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Northern Shaanxi folk songs are an integral part of China's folk-art heritage, renowned for their simplicity and the deep emotional expression they convey. As a vital component of traditional Chinese culture, the translation of these folk songs necessitates meticulous attention. However, in recent years, there has been a paucity of innovation in the study of northern Shaanxi folk songs, both in terms of research methods and study perspectives. This article aims to address this gap by applying Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to the translation practice of northern Shaanxi folk songs. This article first provides an overview of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), a linguistic framework developed by Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (M.A.K. Halliday). It then utilizes SFL 'Context' theory to explore various translation techniques, drawing on appropriate examples from Wang Hongyin's Voices from China's Northwest. The objective of this research is to facilitate the external dissemination of northern Shaanxi folk songs by applying Systemic Functional Linguistics to their translation. This approach is intended to foster cross-cultural communication and understanding. In conclusion, the author's endeavours and research have yielded novel insights into the practice of translating northern Shaanxi folk songs and have advanced the English translation of folk songs to a modest extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the linguistic complexity (LC) of public legal information (PLI) texts for young persons by deploying the Hallidayan model of lexical density and grammatical intricacy. It examines how the Australian legal statutes' grammatical intricacy and lexical density are reformulated into PLI texts to make them more accessible for a specific vulnerable group. The findings reveal that although the PLI texts were claimed to be written in plain language, they trade some types of complexity for others. The paper extends Halliday's model of complexity by adding lower rank complexes and embedded clause complexes as realisations of intricacy and density. It proposes "embedded intricacy" as a feature of a hybrid of spoken and written language. Furthermore, the study suggests reconsidering how law can be recontextualised for young persons in a more accessible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that classroom role-play can be conceptualised theoretically as an oral genre, as defined within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The work draws on analysis of 15 video-recorded child-led role-plays in which groups of three 4–5 year-old children engage in five different life-like social scenarios. The study is underpinned by SFL register and genre analysis of the children's interactions, and the findings reveal how the children's linguistic choices have a direct impact on the dynamically unfolding role-play, and how imaginary scenarios are construed by the instantiation of individual genre stages, some of which serve to regulate the role-play and others that mimic real life social scenarios. The findings suggest that the two different types of stages construe two separate, but interwoven contexts, with the make-believe context often being dependent on the regulative context. The paper offers new insights into the ways in which SFL can reveal nuances in children's dialogic and dynamic language in play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the importance of the social to the analysis of historical multimodal texts and how some concepts and analytical tools from SFL can prevent researchers from getting the most from their data. Building on the work of Ledin and Machin (2018), it looks at three main areas of concern when dealing with historical multimodal texts—context, attention to micro, meso and macro levels, and historically-developed affordances—and uses examples of Edwardian book inscriptions to suggest ways that archival research can help overcome these problems. Overall, it argues how greater attention to the social brings to the fore how semiotic choices can be used strategically to foreground individual positions and/or subvert aesthetic norms. In doing so, it frames historical multimodal texts not as static representations of communication, but as dynamic, highly contextual and involved in a complex process of co-construction between producers, their imagined audiences and broader sociocultural meanings. It also suggests that a focus on historical context can also move multimodal studies beyond a predominant focus on the contemporary, as well as challenge the supposed novelty of certain communicative practices, thereby fostering more nuanced interpretations that recognise the broader lineage of patterned practices and uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although digital advances have enabled hundreds of universities to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) to millions of students worldwide, the high dropout rate on these MOOCs indicates a disjunct between the potential of the offer and the success of its uptake. Many studies point to issues relating to interpersonal connection as a major factor in this disjunct. Interviews with students support the conclusion that lecturers' interpersonal tone is crucial to shortening psychological distance in pre-recorded videos. However, it is unclear how the interpersonal tone preferred by students can be realised discursively. This paper captures discursive instances by modelling an engagement framework and identifying particularly useful strategies through comparison of a high-rated and a low-rated engineering MOOC course delivered on Coursera. Findings show that in the high rated course the lecturer consistently anticipated students' state of mind and in response constructed a discourse that performed several interpersonal functions. On the other hand, in the low-rated course the lecturer mostly anticipated and addressed knowledge gaps and issues of difficulty, but not students' emotional responses, and so deployed far fewer interpersonal strategies in the lecture discourse. These findings shed light on how lecturers can use interpersonal language in pre-recorded lectures to improve student engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature has revealed the upsurge of populism in political and media discourses across the world. However, few studies have acknowledged the importance of cultivating critical language awareness among citizens in democracies. Drawing on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics and Fairclough's Critical Discourse, this study critically analyzes Trump's populist meaning-making choices in his inaugural address through both genre and register analysis to raise the urgency of cultivating citizens' critical language awareness through language education. To better illustrate Trump's genre moves and rhetorical strategies, this study sometimes analyzes Trump's inaugural address in comparison with other