Grammar,
Context
and Text,
Genre
Week 2
Hayu Dian Y
What is grammar?
• Grammar is the system of language.
“Rules”
The “rules” of language
NO language
has “rules”.
"rules“ => we suggest that
somebody created the rules first
and then spoke the language, like a
new game.
BUT
Languages did not start like that.
Languages started by people
making sounds which evolved into
words, phrases and sentences..
Grammar is a theory of language, how language put
together and how it works. (Gerot,1994)
Do we need to study grammar to learn a language?
The short answer is "no".
Very many people in the world speak their own, native
language without having studied its grammar.
But if you are serious about learning a
foreign language, the long answer is "yes,
grammar can help you to learn a language
more quickly and more efficiently."
Characterizing language
Grammar are validated by their usefulness
in describing and explaining the
phenomenon called language.
Three grammars
Traditional
Grammar
Formal
Grammar
Functional
grammar
• Focus on
rules
• Aspects of
writing
• To
describe
the
structure of
individual
sentences
• Language
= construct
meaning.
• Focus on
texts and
their
contexts
Traditional
& formal
grammar
Time flies like an arrow
Noun verb prepositional phrase
Tim
told
Noun groups; a group of
words with a noun as the
focal point.
Noun (participant)
of a tragic case
Prepositional phrase ( circumstances may
be represented in the language).
Circumstances give information about the
condition in which a process occurs.
(Prepositional phrase, ‘with’, ‘after’, ‘for’)
Space
Time
Means
Cause
Extent
Accompaniment
Matter
Role
Where
When
With what
Why
How far
How long
With whom
About what
As what
Functional Grammar (systemic)
Processe
Material Processes
Mental process
Verbal Process
Relational
Process
• Where an obvious action takes place.
Someone or something is carrying out a
physical action. Walk, do, act or jump.
• Procedures, recounts and explanations.
• Represent mental activities of thinking,
perceiving, or feeling. Know, feel, see,
believe.
• A participant who is human or who has
been given human attributes. Say, ask, tell.
• Narratives, exposition texts.
• Establish states of being or having.
• Concerned with who or what someone or
something is, or what they have. Be, seem,
have.
• Reports and exposition.
Ideational meaning
• Meanings about phenomena, things (living and non
living), abstract and concrete, goings on (what the
things are or do), circumtances surrounding.
• Meanings are influenced by field.
Participant
meaning
processes
circumtances
Interpersonal meaning
• Meaning whis express a speaker’s
attitudes and judgments.
• Meanings are influenced by tenor.
mood
meaning
Modality
Textual meaning
• Express the relation of language to its environment
(verbal and non verbal), and situational environment.
• Meanings are influenced by mode
theme
meaning
rheme