Relations and functions within and around language

410 Pages·2002·19.74 MB·English

by  Peter Howard Fries

Relations and Functions within and
around Language
Open Linguistics Series
Series Editor: Robin Fawcett, University of Cardiff
This series is 'open' in two related ways. First, it is not confined to works associated
with any one school of linguistics. For almost two decades the series has played a
significant role in establishing and maintaining the present climate of 'openness' in
linguistics, and we intend to maintain this tradition. However, we particularly
welcome works which explore the nature and use of language through modelling its
potential for use in social contexts, or through a cognitive model of language - or
indeed a combination of the two.
The series is also 'open' in the sense that it welcomes works that open out 'core'
linguistics in various ways: to give a central place to the description of natural texts
and the use of corpora; to encompass discourse 'above the sentence'; to relate
language to other semiotic systems; to apply linguistics in fields such as education,
language pathology and law; and to explore the areas that lie between linguistics and
its neighbouring disciplines such as semiotics, psychology, sociology, philosophy,
and cultural and literary studies.
Continuum also publishes a series that offers a forum for primarily functional
Left descriptions of languages or parts of languages - Functional Descriptions of Language.
Relations between linguistics and computing are covered in the Communication in
Artificial Intelligence series, two series, Advances in Applied Linguistics and
Communication in Public Life, publish books in applied linguistics and the series
Modern Pragmatics in Theory and Practice publishes both social and cognitive
perspectives on the making of meaning in language use. We also publish a range of
introductory textbooks on topics in linguistics, semiotics and deaf studies.
Recent titles in the series:
Constructing Experience through Meaning: A Language-based Approach to Cognition,
M. A. K. Halliday and Christian M. I. M. Mathiessen
Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures, Helen
Spencer-Oatey (ed. )
Educating Eve: The 'Language Instinct' Debate, Geoffrey Sampson

Empirical Linguistics, Geoffrey Sampson
The Intonation Systems of English, Paul Tench
Genre and Institutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School, Frances Christie
and J. R. Martin (eds. )
Language Policy in Britain and France: The Processes of Policy, Denis Ager
Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and
Linguistic Evidence, Michael Fortescue
Learning through Language in Early Childhood, Claire Painter
Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes,
Frances Christie (ed. )
Register Analysis: Theory and Practice, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed. )
Researching Language in Schools and Communities: Functional Linguistic Perspectives,
Len Unsworth (ed. )
Summary Justice: Judges Address Juries, Paul Robertshaw
Thematic Developments in English Texts, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed. )
Ways of Saying: Ways of Meaning. Selected Papers of Ruqaiya Hasan, Carmen
Cloran, David Butt and Geoffrey Williams (eds. )
Relations and Functions
within and around
Language
Edited by
Peter H. Fries, Michael Cummings,
David Lockwood
and William Spruiell

continuum
LONDON • NEW YORKLONDON • NEW YORK
Continuum
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London, SE1 7NX
370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6503
First published 2002
© Peter H. Fries, Michael Cummings, David Lockwood, William Spruiell and
contributors 2002
Appendixes I, II and III of Chapter 4 are reprinted from William C. Mann and A.
Thompson (eds), Discourse Description: Diverse Linguistic Analyses of a Fundraising
Text 1992. Reprinted by permission of John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Chapter 6 of this book is reprinted from Stephen A. Tyler, The Unspeakable
© 1987. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-8264-5368-6 (hardback)
0-8264-5369-4 (paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Relations and functions within and around language / edited by Peter H. Fries... [et
al. ].
p. cm — (Open l inguistics series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8264-5368-6 (hbk. ) — ISBN 0-8264-5369-4 (pbk. )
I. Functionalism (Linguistics). 2. Discourse analysis. I. Fries, Peter Howard.
II. Series.
P147. R45 2002
415—dc21 2001037094
Typeset by BookEns, Royston, Herts.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
Contributors vii
Introduction 1
PART ONE: THEORY
1 Relations and Functions within and around Language:
The Systemic-Functional Tradition 13
Michael Gregory
2 Ideology, Intertextuality and the Communication of
Science 32
J. L. Lemke
3 Interpersonal Meaning and the Discursive Construction
of Action, Attitudes and Values: The Global Modal
Program of One Text 56
Paul J. Thibault
4 The Flow of Information in a Written English Text 117
Peter H. Fries
5 Intrastratal and Interstratal Relations in Language and
Their Function s 156
David G. Lockwood
PART TWO: APPLICATION
6 Memory and Discourse 189
Stephen A. Tyler
1 Highlighting in Stratificational-Cognitive Linguistics 225
David G. Lockwood
vi • CONTENTS
8 Interpreting Discourse 256
Sydney Lamb
9 Prosody and Emotion in a Sample of Real Speech 277
Wallace Chafe
10 Phasal Analysis within Communication Linguistics:
Two Contrastive Discourses 316
Michael Gregory
11 Some Aspects of Coherence in a Conversation 346
Peter H. Fries
Appendix: Conversation (Interview) between Sue and Kay 377
Index 389
Contributors
Wallace Chafe is Professor Emeritus at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. His previous publications include Meaning
and the Structure of Language (1970) and Discourse, Consciousness, and
Time (1994).
Peter Fries is Professor of English and Linguistics at Central
Michigan University. His previous publications include On Subject
and Theme: A Discourse on Functional Perspective (edited with Ruqaiya
Hasan, 1995), Discourse in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives
(edited with Michael Gregory, 1995) and Functional Approaches to
Language, Culture, and Cognition (edited with David Lockwood and
James Copeland, 2000).
Michael Gregory is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar at York
University, Toronto. His previous publications include Linguistics
and Style (with Nils Enkvist and John Spencer, 1964), Language and
Situation (with Susanne Carroll, 1978) and Discourse in Society
(edited with Peter Fries, 1995).
Sydney Lamb is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive

Sciences at Rice University. His previous publications include
Pathways of the Brain: The Neurocognitive Basis of Language (1999).
Jay Lemke is Professor of Education and Executive Officer, Ph. D.
Program in Urban Education, at the City University of New York.
His previous publications include Textual Politics: Discourse and
Social Theory (1995), Talking Science: Language, Learning, and
Values (1990) and Using Language in the Classroom (1989).
David Lockwood is Professor at Michigan State University. His
previous publications include Introduction to Stratificational
Linguistics (1972) and Functional Approaches to Language, Culture,
and Cognition (edited with Peter Fries and James Copeland, 2000).
viii • CONTRIBUTORS
Paul Thibault is Associate Professor at the Universitá degli Studi
di Venezia. His previous publications include Text and Context:
A Social Semiotic Approach (1986), Social Semiotics as Praxis (1991)
and Re-reading Saussure: The Dynamics of Signs in Social Life (1997).
Stephen Tyler is Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Anthropology
and Linguistics at Rice University. His previous publications
include The Said and the Unsaid (1978) and The Unspeakable (1987).
Dedicated to friends and mentors
James Copeland and Michael Gregory