presidents' inaugural addresses. The findings indicate that Trump employs a combination of populist rhetorical style, which includes anti-establishment, anti-elitism rhetoric; collectivist rhetoric; pro-nationalist sentiments; and linguistic choices of simplicity and repetition to appeal to both supporters and opponents in an attempt to build solidarity. The implications of this study center on raising educators' and social scientists' awareness of the urgency to cultivate critical language awareness among citizens through language education. Equipped with critical language awareness, citizens can understand how politicians use linguistic resources to engage, persuade, and manipulate their audiences to achieve their political goals, and thereby can make informed choices about political leaders in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemistry is a highly technical field that relies heavily on a range of symbolic and imagic formalisms. These formalisms conceptualize specific chemical knowledge into semiotic resources that are rarely used elsewhere in most other academic fields or contexts. To develop an understanding of semiosis in highly technical fields such as chemistry, key questions include what this range of formalisms do and why they occur. These are key questions not only for our understanding of semiosis, but also if we wish to develop integrated literacy programs that can support students to marshal the multimodal discourse of chemistry. This paper explores these questions by examining how three key chemical formalisms organize their meaning: symbolic formalisms known as chemical formulas and chemical equations, and an imagic formalism known as structural formulas. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics and using a corpus of formalisms from secondary school chemistry, these formalisms are explored in terms of their overarching grammatical organization and the content meanings they realize through the concept of "field." This is used to compare and contrast each formalism in terms of a semiotic typology so as to understand how they work and what meanings they realize. By exploring chemical formalisms in this way, this paper establishes a means of seeing the similarities and differences in meaning-making across formalisms and explaining why different formalisms occur. This then begins to provide a base upon which applied programs can interpret the literacy needs of chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing assessment is a crucial practice in the success of teaching and learning a specific genre. The relevant literature highlights that assessing the written literacy levels of students should be well-designed in order to meet their learning needs and achieve clearly articulated goals. It also points out that there are several unaddressed issues in the existing approaches to writing assessment. Accordingly, this review paper aims to discuss some of those issues, in particular, those around the functional language analysis method, which rests upon Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). One of the concerns in such an approach is what the potential limitations might be when using only purely quantitative analysis, which simply calculates the frequency of a given linguistic resource in a student's writing to investigate his/her development. This review article maintains that quantitative analysis alone will offer limited insights into students' written literacy development. Therefore, it suggests employing a linguistically-observant method based on concrete stylistic evidence that considers both quantitative analyses and qualitative observations for judging written literacy levels. It concludes that this combination will prove effective for offering useful insights into writing assessment and making well-founded conclusions on how to track and gauge written literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While museums have always been multimodal in and of themselves, and while museum studies have long engaged with different modalities in the museum (exhibition design, visitor movement, etc.), a comprehensive understanding of museums as 'multimodal constellations' has been missing. This was certainly the case in the 1990s, particularly for linguistics as a discipline, in which language was likely to be viewed as an isolated, and primary, form of communication. Yet in a museum, every label is connected to an exhibit, an exhibition, and the museum itself, and communication needs to be understood as a holistic, multimodal enterprise. For me as a linguist involved with the Australian Museum, Australia's foremost museum of natural history, the multimodal environment of language was critical in our project to improve communication with visitors through better label writing. This article explains the personal and disciplinary developments resulting in the centering of multimodality as a research agenda. An important feature of this approach is the metafunctional theory of Michael Halliday as a core tenet. I explain how this theory of meaning operates across different levels of the institution, in relation to different modes, and in relation to subsequent developments in multimodal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent issue of the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy included an article reporting on a systematic narrative review of the research literature that indicated that there was insufficient evidence to conclude whether genre theory and systemic functional linguistics either 'worked' or 'did not work'. The criteria used to evaluate these studies excluded any study that did not conform to the 'gold standard' associated with experimental research such as randomised controlled trials. In response to this provocative finding, a group of SFL researchers decided to examine just what counts as evidence of quality literacy research these days. In this paper, we question the overreliance on experimental research at the expense of other methods. We illustrate this with a sample of notable studies that do not meet experimental criteria, but which nevertheless have made a significant contribution to school literacy outcomes in Australia and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the integration of environmental education into language education. Drawing inspiration from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), our focus lies on examining the kinds of participants in material processes in texts carefully chosen from a collection of widely utilized primary school Chinese language textbooks. We pay particular attention to the power and activity hierarchy of participants, to understand how these texts represent nature and the interconnections between fundamental elements in nature. Our findings reveal that these textbooks, through age-appropriate content, are deliberately crafted to instill environmental knowledge in young learners, nurture their ecological awareness and inspire actions aimed at safeguarding the delicate ecosystems that sustain all life forms.

