Topic outline
General
English Syntax
Topic 1
Pertemuan 1
hello every one welcome to our meetings
The book used throughout the course is Introducing Functional Grammar by Geoff Thompson
Topic 2
Pertemuan 2
Meeting 2 is the continuation of meeting 1.In this meeting we begin to use the course book. If you have not copied the course book you can refer to the our first meeting
These are the materials
1
The purposes of linguistic analysis
1.1 Starting points
1.1.1 Going in through form
1.1.2 Going in through meaning
1.2 Language, context and function: a preliminary exploration
Exercise
Try to understand the following
1.S1 → NP VP
[‘the policeman’] [‘did say’ (something)]
S2 → NP VP
[‘Mary’] [‘thought’ (something)]
S3 → NP VP
[‘which burglar’] [‘had shot himself
Topic 3
2.1.1 Recognizing constituents
As a start, I assume that you will be familiar with the main terms for word classes:
noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, auxiliary verb, modal verb,
pronoun and conjunction. I also assume that you will be able to recognize them in
text. For example, the following sentence includes at least one example of each of the
nine word classes listed above. Can you identify them before reading on?
When you are learning about basic law, you will usually fi nd it relatively easy.
Here are the examples of each:
noun: ‘law’
• verbs: ‘learning’, ‘fi nd’
• adjectives: ‘basic’, ‘easy’
• adverbs: ‘usually’, ‘relatively’
• preposition: ‘about’
• auxiliary verb: ‘are’
• modal verb: ‘will’
• pronouns: ‘you’, ‘it’
conjunction: ‘when’.
- 1. Read 1.2 Identifying clauses and
clause constituents
- Define the following terms: (independent) and subordinate clauses, and between coordination and subordination.
Answer the instruction
- What do the following stand for SPC; ASPA; SPOA; ASP; SPA.
Divide the following sentences into clauses and label them as independent ordependent or embedded. Also decide whether they are fi nite or non-fi nite.
1 The reasons for the diff erence confi rm the analysis of Chapter VI.
2 Benn’s strategy was shaped by his analysis of Britain’s economic problems and the
political situation as he saw it.
3 Since I had been inoculated against hepatitis before leaving New Zealand, I had
never considered it as a risk.
4 Since the middle of June the joint shop-stewards’ committee had been examining
the issue of direct action.
5 While you are poised for a signifi cant development on the work and personal
front you would be advised to separate fact from fi ction.
6 With Mercury’s move forward, you will soon be hearing the news for which you
have been waiting.
7 She told me that she had not expected Gareth to react quite so violently.
8 They were probably worrying themselves sick about the delay, but there was
nothing we could do about it.
Topic 4
Read and Explain three kinds of structure in the clause (p.34) The components of the structure are experiential, Interpersonal, and textual
Topic 5
Topic 8
Topic 9
Representing the world
The experiential metafunction
Topic 10
Good Afternoon every one
5.3 More complex aspects of transitivity
5.3.1 More on material processes
5.3.2 More on mental processes
5.3.3 More on relational processes
5.3.4 Processes in verbal group complexes
5.3.5 Participants in causation
5.4 Transitivity patterns in text
5.4.1 Analysing transitivity in clauses and in text
5.4.2 Comparing transitivity choices in different registers
5.5 Ergativity
Exercise 5.3
Below are slightly extended versions of the two extracts about Elizabeth I that you
met in the exercises for Chapter 2. I have numbered the ranking clauses (but not the
embedded clauses). Analyse the transitivity choices, and then consider what the
analysis tells us about the diff erent ways in which the texts construe ‘doing history
Extract 1 (from a website aimed at young readers)
(1) Elizabeth was the last sovereign of the house of Tudor. (2) She was born at
Greenwich, September 7, 1533. (3) Her childhood was passed in comparative
quietness, (4) and she was educated by people who favoured reformed religion.
