GlossaryofSystemicFunctionalterms.doc

Glossary of Systemic Functional terms
Christian Matthiessen
ELM, Macquarie University
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DRAFT.
? C. Matthiessen. Please do not copy or quote without permission. Comments very e!
This document offers a glossary of terms related to the material in Halliday (1994), Halliday & Hasan (1985), Martin (1992), Matthiessen (1995), and other systemic-functional works, either theoretical or descriptive (see Matthiessen, 1995: Section and Figure 1-23). It is based on Appendix 3 of Matthiessen (1995) and on the glossary in Matthiessen & Bateman (1991). It also relates to the current effort to produce a multilingual glossary of systemic-functional terms and glosses being co-ordinated by . Halliday & C. Matthiessen. The French terms given are taken from Alice Caffarel's glossary of French systemic terms, Glossaire anglais-fran硩s des termes en linguistique syst魩que -fonctionnelle.
But first a word on the nature of this glossary as a general resource and as an aid in translating between different approaches is in order. We have to understand technical terms as part of a theory of language and the descriptions of particular languages that are based on that theory. So what is a theory of language? Many years ago, . Firth characterized linguistics as "language turned back on itself"; and what he said about using language to describe language in The semantics of linguistic science (in 1948, Lingua) is still very relevant:
Let it be borne in mind that language is often not very apt when used about itself, even in technical linguistic studies. If we pause to consider the stylistics of the language of mon sensual life, we can be sure it will not serve as the language for linguistic science. The technical language for the systematic statement of facts of language cannot, any more than for mathematics, be the language of mon sense. Professor Hjelmslev, fully realizing this, has endeavoured to frame a sort of linguistic calculus which might serve the linguistic scie