Aphorisms are unique literary works known for their memorability, concision, and ambiguity. They have an information structure divided into theme (known information) and rheme (new information), with the "unmarked topical theme" playing a crucial role. This study examines the impact of translation techniques on these unmarked topical themes and their influence on translation quality, focusing on an unexplored area in Arabic discourse. The research design is descriptive qualitative. Data were collected from the aphoristic text of Al-Hikam in Arabic (L1) and its translations into Indonesian (L2a) and Javanese (L2b). The research problems addressed are: (1) What translation techniques do translators employ when dealing with the "unmarked topical theme" in Al-Hikam's aphoristic text? Do translators favor the source language or the target language? (2) How can the translation of unmarked topical themes in Al-Hikam's aphorisms be assessed in terms of accuracy, readability, and acceptability?. The study finds that translation techniques, including conventional equivalent, compensation, modulation, and reduction, significantly impact the translation quality of unmarked topical themes. The conventional equivalent technique is particularly effective in maintaining the position of the unmarked topical theme from the source language to the target language. This research contributes to developing an Arabic translation model based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analysis. It also provides a comparative analysis of the distinctive discourse topic development elements in Arabic, Indonesian, and Javanese texts, highlighting the implications of various translation techniques on the quality of aphoristic translations.

Abstract The presence of diagrams or infographics in English textbooks is believed to support Indonesia’s curriculum goal of communication using multimodal resources. However, the functions of infographics in language learning have not been well understood. This study examines how infographics accompanied by verbal texts can convey visual metalanguage. The images from an English textbook designed for X grades were used as the basis for this study. Drawing on the theories of Visual Design Grammar (Kress & Leeuwen, 2006) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, 2013), this study explores the images and instructions in infographics. The systemic functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) was employed. The results of this study reveal the functions of the images in the textbook and how metalanguage competencies can support the teaching of multimodal texts in a representative and compositional manner. The study also provides several pedagogical implications for teachers in teaching diagrammatic images. Bahasa Indonesia Abstrak Kehadiran diagram atau infografis dalam buku teks bahasa Inggris diyakini mendukung tujuan kurikulum Indonesia, komunikasi menggunakan sumber daya multimodal. Namun, fungsi infografis dalam pembelajaran bahasa belum banyak diketahui. Studi ini mengkaji bagaimana infografik yang disertai dengan teks verbal dapat menyampaikan metabahasa visual. Gambar-gambar dari buku teks bahasa Inggris, yang dirancang untuk kelas X, dijadikan sumber penelitian ini. Dibangun di atas Grammatika Desain Visual (Kress & Leeuwen, 2006) dan Linguistik Fungsional Sistematik (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), penelitian ini mengeksplorasi gambar dan instruksi dalam diagram dan infografis. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan fungsional sistemik dengan analisis wacana multimodal (SF-MDA). Hasil penelitian ini mengungkapkan fungsi gambar dalam buku teks dan bagaimana kompetensi metabahasa dapat membantu untuk mendukung pengajaran teks multimodal secara representatif dan komposisional. Studi ini juga memberikan beberapa implikasi pedagogis bagi guru untuk mengajar gambar diagram.

This paper explores how emoji make meaning with language in TikTok comments. It offers a social semiotic account which models emoji-text relations as a system of convergence, involving three kinds of semiotic relations: ideational concurrence, interpersonal resonance, and textual synchronicity. The paper focuses in detail on the comment feed of a TikTok lip-sync video which uses audio from Julia Gillard's iconic misogyny speech. It considers the role that emoji pfhgilay in enacting ambient affiliation in these comments, whereby users share positive evaluation of the TikTok Creator and express alignment with values relating to modern feminism. The work is grounded in previous corpus-based studies by the authors of the social functions of emoji across a range of social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore how Confucius is recharacterised in the multimodal translation of The Analects from verbal (analects) to verbal-visual (comics) texts. The focus is on the interpersonal/interactive meaning in Systemic Functional Linguistics and visual social semiotics. Parameters of MOOD and MODALITY are used in discussing the verbal mode in both source and target texts, and the system of CONTACT, SOCIAL DISTANCE, INVOLVEMENT, POWER, AFFECT, PROXIMITY and MASS/AMOUNT are employed in describing features of the visual mode in comics. The quantitative results show that Confucius has been recharacterised from an authoritative teacher in the source text into different images in four comic adaptions, i.e. a detached truth transmitter in Mori [2002. Dongfang Zhidian Shengshu: Manhua Lunyu. Beijing: Jiuzhou Press], an affable wiser in Tsai [2005. Confucius Speaks: The Message of the Benevolent. Beijing: China Modern Publishing House Ltd.], a superior mentor in Zhang [2007. Manhua LunYu. Hangzhou: Zhejiang People’s Publishing House.], and a popularised teacher in Chen [2021. Banxiaoshi Manhua Lunyu. Shanghai: Wenhui Press]. It is argued that the different images of Confucius reconstrued in four translations can be better understood in terms of the context of translation, in which translators’ identity, translation purpose, target reader and historically accepted image of Confucius are finally explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedagogies developed from systemic functional linguistics are seen as valuable in supporting diverse students in both mainstream and language classrooms. Over the past decade, SFL also became a crucial component in teacher education programs particularly in the North American context, as it advances teachers’ knowledge of language and curriculum design focusing on the development of disciplinary literacy of minoritized multilingual learners. Drawing from data collected in a year-long classroom ethnographic study in the Southeastern U.S., this paper explores (1) how a range of embodied inquiry activities were designed as an integral part of a teacher education curriculum and (2) how these activities created entry points for diverse pre-service teachers and the teacher educator to grapple with functional linguistics and critically engage with their language use in everyday lives. Data analysis includes theory-informed thematic analysis and a mediated approach towards participants’ material-discursive trajectories across spatial and historical contexts. Findings show the affordances of using embodied activities to support teachers in making sense of key constructs from SFL in relation to their own lived experiences and cultural epistemologies. Implications point to the significance of innovative, culturally sustaining approaches toward both the teaching and use of SFL as well as the need for continued critical reflections and actions in changing classroom contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the value of system networks as a diagnostic tool in L2 writing education. We report on an investigation of Chinese students learning to write in English over a period of a year in Year 9 of high school, characterizing their choices in the system of modality in different writing tasks over that period, and we also report on an extension of this investigation based on two additional sampling points, Year 12 of high school and Year 3 of university. Our findings indicate that even when we sample L2 texts from three different periods in education, the expansion in the use of the meaning potential embodied in the system of modality is quite limited – as long as we focus on texts from one register. We have also seen from Xuan’s (2015. A longitudinal study of Chinese high school students learning English based on systemic functional text analysis. