational function has two components of logical and
experiential functions. 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 (Haratyan, 2011: 261). The ideationalfunction
mainly consists of “transitivity”.Transitivity refers to a system for
describing the whole clause, rather than just the Verb and
its Object in traditional grammar (Thompson, 2000: 78). It
shows how speakers imagine in
language their mental picture of reality and how they
account for their experience of the world around them.
Transitivity focuses on the transmission of ideas. For Example,
Kitty flies a kite can be analyzed as: the Actor is Kitty, the process is
Material and the Goal is a kite. The Actor, Process, Goal, and their
subcategories reflect our understanding of phenomena that come within our
experience. In this system the meaningful grammatical unit is clause which
expresses what is happening, what is being done, what’s felt and what the
state is and so on (Yumin, 2007:87). The transitivity system includes six
processes: material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral
process, verbal process and existential process.

Figure1. Summary of principle options in the English clause (simplified ;

structural indices for transitivity ) (Halliday,2003:315).
 Interpersonal Function

In the second place, language serves as interpersonal function. As

Halliday observed, The speaker is using language as the means of his own
intrusion into the speech event: the expression of his comments, attitudes
and evaluations, and also of the relationship that he sets up between himself
and the listener—in particular, the communication role that he adopts of
informing, questioning, greeting, persuading, and the like. (Halliday,
1971:333) Hu Zhuanglin (1988:313) points out: “The interpersonal
function embodies all uses of language to express social and personal
relations. This includes the various ways the speaker enters a speech
situation and performs a speech act.” Modality and Mood are often used to
express the interpersonal function. Mood shows what role the speaker
selects in the speech situation and what role he assigns to the addressee. If
the speaker selects the imperative mood, he assumes the role of one giving
commands and puts the addressee in the role of one expected to obey
orders. For example, Pass me the book. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988) Modality
refers to the intermediate ranges between the extreme positive and the
extreme negative. It is one of the most important systems in social
communication. On the one hand, it can objectively express the speaker’s
judgment toward the topic. On the other hand, it can show the social role
relationship, scale of formality and power relationship. In English, except
An application of Systemic Functional Grammar 6 modal verbs, modal
adverbs, adjectives, there are also personal pronouns, notional verbs, tense,
direct and indirect speeches to express the modalization.

The Mood element constituted by the Subject and the Finite (auxiliary
or lexical verb) and the remainder of the clause as the Residue, determine
the mood of a clause as verbal group. In terms of finite verb, subject and
tense choice, SFL helps us express the speech functions such as persuading,
enticing, motivating, demanding, inviting, ordering, proposing,
recommending, confirming, persisting, and denying through a set of Mood
clause systems. In the mood system, a clause can be indicative or
imperative. Indicative clauses are classified into interrogative and
declarative; besides the element of tagging can be explored here. (Suha was
sick) (who is she? Is she a ghost in a body?) (he comes back, doesn’t he?)
(Listen to me, will you?) ( Let’s move out of this place, shall we?)
(Ibid:262).

Textual Function

The third role of language is called textual function. Halliday described,

“Language makes links between itself and the situation; and discourse
becomes possible because the speaker or writer can produce a text and the
listener or reader can recognize one” (Halliday, 1971:334). According to
Hu Zhanglin, The textual function refers to the fact that language has
mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a
coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a
random list of sentences. Although two sentences may have exactly the
same ideational and interpersonal functions, they may be different in terms
of textual coherence. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988: 315).

Within the textual metafunction the two choices Theme and Rheme
form the major system. Theme, for Halliday, is the “point of departure; it is
that with which the clause is concerned” (Halliday, 1994:37). Theme is
seen as a universal element; in every language there is a means for
identifying what the clause is about. In English, Theme is realised by what
is placed in initial position within the clause and this initial position gives
the Theme a ‘special status’ within the clause. For example, the writer has
chosen to give special status to “the problem “in following example,

“The problem requires continued vigilance”

Theme Rehem

Theme is the ‘glue’ that structures and binds the ideational and
interpersonal meanings. Theme, then, is seen to play a crucial role in
focussing and organising the message and to contribute to the coherence
and success of the message. In previous example, the writer has chosen
“the problem “as the Theme of the clause in order to emphasise its
importance. In contrast the writer could have chosen a number of different
options as the starting point of the message. For example, the writer could
have chosen:

“You are required to be vigilant with this problem.”

Theme Rheme

In the above example, the agent “you” has thematic status within the
organisation of the clause, and as the Theme of the clause it carries ‘a
special status’. Rheme is everything that is not Theme: it is the part of the
clause where the Theme is developed (Ibid:37). There is an order to the
structure: Theme comes first, followed by Rheme. Rheme is related to New
Information, while Theme is related to Given Information. Given
information refers to what is already known or predictable, while New
information refers to what is unknown or unpredictable. Halliday
elaborates the distinction between Given and New as “information that is
presented by the speaker as recoverable (Given) or not recoverable (New)
to the listener” (Ibid:298).

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