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Article published In:
Context in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Theoretical developments and directions
Edited by Wendy L. Bowcher and Tom Bartlett
[Functions of Language 28:3] 2021
► pp. 291–314

Modelling interfaces with context in SFL

Stratification, instantiation, metafunctions

ORCID logo | Ghent University

This is a study of the tools for describing language-in-context in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and specifically, the way in which dynamic time can be added to this description. Of central importance in this exploration are the concepts of stratification and instantiation and their interaction, and the way in which this interaction is ‘achieved’ metafunctionally and dynamically through the construction of relevant contexts spanning various time scales. The article proposes a new theorization of context in SFL, in which context is regarded as an interplay of different interfacing semiotic strata, and a meshing of multiple complementary and interacting processes of mediation which are at work at different scales of semogenesis.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Stratification & metafunctions
    • 2.1Setting the scene: Where to start in the SFL architecture & theory
    • 2.2How semiotic ‘interfacing’ emerges
      • 2.2.1Getting away from immediate situation context: Enter semioticized context
      • 2.2.2Linguistically relevant context as ‘semioticized context’
      • 2.2.3Semantic interfacing as mediation which is metafunctionally steered
    • 2.3Semantic interfaces
      • 2.3.1Probability-based semantics
      • 2.3.2Topological semantics
      • 2.3.3The textual metafunction as engendering interfaces
      • 2.3.4Size-based semantics: The text as an interface
      • 2.3.5Genre as an interface?
    • 2.4Intermediate conclusion & outlook
  • 3.Adding instantiation to the picture
    • 3.1Setting the scene: Instantiation in SFL theory
    • 3.2Anchoring instantiation in time: The link with semogenesis scales
    • 3.3From interfacing semantics to mediating processes
      • 3.3.1Historical priming (probability-type-1) & semiotic mediation in phylogenesis
      • 3.3.2Topological re-articulation in logogenesis and ontogenesis
      • 3.3.3Intermediate summary & outlook
      • 3.3.4Discursive priming (probability-type-2) in logogenesis
      • 3.3.5Size-based stratification: Discourse semantics, genre & other semiotic formations
      • 3.3.6Ontogenesis
  • 4.Theorizing & modelling instantiation in interaction with stratification and metafunctions
    • 4.1Multiple interfaces with complementary mediation processes in different semogenesis scales
    • 4.2Suggestions for modelling the interaction in the SFL architecture
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 7 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.20015.tav
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