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University PhD thesis) study of Year 9 writing tasks from a few different registers that there was no clear sense of progression throughout the year. The results show that careful selection and ordering of texts from registers that afford learners with complementary opportunities over time to engage with and master different parts of the resources of the system of modality can be recommended in L2 writing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a systematic narrative synthesis review conducted on the educational effectiveness of genre theory/systemic functional linguistics pedagogies for improving reading and writing outcomes in K-10 education within mainstream classrooms in Australia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand, and Canada. This framework has significant influence on reading and writing curriculum, teacher training, and literacy practices. However, its evidence base has never been systematically reviewed. An exhaustive database search sourced 7846 potentially relevant studies, which were screened according to guidelines for evaluating evidence through systematic narrative synthesis reviews and standardly applied criteria for educational evidence (e.g., The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, What Works Clearinghouse). Very few peer-reviewed intervention studies with control groups and quantitatively measured outcomes were found. A surprising result. Those studies showing positive effects had flaws in research design and quality that preclude their use as educational evidence. This systematic review indicates that there is insufficient rigorous evidence of the benefits, or lack thereof, of genre theory/systemic functional linguistics–based approaches to teaching reading and writing within K-10 education, at least in terms of measurable outcomes for students. More high-quality research needs to be undertaken as the current research record is not sufficient to prove or disprove the value of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to examine the identities communicated prior to and during a role-playing game (RPG) for individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI). Appraisal, an analysis tool of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), that allows one to examine the interpersonal metafunction, was applied to interview and RPG group treatment conversations. This allowed for the investigation of the evaluative language of five individuals with ABI. The analysis revealed that individuals were capable of using various resources of appraisal to communicate their identities and did so differently across contexts. SFL, specifically the analysis of appraisal, is a useful resource for examining the communication and negotiation of identity after ABI. This has implications for interventions that support and facilitate positive identity negotiation and thus, enhanced rehabilitation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have used semantic verb categories to compare how speakers with and without aphasia use verb types during narrative monologue discourse tasks. In this study, we explore the types of verbs used by speakers with and without aphasia during conversation. Using previously collected conversational discourse samples produced by 23 adults with chronic aphasia and their familiar partners, we classified verb types by semantic category. Semantic verb type use did not differ by aphasia type (fluent vs. nonfluent) when controlling for severity. Distribution across verb types was similar for participants with and without aphasia. Conversation partners produced significantly more mental, verbal, and behavioral verbs than speakers with aphasia but there was not a significant difference in the use of material or relational verbs. Participants with and without aphasia rely on material and relational verbs to construct conversational discourse. Determining if a speaker with aphasia uses a variety of semantic verb types may be useful when setting conversation-based goals for dyads living with aphasia and suggestions for clinical practice are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A national anthem is an official song of a nation. Extant studies have examined national anthems from philosophical, thematic, and historical points of view with insufficient attention paid to the lexicalisation of discourse strategies in the anthems of African states. This study, therefore, investigates how lexical choices and discourse strategies are deployed in the construction of national identities and ideologies. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach were adopted as framework. Data were purposively selected from ideology-laden anthems, four from each of the five African sub-regions namely: Central (Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea); East (Djibouti, Eritrea, Rwanda, and Uganda); North (Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Tunisia); Southern (Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe); and West (Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, and Gambia). The study discovers that lexicalisation of discourse strategies of construction, transformation, perpetuation, and representation reflects socio-cultural, political, and cultural experiences of African states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essential volume, edited by Meg Gebhard, illustrates how K-12 teachers use Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and action research to support the development of disciplinary literacy among diverse learners in high-stakes school reform contexts. With contributions from teachers, teacher educators, and researchers, this book empowers teachers to be agents of change in their schools by designing and implementing of curricula, instruction, and assessment that build on students' cultural and linguistic knowledge. This book provides a framework, tools and resources for teaching and supporting multilingual students and ELLs through case studies and contexts. This book aims to improve teachers' professional practice through critical SFL pedagogy and to support teachers in combating racist and xenophobic (anti-immigrant) rhetoric by contributing to their schools' equality agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numeracy entails a facility for communicating mathematical knowledge in diverse contexts. Indeed, large scale standardised