(5) In 1554, Elizabeth was confi ned in the Tower by order of Queen Mary. (6)
She narrowly escaped death, (7) because some of the bishops and courtiers advised
Mary (8) to order her execution. (9) After she had passed several months in the
Tower, (10) she was removed to Woodstock (11) and appeased Mary (12) by
professing to be a Roman Catholic.
Extract 2 (from an academic history journal)
(1) The spectre of a feminine succession ended with Mary’s execution, in 1587.
(2) Thereafter, the parameters of debate over kingship shifted in ways that have
obscured the centrality of gender to the genesis of English anti-Catholicism and
thus to early modern English nationalism. (3) But to understand the genesis of
English anti-Catholicism, (4) we must return to the sixteenth century and to the
problem of the two queens. (5) We can begin (6) by exploring the linkage
between gender and religion that fuelled fears of female rule in the early modern
period. (7) Early modern culture defi ned ‘male’ and ‘female’ as polar opposites. (8)
This hierarchical dual classifi cation system categorically diff erentiated between
male and female, (9) privileging men over women as both spiritual and rational
beings in ways that underpinned social order and hierarchy.
Your answer will be accumulated in the final score
Topic 11
Good afternoon everyone
The topic we will discuss is chapter six
The texttual metafunction – Theme
For this week our discussion will cover 6.1 to 6.6.6
Organizing the message: the textual metafunction –
Theme
6.1 Introduction: making messages fi t together
6.2 Theme
6.3 Identifying Theme
6.3.1 Theme in declarative clauses
6.3.2 Theme in non-declarative clauses
6.4 Special thematic structures
6.4.1 Thematic equatives
6.4.2 Predicated Theme
6.4.3 Thematized comment
6.4.4 Preposed Theme
6.4.5 Passive clauses and Theme
6.5 Theme in clause complexes
6.6 Multiple Theme
6.6.1 Conjunctions in Theme
6.6.2 Conjunctive and modal Adjuncts in Theme
6.6.3 Textual, interpersonal and experiential elements in
Theme
6.6.4 Interrogatives as multiple Themes
that's all for this week
Topic 12
good afternoon every one
the topic that we are going to discuss is theme in clauses part 2
The topic we discuss is the continuation of last week
6.7 Some issues in Theme analysis
6.7.1 Existential ‘there’ in Theme
6.7.2 Interpolations in Theme
6.7.3 Preposed attributives
6.7.4 Theme in reported clauses
6.7.5 Theme and interpersonal grammatical metaphor
6.8 Theme in text
6.8.1 An illustration of Theme in text
6.8.2 Other ways of exploring thematic choices
6.8.3 Theme in diff erent registers
6.9 A fi nal note on identifying Theme
Exercise 6.6
Below is the beginning of a charity appeal letter. This is written as if addressed to an
individual, although of course it is sent to many people. Identify the T-unit Themes
and group them according to the kind of entity that they refer to. Can you see any
patterns in the way Theme is deployed?
(1) You might wonder why three RSPCA Inspectors should be sitting in a van in
the middle of the night, wide awake, just watching and waiting.
(2) For Inspectors in our Special Operations Unit (SOU), it’s all in a day’s
work. (3) I lead the team, (3a) and I’d like to tell you about the extraordinary and
sometimes heroic work they do.
(4) You probably haven’t heard of the SOU before. (5) That’s because we fi ght
cruelty undercover and the success of our work depends on keeping our operations
top secret. (6) But today, I’m going to tell you all about our work, because we
need your help.
(7) There are eight of us in the SOU. (8) We’re plain-clothes Inspectors (8a)
and we’re known as the Animal Squad. (9) Ours is a highly specialized job: (9a)
we’re on the trail of criminals responsible for the worst kind of cruelty, where
animals are exploited for profi t and so-called pleasure.
(10) We’ve all been uniformed Inspectors for at least fi ve years, (10a) so we’ve
seen some pretty horrifi c things in our time, (10b) but nothing compares to the
kind of vicious abuse we’re fi ghting against now.
