The Pre-Congress Institute of ISFC40

Professor M.A.K. Halliday (left) and Professor Christian Matthiessen (right)
 

The two linguists explored the theoretical foundations of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), discussing the implications of each of the three terms "linguistics”, "functional" and “systemic” as they relate to the study of language. They considered how linguistics relates to other domains of human knowledge, and how far linguists can recognize a general science of meaning, or “semiotics”, with language as the prototype of a semiotic system. They also focused on the critical properties of language which enable it to play such a fundamental part in human life, and the application of our theoretical understanding of language to the solution of human problems. Professor Halliday and Professor Matthiessen finally pointed out that students of linguistics should have a responsibility for developing the public understanding of language, so that it is recognized as central to human knowledge and resources are available for educators and other professionals to exploit the power of language in their everyday working practices.

Tuesday, July 9: Day 2 of Pre-Congress Institute of ISFC40

The 2nd day of Pre-Congress Institute of ISFC40 centered on the introduction and explanation of “context” in SFL. In the first session, Professor Wendy L. Bowcher walks the audience through the development of context in SFL and delivers a vivid lecture on relevant concepts in context in SFL. She illustrates the differences between Malinowski’s original concept and the approaches adopted by Firth and Halliday.
 

Professor Wendy L. Bowcher
 

In the afternoon session, Emeritus Professor R. Hasan explicates some of the key theoretical aspects of context, including the relationship between "context" and “register”. She explains the meaning of “relevant context” and the importance of a paradigmatic view of context of situation.
 

Emeritus Professor R. Hasan
 

Running parallel to the workshop is the course on “Intonation in the Grammar of English”, which started today and will last until Saturday July 13. It is taught by Emeritus Professor William S. Greaves and Meena Dabashsish. The course aims to introduce all strata of systemic functional analysis with particular emphasis on the lower end of the realization chain: choices in the English intonation sound system realizing choices in the lexicogrammar. 
 

Emeritus Professor William S. Greaves
 

Wednesday, July 10: Professor M. Cecilia Colombi taught at Pre-Congress Institute of ISFC 40

Professor M. Cecilia Colombi from the University of California at Davis taught the 3rd day workshop of Pre-Congress Institute of ISFC40, which centered on the relationship between Foreign Language Teaching and Systemic Functional Linguistics. Professor Colombi focused on the following aspects in her workshop: SFL and educational linguistics, Oral-Written language continuum, academic language, grammatical metaphor, and second language teaching.
 

Professor M. Cecilia Colombi
 

Professor Colombi began by looking at the applicability of SFL in the field of foreign language teaching. She then examined the potential of SFL in a curriculum for Spanish second language learners/heritage speakers, with particular emphasis on the meaning-making of language in the construal of discourse. Professor Colombi also presented examples of activities used in the classroom. The presentation offered many ideas that can be applied to other foreign language teaching situations.

Thursday, July 11: Webster and Thompson taught the 4th day workshop of ISFC40 Pre-Congress Institute

The 4th day workshop of the ISFC40 Pre-Congress Institute was taught by Professor Jonathan Webster from the City University of Hong Kong and Professor Geoff Thompson from University of Liverpool, UK. Professor Webster demonstrated how Systemic Functional Linguistics and other discourse related theories (e.g. Rhetorical Structure Theory) step into and unveil the meaning of a text. He introduced 7 steps to conduct systemic functional discourse analysis, and showed how the patterning of relations between functionally significant text spans at both clause level and above plays a significant role in contributing to the reader’s response to the text.
 

Professor Jonathan Webster
 

In Geoff Thompson’s session, he emphasized the linguistic interaction and the enactment of social relationships by means of language from the interpersonal perspective. He explored the patterns of interpersonal choices across texts and their contribution to text, texture, architecture as well as interaction. The perspectives adopted by the two scholars are highly complementary, and participants got hands-on experience of functional discourse analysis in the workshop.
 

Professor Geoff Thompson
 

Friday, July 12: ISFC40 Pre-Congress Institute Closes Today

The last day workshops of the ISFC40 Pre-Congress Institute were taught by Emeritus Professor Robin Fawcett from Cardiff University, Professor He Wei from University of Science and Technology Beijing, and Professor Erich Steiner from Saarland University respectively.
 

Professor Robin Fawcett
 

Professor Fawcett and Professor He Wei focused on the Cardiff Model of language and its use. Starting with a simple example, Professor Fawcett first introduced the main components of an SFG within the Cardiff Model of language and its use, and then explored the relationship between them. Professor He Wei illustrated the use of a version of the Cardiff Grammar that has been adapted for Chinese, showing how it helps to solve syntactic problems in Chinese.
 

Professor Erich Steiner
 

Professor Steiner’s workshop is about Varieties of English, Language for Special Purposes and Translation, which centered on the structure of vocabulary and terminology, information density, grammatical metaphor, and technicality of texts in general. The session was interactive and involved participants in pre-translational text analyses of English texts from various domains.

The 40th International Systemic Functional Congress will officially start next Monday, July 15.