Article published In:
Functions of LanguageVol. 21:2 (2014) ► pp.176–209
Issues in developing unified systems for contextual Field and Mode
‘Context of situation’ is a central concept in Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory, and recently there has been a renewed interest in modelling context and developing a set of features for the contextual parameters Field, Tenor, and Mode. Much of this work has been inspired by Hasan’s and Butt’s development of ‘contextualisation system networks’ (Butt 2004; Hasan 1999, 2009). However, a single comprehensive descriptive framework has still not yet been agreed upon. The current Field and Mode networks include contextual features that are under some debate: ‘the role of language’, ‘ancillary’, ‘constitutive’, and ‘material action’. This paper reviews these features and presents a unified set of primary systems for Field and for Mode. Further, the paper proposes that the primary systems should reflect the core defining features of the contextual parameters, in this case, Field and Mode: the nature of the activity in terms of the kind of experience around which the situation revolves, and the nature of the activity in terms of the mode through which it is expressed respectively. Reference is made to key notions within SFL theory that need to be considered in modelling the contextual parameters as sets of choices in system networks: the relations of realisation and instantiation, inter- and intra-stratal interdependency, and the concept of ‘semiotic’. Where relevant, choices in the system networks are explained using illustrative examples.
References
Bartlett, Tom
2013 ‘I’ll manage the context’: Context, environment, and the potential for institutional change. In Lise Fontaine, Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady (eds.), 342–364.
Bowcher, Wendy L.
1999 Investigating institutionalization in context. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), 141–176.
2007 Field and multimodal texts. In Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian Matthiessen & Jonathan Webster (eds.), 619–646.
2010 The history and theoretical development of ‘context of situation’ in Systemic Functional Linguistics. Annual Review of Functional Linguistics 21. 64–93.
2013 Material action as choice in field. In Lise Fontaine, Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady (eds.), 318–341.
Butt, David
2001 Firth, Halliday and the development of systemic functional theory. In Sylvain Auroux, E.F.K. Koerner, Hans-Josef Niederehe & Kees Versteegh (eds.), History of the language sciences: An international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginnings to the present, 1806–1838. Berlin: Mouton.
2004 Parameters of context: On establishing the similarities and differences between social processes. Sydney: Macquarie University, unpublished mimeo.
2008 The robustness of realisational systems. In Jonathan Webster (ed.), Meaning in context: Strategies for implementing intelligent applications of language studies, 59–83. London: Continuum.
2012 Practical sciences, interpersonal meaning, and networks for tenor. Paper presented at the
Register & Context Symposium
, February 6–8 2012, Sydney: Macquarie University.
Butt, David & Rebekah Wegener
2007 The work of concepts: Context and metafunction in the systemic functional model. In Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen & Jonathan Webster (eds.), 589–618.
Cloran, Carmel
1987 Negotiating new contexts in conversation. Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics 11. 85–110.
1999 Context, material situation and text. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), 177–217.
Firth, John R.
1950 Personality and society. The Sociological Review: Journal of the Institute of Sociology 42(2). 37–52. 
1957 Modes of meaning. In John R. Firth, Papers in linguistics 1934–1951, 190–215.Oxford: OUP.
1957/1968 A synopsis of linguistic theory, 1930–55. Studies in linguistic analysis (Special volume of the Philological Society, Oxford), 1–31. Reprinted in Frank R. Palmer (ed.). 1968. Selected papers of J.R. Firth 1952–59, 168–205. London: Longman.
1968 Linguistic analysis as a study of meaning. In Frank R. Palmer (ed.), Selected papers of J.R. Firth 1952–59, 12–26. London: Longman.
Fontaine, Lise, Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady
(eds.) 2013 Systemic Functional Linguistics: Exploring choice. Cambridge: CUP.
Gee, James P.
2004 Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London: Routledge.
Ghadessy, Mohsen
Halliday, M.A.K.
1972 Towards a sociological semantics. Urbino: Centro Internazionale di Semiotica e Linguistica of the University of Urbino.
1977/2002. Text as semantic choice in social contexts. In Teun van Dijk & Janos Petöfi (eds.), Grammars and descriptions, 176–225. Berlin:Walter de Gruyter. Reprinted in Jonathan Webster (ed.). 2002. Linguistic studies of text and discourse. Volume 2 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 23–81. London: Continuum.
1984 Language as code and language as behaviour: A systemic-functional interpretation of the nature and ontogenesis of dialogue. In Robin Fawcett, M.A.K. Halliday, Sydney Lamb & Adam Makkai (eds.), The semiotics of culture and language. Volume 1: Language as social semiotic, 3–35. London: Pinter.
1985 Part A. In M.A.K. Halliday & Ruqaiya Hasan. Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, 2–49. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.
1991/2007. The notion of ‘context’ in language education. In Thao Le & Mike McCausland (eds.),
Language education: Interaction and development, Proceedings of the International Conference
, Vietnam, April 1991. Launceston: University of Tasmania. Reprinted in Jonathan Webster (ed.). 2007. Language and education. Volume 9 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 269–290. London: Continuum.