(11) Take the men who dug badgers out of their sets, took shots at them and
set their dogs on them. (12) Or the man who tried to smuggle parrots into Britain
by stuffi ng them into cardboard tubes and sending them from Australia sealed in
a box.
(13) Catching these kind of criminals and bringing them to justice is never easy.That's all for this week
Topic 13
Good Afternoon every one
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Units of analysis
7.3 Types of relations between clauses
7.4 Expansion
7.5 Projection
7.6 Clause complexing
Do the following assignment
Exercise 7.4
Below are extracts from an academic paper by Susan Hunston and from the novel
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott (the latter extract was downloaded from Project
Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/fi les/514/514-h/514-h.htm#chap08). Analyse
the dependencies and the logico-semantic relations in the clause complexes, and,
focusing especially on the uses of projection, consider how the diff erences in the two
extracts can be related to the diff erent registers that they realize.
One of the outcomes of corpus studies in the last 20 years has been to draw
attention to two aspects of a single phenomenon. The fi rst is the interdependency
of lexis and grammar, such that lexical choices cannot be seen as independent of
grammar, or indeed as consequent upon grammar, but rather as driving
grammatical context. The second is the importance of recurrent but variable
sequences of words in creating meaning. These sequences demonstrate that
meaning is prosodic, in that many sequences have a meaning that exceeds that of
the words within the sequence.
A number of studies develop these themes in diff erent ways. Sinclair (1991), for
example, suggests that much naturally-occurring language is comprehended in
accordance with ‘the idiom principle’, where meaning is attached to frequentlyoccurring
sequences rather than to their constituent lexical or grammatical items.
Sinclair also argues that lexical and grammatical processes are not independent of
each other, or of meaning. Continuing the theme that meaning and grammar are
connected, Francis (1993) shows that any grammatical sequence or ‘pattern’ will
occur with a restricted set of lexical items only, and that those items will share
aspects of meaning. Thus, Sinclair’s and Francis’s work suggests that each recurring
word sequence represents a single language choice, with an unanalysed meaning
for the language user, rather than a series of grammatical and lexical operations.
“Are you sure she is quite safe?” whispered Jo, looking remorsefully at the golden
head, which might have been swept away from her sight for ever under the
treacherous ice.
Topic 14
National Holiday
Topic 16
Final Semester Test
- Compare and contrasr transitivity and intransitivity in English sentences
- The following six sentences all express more or less the same ‘meaning’, but in diff erent experiential terms. Analyse each one in terms of process, participants and circumstances. If possible, decide which category the circumstantial elements come into – but don’t expect to be able to do this easily in all cases!
a.She bought the car from him for £3,000.
b. He sold her the car for £3,000.
c She paid him £3,000 for the car.
d He got £3,000 for the car.
e The car cost her £3,000.
f The car was sold to her for £3,000.
3.Compare and contrast the terms rheme and theme in terms of Semantics
4. Identify the Theme in the following sentences. Decide which kind of clause is
involved: declarative, WH-interrogative, yes/no interrogative, imperative,
exclamative, minor or elliptical. Also decide whether the Theme is marked or
unmarked (label Adjunct as marked Theme in declarative clauses as well as in other
clause types).
a This was Bono’s fi rst interview in two years.
b In this same year, he also met Chester Kallman.
c. What are you currently reading?
d Don’t you feel more relaxed already?
e Print your name and address on a piece of paper.
f More heads at independent schools are considering testing their pupils for drugs.
g Ever wondered where your favourite pop star is?
h.How many times a week do you buy the Guardian?
i Actions which are inconsistent with an individual’s usual behaviour and which
give rise to some concern may be an indication of psychological distress.
j For enquiries relating to this off er please phone 0227 773111.
k Don’t forget to look out for new winning numbers every day!
l With a CharityCard tax-free giving is easier than ever!
m Out of the pub came a small, intent-looking woman with a helmet of duncoloured hair.
n What sort of car are you thinking of buying?
5.Traditional grammar makes a distinction between simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences . Explain the meaning of each type of sentence and give example for each.