assessments have demonstrated that numeracy is associated with both mathematics and language proficiency. And yet, while research in mathematics education in schools has demonstrated the utility of taking a discursive view of mathematics, similar developments in higher education studies are scarce. Moreover, as teaching interventions in numeracy may lead to tensions between mathematical and disciplinary knowledge, the prospect of including language proficiency development is challenging. Taking a discursive multimodal view, this study reports on a pilot teaching intervention that introduced explicit language proficiency development into numeracy teaching activities at a prominent South African university. The study found that the participants produced coherent descriptions of statistics when mathematical concepts were related to vocabulary and grammar. These observations suggest that language proficiency development has the potential to realise the goal of teaching mathematical knowledge within disciplinary curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theatres are creating a growing audiovisual ecosystem outside the physical venue, including podcasts and audio introductions (AI), marketed as content for the general public, as an accessibility service or both. This article explores these genres and discusses their potential contribution to the existing "cluster" (Roofthooft in Theaterervaring bij blinden en slechtzienden: een cluster van mogelijkheden: een praktijkgericht onderzoek naar toegankelijkheidsmodaliteiten die bijdragen tot een inclusieve theaterervaring, 2021) of accessibility options that create achievement spaces (Neves in The Palgrave handbook of audiovisual translation and media accessibility. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2020) for all. Four episodes of podcasts–AIs are analysed, applying systemic functional linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen in Halliday's introduction to functional grammar. London and New York, Routledge, 2014) as a framework. The analysis suggests that "mainstream" podcasts focus on the piece, while AIs refer mostly to the production. The AI communicative functions (Reviers in J Special Transl 35:69–95 8:334–338, 2021) experience a noticeable shift in the mainstream podcasts, as the foreshadowing function (disclosing visual elements of a play) is minimised in favour of informative and certain aesthetic functions. The institutional and expert roles of the speakers in the podcasts allow them to introduce poetic language and address the audience more explicitly, in a similar vein to integrated audio description (Fryer in J of Audiov Transl 1(1):170–186, 2018). Unlike traditional AIs, podcasts include music and ad-libs, incorporating another layer of texture to the text. Mainstream podcasts have the potential to become a complementary access modality to AIs, since they minimise ocular-centric practices present in AI and AD (Chottin and Thompson in L'Esprit Créateur 61(4):32–44, 2021). Furthermore, the hybrid podcast type could be an inclusive solution that targets a wider audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is entitled Process Types on Students' Persuasive Text: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Study. The purpose of this research is to find out (1) what types of transitivity processes are found in student persuasion texts; and (2) what processes appear most dominant in the text. The theory used in this research is the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory which refers to the thinking of Halliday (2014). The research method used is a qualitative descriptive method. The data obtained was based on the results of students' persuasive writing with the title "How to keep ourselves healthy inside and outside". The research results showed that there were 5 types of processes found, namely Material Process (36,7%), Relational Process (23,5%), Mental Process (17,6%), Behavioral Process (14,7%) and Existential Process (7,3%). There was no verbal process found in the persuasive text. Of the five processes, material process is the type of process that appears most dominantly.

Texture proves to be a key indicator for measuring the quality of a text but establishing this text quality is a challenge for most English as a Second Language (ESL) students. This challenge has led to an array of studies to find the root cause(s) of this/these writing challenge(s) of ESL students. Despite these numerous studies, there is still paucity of research on “anti-texture” agents in the written English essays of students from the Ghanaian context, especially those at the tertiary level. In filling this gap, this study uses Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesive theory as a framework to explore the types of cohesive errors that serve as “anti-texture” agents in 150 written English essays of students from a Ghanaian university. Because of the highly descriptive nature of this current investigation, it uses the qualitative content analysis as its design. The findings show that challenges like unclear pronoun references, wrong selection of cohesive devices, over usages of one cohesive device within the same textual environments, wider textual distances between references and their referents, the omission of cohesive devices, wrong insertions of cohesive devices and references lacking referents served as barriers to ESL students quest to use cohesive devices as means of creating texture in their texts. The findings further confirmed that the inappropriate use of cohesive devices in the students’ essays disrupted the free flow of information and as such, rendered the essays incoherent. The study has pedagogical implication for ESL academic writing instructors and curriculum developers.

In spite of decades of research developing a model of language and context, there is little consensus in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) about how context should be modelled and how language and context are related. In this paper, we review recent work in SFL which focuses on modelling register as a resource – reconceiving field as a resource for construing phenomena, tenor as a resource for negotiating social relations, and mode as a resource for composing texture. This work has a number of implications for SFL’s conception of realisation (as strata of abstraction), instantiation (as a cline of generalisation), and individuation (as a scale of belonging). For realisation it bears critically on the issue of whether or not to adopt a stratified model of context (as register and genre) and the relationship between extrinsic functionality (field, tenor, and mode) and intrinsic functionality (ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions). For instantiation, it bears critically on our modelling of principles for coupling (co-selecting and arranging choices within and across languages and related modalities of communication) – for example mass, presence, and association. And for individuation, it bears critically on the perspectives of allocation (i.e. how access to meanings and their uptake is distributed across communities) and affiliation (i.e. how meanings are used to collaborate and struggle, within and between social groups). Our basic aim in this paper is to suggest a model for improving traction as far as SFL work on language in context is concerned, fully embracing a multimodal perspective on language and related modalities of communication as resources for meaning.