1992 How do you mean? In Martin Davies & Louise Ravelli (eds.), Advances in Systemic Linguistics: Recent theory and practice, 20–35. London: Pinter.
2009 Methods–techniques–problems. In M.A.K. Halliday & Jonathan Webster (eds.), 59–86.
Halliday, M.A.K., Angus McIntosh & Peter Strevens
1964 The linguistic sciences and language teaching. London: Longman.
Halliday, M.A.K. & Jonathan Webster
2009 Keywords. In M.A.K. Halliday & Jonathan Webster (eds.), 229–253.
Halliday M.A.K. & Jonathan Webster
(eds.) 2009 Continuum companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Continuum.
Hasan, Ruqaiya
1981 What’s going on: A dynamic view of context in language. In James E. Copeland & Philip W. Davis (eds.), The seventh LACUS forum 1980, 106–121. Colombia, SC: Hornbeam.
1985 Part B. In M.A.K. Halliday & Ruqaiya Hasan. Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social semiotic perspective, 51–118. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.
1995 The conception of context in text. In Peter Fries & Michael Gregory (eds.), Discourse in society: Systemic functional perspectives: Meaning and choice in language: Studies for Michael Halliday, 183–283. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
1999 Speaking with reference to context. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), 219–32.
2001 Wherefore context? The place of context in the system and process of language. In Ren Shaozeng, William Guthrie & I.W. Ronald Fong (eds.), Grammar and discourse: Proceedings of the international conference on discourse analysis, 1–21. PRC, Macau: Publication Centre, University of Macau.
2004 Analysing discursive variation. In Lynne Young & Claire Harrison (eds.), Systemic Functional Linguistics and critical discourse analysis: Studies in social change, 15–52. London: Continuum.
2009 The place of context in a systemic functional model. In M.A.K. Halliday & Jonathan Webster (eds.), 166–189.
Hasan, Ruqaiya, Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen & Jonathan Webster
(eds.) 2007 Continuing discourse on language. London: Equinox.
Hodge, Bob
2012 The deep roots of multimodality. Paper presented at the International Systemic Functional Congress ISFC39
, University of Technology Sydney, 16–20 July, 2012.
Kappagoda, Astika
2009 The use of Systemic Functional Linguistics in automated text mining. Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Department of Defence, Australian Government, [URL] (23 June, 2010.)
Martin, James R.
1984 Language, register and genre. In Frances Christie (ed.), Children writing: Reader, 21–30. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.
1991 Intrinsic functionality: Implications for contextual theory. Social semiotics 1(1). 99–162.
Matthiessen, Christian M.I.M.
2011 Register and context symposium: Question — some thoughts. Unpublished draft document presented for discussion at the Register & context symposium at Macquarie University, February 2011.
Van Dijk, Teun A.
2008 Discourse and context: A sociocognitive approach. Cambridge: CUP.
2009 Society and discourse: How social contexts influence texts and talk. Cambridge: CUP.
Cited by
Cited by 15 other publications
Bartlett, Tom
2016. Multiscalar Modelling of Context: Some Questions Raised by the Category of Mode. In Society in Language, Language in Society, ► pp. 166 ff. 
Bartlett, Tom & Wendy L. Bowcher
Berry, Margaret
2016. On Describing Contexts of Situation. In Society in Language, Language in Society, ► pp. 184 ff.
Bowcher, Wendy L.
2018. The semiotic sense of context vs the material sense of context. Functional Linguistics 5:1
Bowcher, Wendy L.
2019. Context and Register. In The Cambridge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, ► pp. 142 ff.
Bowcher, Wendy L.
Chen, Yumin
2022. Exploring modality in multimodal macrogenre: A social semiotic analysis of EFL pedagogic materials in China. Journal of World Languages 7:3 ► pp. 536 ff.
Fung, Andy
2016. Hasan’s Semantic Networks Revisited: a Cantonese Systemic Functional Approach. In Society in Language, Language in Society, ► pp. 115 ff.
Fung, Andy & Francis Robert Low
2019. Semantic Networks. In The Cambridge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, ► pp. 333 ff.
Hasan, Ruqaiya
Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar & Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen
2019. The representation of motion in discourse: variation across registers. Language Sciences 72 ► pp. 71 ff.
Liang, Jennifer Yameng
2021. Understanding context in computer-mediated communication. Functions of Language 28:3 ► pp. 342 ff.
Moore, Alison Rotha
2020. Progress and tensions in modelling register as a semantic configuration. Language, Context and Text. The Social Semiotics Forum 2:1 ► pp. 22 ff.
Rudge, Luke A.
2015. Towards an understanding of contextual features that influence the linguistic formality of British Sign Language users. Functional Linguistics 2:1
Urbach, Claire
2017. Book review: Ruqaiya Hasan, Context in the System and Process of Language. Discourse & Communication 11:3 ► pp. 335 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.