Metafunctional Complementarity and Resonance in Syntagmatic Organization

Systemic Functional Linguistics, Part 2 - Volume 2 - 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

Chapter 5 sheds new light on the monomodal treatment of constituency in linguistic theorizing as the default mode of syntagmatic organization by bringing out complementarity and resonance of different modes of organization in interpreting language. To this rule-based thesis of constituency, it presents an antithesis that there are different modes of meaning and each of these modes of meaning engenders different mode of expressions. This contrast between the thesis and its antithesis expands the conception of grammatical organization to the point where grammatical structure is no longer insulated from its semiotic environment. It thus synthesizes in harmony metafunctional modes of meaning into simultaneous constituency structures of their complementary modes of expression such as simulated waves and prosodies.

Notify A Colleague

Citation

Matthiessen, Christian. Metafunctional Complementarity and Resonance in Syntagmatic Organization. Systemic Functional Linguistics, Part 2 - Volume 2. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. Feb 2025. ISBN 9781800505339. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=45282. Date accessed: 07 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.45282. Feb 2025

Dublin Core Metadata