Text and Context in Functional Linguistics (review)

This volume explores issues in text analysis and context modeling from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The editor’s introduction (xi–xvii) provides an overview of the chapters.

The opening chapter by M. A. K. Halliday, ‘The notion of “context” in language education’ (1–24), examines context in two connections: situation as the context for language as text and culture as the context for language as system. The author provides examples of research and curriculum development projects that illustrate these notions in language education. Halliday notes that, in all educational learning, learners predict text from context, and context from text (22). In ‘Modelling context: A crooked path of progress in contextual linguistics’ (25–61), J. R. MARTIN recounts the development of models of context, providing historical background to the volume. ‘Context in dynamic modelling’ (63–99) by Michael O’Donnell describes how dynamic modeling deals with changes in context during interaction. A dynamic model, according to the author, needs to present both the options available at each point in an interaction and the changes in context resulting from a selected option.

The remaining chapters use analyses of spoken and/or written discourse to engage current theoretical perspectives on context in SFL. ‘Acting the part: Lexico-grammatical choices and contextual factors’ (101–24) by Geoff Thompson analyzes data from doctor-patient consultations to uncover the meta-functional meanings related to one set of context variables associated with tenor. This chapter disputes the assumption that tenor is linked exclusively to interpersonal meanings. In ‘Textual features and contextual factors for register identification’ (125–39), Mohsen Ghadessy shows how applying SFL theory can extend text analysis. The resulting approach uses clause as the unit of analysis to investigate textual meanings in thematic development in several text-types.

Three chapters examine associations among text, context, and physical setting. ‘Investigating institutionalization in context’ (141–76) by Wendy L. Bowcher introduces guidelines for determining the degree of institutionalization in a given context and setting. Bowcher uses these guidelines to examine sources of institutionalization in radio commentary during professional rugby contests. ‘Context, material situation and text’ (177–217), Carmel Cloran’s chapter, examines physical setting and contextual variables for four intuitively segmented portions of a mother-child dialogue. The author provides evidence in favor of this segmentation from analyses of patterns of cohesion and rhetorical units found in the data. Ruqaiya Hasan’s contribution, ‘Speaking with reference to context’ (219–328), concludes the volume. Hasan describes categories and shortcomings in the current understanding of the relation of text and context in SFL. She then compares context in three examples: a promotional blurb, a service encounter, and a mother-child dialogue, establishing categories of text relations in the latter. The third section of this chapter proposes a system for describing context that takes into account the principle of contextual integration that the author uses to explain those texts not patterned strictly in relation to social processes.

While the appearance of the chapters is otherwise consonant, three do not have abstracts. Readers interested in SFL will find this volume instrumental in examining text and context.