The main purpose of this article is to show how Functional Grammar of Dance (FGD) can be applied to dance discourse analysis to reveal the discursive strategies that underlie choreographies and support movement-based communication. In recent years, studies in Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) have benefited from the development of several models of analysis, and from the emergence of a new focus on the materiality of semiotic modes. The Functional Grammar of Dance is a recently developed model of analysis that draws on Systemic Functional Linguistics theory and focuses on movement-based communication starting from dance (particularly ballet as a starting point). The Functional Grammar of Dance has been adopted as a central theory in an international collaborative project funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) in the UK and the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, ‘German Research Foundation’) in Germany, The Kinesemiotic Body, where it has been used with the ELAN annotation system. ELAN annotation based on the Functional Grammar of Dance was used for both live-collected data from dance rehearsals and for dance videos and revealed aspects of dance performances that are not necessarily captured by the naked eye. This paper proposes three case studies where we show that our ELAN annotation with the FGD provides an effective and very flexible interface for the grammaticalization of movement-based communication and the study of movement-based discursive strategies.

Bu çalışmada Sistematik İşlevsel Dilbilim (SİD) teorisinin temel kavramları sunularak Türkçe okul dilinin dil bilgisel özellikleri betimlenmektedir. Okul dili ile ilgili sunulan betimlemeler eğitim müfredatlarına dair Basil Bernstein tarafından ortaya atılan yeniden bağlamsallaştırma ve gizli müfredat kavramları çerçevesinde değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışmada ayrıca okul ortamına has dil kullanım usullerinin ana okulu, ilk öğretim, orta okul ve lise kademelerindeki öğrenciler için önemi genel hatları ile ortaya konulmuştur. Çalışmada orta okul kademesine odaklanılarak, bu kademenin okul başarısında ve öğrencilerin anadil gelişimindeki önemi tartışılmıştır. Ortaokul kademesinin bilim dallarının dil kullanım usullerinin öğrenciler tarafından ediminde önemli bir dönem olduğu savı ders kitaplarından örneklerle açıklanarak savunulmuştur. Ortaokul kademesinde okutulan dört adet fen bilgisi ve dört adet Türkçe ders kitabı üzerinde yapılan dil bilgisel betimleme ve analiz sunularak halihazırda kullanımda olan kitaplardaki metinlerin dil bilgisel özelliklere sahip olduğu ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler ışığında, MEB ders kitaplarındaki metinlerin hangi dil bilgisel özelliklere sahip olması gerektiğine dair değerlendirmeler ve öneriler yeniden bağlamsallaştırma, gizli müfredat ve SİD’din sunduğu kavramlar çerçevesinde sunulmuştur.

This paper explores the inter-semiotic analysis of the ideational meaning in images generated by the text-to-image AI tool, Bing Image Creator. It adopts Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design as its theoretical framework as the original grounding of the framework in systemic functional grammar (SFG) ensures a solid theoretical basis for undertaking analyses that involve the incorporation of textual and visual components. The integration of an AI generative model within the analytical framework enables a systematic connection between language and visual representations. This incorporation offers the potential to generate well-regulated pictorial representations that are systematically grounded in controlled textual prompts. This approach introduces a novel avenue for re-examining inter-semiotic processes, leveraging the power of AI technology. The paper argues that visual representations possess unique structural devices that surpass the limitations of verbal or written communication as they readily accommodate larger amounts of information in contrast to the limitations of the linear nature of alphabetic writing. Moreover, this paper extends its contribution by critically evaluating specific aspects of the Grammar of Visual Design.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation had been investigating the relationship between Russian agents and members of Trump’s presidential campaign since July 2016 out of suspicions that the President-elect worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which became a major news event in American media. The headlines from news media outlets illustrate the strategic use of language to shape opinions and frames. Conducted with the tools of System Functional Linguistics, in particular, the appraisal and ideation resources, based on the framing theory of Journalism Studies, this research aims to answer the two research questions: (1) What frames did The New York Times and Fox News construct in their coverage of the Mueller investigation? (2) What linguistic strategies did The New York Times and Fox News use respectively to construct their frames? It was found that The New York Times uses fewer evaluative tools than Fox News, but the expression of attitudes draws on the context in which they are presented and evaluation is expressed in a more sophisticated and refined manner. Fox News is more straightforward without hiding its own opinion and biases. This research is important in further understanding of the American media and their linguistic strategies in forming manipulative frames.

