System in Systemic Functional Linguistics - A System-based Theory of Language - Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen

System in Systemic Functional Linguistics - A System-based Theory of Language - Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen

The System: Challenges and Possibilities

System in Systemic Functional Linguistics - A System-based Theory of Language - Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen [+-]
University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing
Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is a Swedish-born linguist and a leading figure in the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) school, having authored or co-authored more than 160 books, refereed journal articles, and papers in refereed conference proceedings, with contributions to three television programs. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Linguistics at University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, in the School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Guest Professor at Beijing Science and Technology University, and Honorary Professor at the Australian National University. Before this, he was Chair Professor, Department of English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Professor in the Linguistics Department of Macquarie University. Professor Matthiessen has worked in areas as diverse as language typology, linguistics and computing, grammatical descriptions of various languages, grammar and discourse, healthcare communication studies, functional grammar for English-language teachers, text analysis and translation, multisemiotic studies, and the evolution of language. He has supervised over 40 research students.

Description

In the previous chapters, I have presented the systemic functional conception of language, and also of other semiotic systems, and illustrated how system networks have been used to represent ontogenesis and learning how to mean (Chapter 2), to describe all of the strata of language in context (Chapter 3), to map out the resources of language (Chapter 4) and to engage in different fields of application (Chapter 5). Along the way, I have identified various challenges such as the interpretation of recursive system networks used in the representation of logical resources and of marking conventions while I have highlighted possibilities opened up by the systemic angle of approach and the representation of axial order in language by means of system networks. In this chapter,  I will focus on both challenges and possibilities, starting with a review of the benefits of what we might call the ‘systemic turn’ in linguistics contributed by systemic functional linguistics as a way of understanding language and other semiotic systems as resources. I then compare and contrast possible representations of systemic organization other than system networks — taxonomies, mind maps, flow charts — and explain why system networks have advantages, and illustrate how we can move between systemic representations. Next I identify a challenge to system networks, viz. patterns of agnation that are hard to capture by means of such networks, and I review the complementarity of systemic typologies and topologies, and experiments with fuzzy set theory. I also suggest how indeterminacy can be handled by means of system network, pointing to certain difficulties. Finally, I introduce possible enhancements to system networks, including multilingual system networks, going on to illustrate how they can also be used in language comparison and typology. I end the chapter with a summary of challenges and opportunities.

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Citation

Matthiessen, Christian. The System: Challenges and Possibilities. System in Systemic Functional Linguistics - A System-based Theory of Language. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 200-251 Dec 2023. ISBN 9781781799024. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=38386. Date accessed: 07 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.38386. Dec 2023

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