Ecological discourse within educational contexts serves as an externalized manifestation for scholars and educators in ecolinguistics to embrace ecological responsibilities and convey positive ecological philosophies. While ecological discourse analysis predominantly employs English as its analytical language, exploration of discourse analysis models based on other languages remains scarce. Therefore, this study, grounded in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and the Transitivity Theory, aims to refine the roles of participants, process semantics, and environmental components. Through qualitative and quantitative research, it investigates college-level Russian educational discourses under the guidance of ecological philosophy to unveil their ecological orientation.

AbstractOver the past two decades, extensive research has been conducted on the rhetorical structure of research articles (RAs) from the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) genre approach. However, RA configuration from the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) genre perspective remains under-investigated, particularly in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) field. This study aimed to examine the deployment of SFL elemental genres to construct the TCM RAs. To this end, 40 empirical articles published from 2020 to 2021 were selected from five high-impact TCM journals for the analysis. The findings showed that report, recount, argument, and explanation were employed to construct the TCM RAs. Under these broad genre families, 13 elemental genres were identified, for instance, descriptive report, procedural recount, exposition and factorial explanation. Regarding the frequency, report and recount played a major role in configuring the TCM RAs whereas argument and explanation played a supplementary role. Moreover, the ESP genre held that the macro-structure of RA is shaped like an hourglass, which was also attested by the present SFL elemental genres in terms of the generic complexity. Such deconstruction of a macrogenre into elemental genres serving as building blocks of text promises pedagogical implications for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers and graduate students.

This study reports on a four-year project to embed academic literacy within one core course of a Bachelor of Education program. It involves an interdisciplinary collaboration between learning advisors, as literacy specialists, and lecturers, as subject specialists. It examines their roles and responsibilities and lecturers' perspectives when handing over the teaching of academic literacy to them. Data encompasses interviews with lecturers, meeting notes, and cohort statistics about assessment grades. Discourse analysis with theory from Systemic Functional Linguistics identifies the shifting contributions of the collaborators and how lecturers evaluate their experiences. Findings suggest that handover is smooth when it is done gradually and involves intensive prior collaboration. However, the contrasting views of the lecturers raise questions about what is optimal for students. Although limited, data indicates that reductions in resubmission rates and students achieving in the minimal passing range co-occur with the addition of mini videos about reading and writing critically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the changing nature of literacy, it is critical to investigate how learners communicate using the multimodal affordances of digital platforms. Guided by metafunctions of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this study developed a multimodal analytical framework to quantify multimodal composing with indicators of functional meaning to evaluate students' multimodal literacy practices from an overall perspective. Based on a high school digital literacy SPOC (Small Private Online Course), this study adopted a mixed-method approach to profile students' multimodal posting and examine teachers' and students' perceptions. The empirical findings included that: (1) Five profiles were identified based on students' ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning differences: academic posters, sensational posters, visual posters, all-round posters, and perfunctory posters. Academic posters viewed multimodal posting as a presentation of research findings; sensational posters viewed multimodal posting as a connection with classmates; visual posters valued the formal beauty of multimodal posts; all-round posters remixed the ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions of multimodal posting; perfunctory posters viewed multimodal posting as a have-to-do task. (2) Teachers underestimated multimodal posting's interpersonal meaning that students valued. The SFL-based multimodal analytical framework and empirical findings provide implications for explicitly evaluating and guiding students' multimodal composition in digital environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined Gemma Metcalfe's novel A Gripping Psychological Thriller: A Mother's Sacrifice from a systemic functional linguistic approach. The interpersonal metafunction, used in this study, can aid in drawing a picture of the mother's sacrifice experience and revealing the appropriate lexicogrammatical choices to spotlight that experience. It is accomplished by detecting Mood and Modality systems in extracts from the novel representing that experience. It aims to show how mother's sacrifice is realised linguistically through the interpersonal metafunction according to Halliday and Matthiessen's framework. The study adopts a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach for analysis. The researchers discovered that the interpersonal metafunction through Mood and Modality systems divulges the experience of the mother's sacrifice as an experience of choice, and the most appropriate representative of this experience is the systemic functional linguistic approach. Moreover, the empolyment of the Mood system shows that all kinds of Mood give the full portrait of mother's sacrifice. However, not all Moods are equally effective. Further, the Modality system mirrors how the characters in the novel use various kinds of Modality with different scales, degrees, and modal orientations in order to express their attitudes, (dis) beliefs, fears, doubts, obligations, probabilities, necessities, possibilities, (un)certainties, willing, abilities, and even usualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that Systemic Functional Linguistics has a significant role in providing an in-depth analysis for translation purposes (Kim et al., 2021). Studies explored the effect of analyzing certain aspects of register analysis when training translators. Comparisons of the source texts with the target texts were conducted by using SFL as a tool for text analysis. The current paper is set to provide a full review on SFL and translation studies. The aim of this review is twofold: it aims to review how theories and empirical studies of translation and applied linguistics are interrelated; it also focuses on how SFL has been investigated in translation studies. The review shows that research has focused more on comparative analysis to evaluate translations even when used for translator education. Further research on applying full register analysis as a pedagogical tool for translator education is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talk of the functions of language or concepts plays a central role in developing an appealing pragmatic approach to conceptual engineering. But some have expressed skepticism that we can make any good sense of the idea of function as applied to concepts or language, or argued that the most we can say is that the function of 'F' is to refer to the Fs. In this paper, however, I argue that identifying linguistic functions is not hopeless, and that we can make progress by working at the level of system functions, and drawing on work in systemic functional linguistics. For that enables us to develop a better framework for thinking about the functions that language serves, and the ways its subsystems contribute to those functions. This approach to understanding linguistic functions enables us to develop a pragmatic approach to conceptual engineering that provides standards for conceptual engineering without metaphysical mysteries. It also enables us to make progress in figuring out what functions certain philosophically interesting parts of language serve, and how they are introduced into language, in ways that may disentangle us from a range of old philosophical problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there have been several studies on the linguistic features of the Christ Hymn in Col 1:15–20, they rarely start with the "clauses" or investigate how messages are conveyed in the clauses in this hymn. This article will adopt Michael A. K. Halliday's systemic functional system of theme and rheme, particularly his perception of the clause as message, to gain insights into the ways in which information is managed into categories of given and new at the clause level, and thereby accomplishing rhetorical purposes in the Christ Hymn. This article will seek to demonstrate how Paul intimates point of view by employing the linguistic device of "thematization" to foreground "the Son" to be the chief topic of the Christ Hymn and thereby underline his universal Lordship. The result of this thematic analysis will underline the textual cohesion of the Christ Hymn and lend support to the view that this hymn comprises the two stanzas in vv. 15–18a and vv. 18b–20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper investigates the representation of social actors in news reports on economic and financial crimes in four Nigerian newspapers: Punch, The Guardian, The Nation and ThisDay. Theo van Leeuwen's socio-semantic inventory for the representation of social actors and Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) served as the theoretical framework. Five socio-semantic categories were applied in the news reports: functionalisation, backgrounding and suppression, activation and passivation, personalisation and impersonalisation and nomination and categorisation. Only the accused were both nominated and categorised. They were nominated when the reference is to people of high status and categorised when the reference is to ordinary or middle-class people. All the other social actors were nominated because of their roles in the fight against economic and financial crimes. The study shows that language is a medium for hidden meaning in the reportage of economic and financial crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Political speech plays an important role in connecting various segments of society and fostering a sense of unity. This study aimed to investigate thematic structures of Christmas speeches delivered by Queen Elizabeth II. Methodology: To meet the aim of the study, a corpus of 711 T-units was analyzed using Halliday’s (2014) thematic structure approach and Daneš’ (1974) thematic progression model. Results: The research findings indicated that the topical theme was the most frequently utilized type, followed by a moderate usage of textual theme, while interpersonal theme was the least applied. Moreover, a predilection was shown towards unmarked themes over marked ones to enhance simplicity. The findings revealed that the predominant employed thematic pattern was the constant pattern, followed by the linear pattern to a slightly lesser degree, whereas the split pattern was scarcely utilized. The integration of these patterns yielded a harmonious flow of information and a cohesive arrangement for the textual composition. Conclusion: The analysis of theme structure and thematic progression patterns from 2001 to 2021 revealed that the Queen exhibited a consistent pattern of theme structure usage, while the usage of thematic progression varied depending on the topics addressed in each speech. These results along with other further investigations may be beneficial in training political sciences students, future politicians and public speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation had been investigating the relationship between Russian agents and members of Trump's presidential campaign since July 2016 out of suspicions that the President-elect worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which became a major news event in American media. The headlines from news media outlets illustrate the strategic use of language to shape opinions and frames. Conducted with the tools of System Functional Linguistics, in particular, the appraisal and ideation resources, based on the framing theory of Journalism Studies, this research aims to answer the two research questions: (1) What frames did The New York Times and Fox News construct in their coverage of the Mueller investigation? (2) What linguistic strategies did The New York Times and Fox News use respectively to construct their frames? It was found that The New York Times uses fewer evaluative tools than Fox News, but the expression of attitudes draws on the context in which they are presented and evaluation is expressed in a more sophisticated and refined manner. Fox News is more straightforward without hiding its own opinion and biases. This research is important in further understanding of the American media and their linguistic strategies in forming manipulative frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe how novice and professional marketers use appraisal resources in their spoken promotional texts. To achieve this aim, content analysis was applied. The data were gathered from the performance of novice and professional marketers in presenting spoken promotional texts and were analyzed by using Martin and White (2005)’s appraisal theory framework. The research findings revealed that both marketers had similarities and differences in using appraisal resources. In terms of similarity, both marketers used attitude resources, particularly appreciation resources the most. In terms of differences, the novice marketer had fewer types of appraisal resources than the professional marketer; the novice one also had fewer lexical items to demonstrate his evaluative stance than the professional marketer; and the novice marketer tended to create persuasive text with a less rigid structure. The research findings suggest ESP teachers should provide scaffolding strategies for students to practice using adequate appraisal resources to create a powerful persuasive text.