Table Of ContentSystemic Functional Linguistics and
Critical Discourse Analysis
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Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical
Discourse Analysis
Studies in Social Change
Edited by Lynne Young and Claire Harrison
continuum
LONDON • NEW YORK
Continuum
The Tower Building, 15 East 26th Street,
11 York Road, New York, NY 10010
London SE1 7NX
First published 2004 by Continuum
© Lynne Young, Claire Harrison and contributors 2004
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 0-8264-6773-3 (hardback)
0-8264-6774-1(paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis: studies in social change/
edited by Lynne Young and Claire Harrison.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8264-6773-3 ISBN 0-8264-6774-1 (pbk)
1. Sociolinguistics. 2. Functionalism (Linguistics) 3. Discourse analysis—Social
aspects. 4. Social change. I. Young, Lynne. II. Harrison, Claire.
P40.S9 6 2004
306.44—dc22 2003062654
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Introduction to the Collection 1
Theoretical Section
1. Analysing Discursive Variation 15
Ruqaiya Hasan
2. Predication, Propagation, and Mediation: SFL, CDA,
and the Inculcation of Evaluative-Meaning Systems 53
Phil Graham
3. Mapping Distinction: Towards a Systemic Representation
of Power in Language 68
Tom Bartktt
4. Role Prescriptions, Social Practices, and Social Structures:
A Sociological Basis for the Contextualization of Analysis
in SFL and CDA 85
José Luiz Meurer
Applied Section: National Identity
5. Critical Discourse Analysis in Researching Language in the New
Capitalism: Overdetermination, Transdisciplinarity, and Textual
Analysis 103
Norman Fairclough
6. Prolegomena to a Discursive Model of Malaysian National Identity 123
Faiz Sathi Abdullah
7. Celebrating Singapore's Development: An Analysis
of the Millennium Stamps 139
Chng Huang Hoon
8. The Representation of Social Actors in the Globe and Mail during
the Break-up of the Former Yugoslavia 155
Dragana Polovina-Vukovic
vi CONTENTS
Applied Section: Institutional Identity
9. Authority and Its Role in the Pedagogic Relationship of Schooling 173
Frances Christie
10. The Principal's Book. Discursively Reconstructing a Culture
of Teaching and Learning in an Umlazi High School 202
Ralph Adendorff
11. Representations of Rape in the Discourse of Legal Decisions 217
Débora de Carvalho Figueiredo
12. Bureaucratic Discourse: Writing in the'Comfort Zone' 231
Claire Harrison and Lynne Young
13. Charismatic Business Leader Rhetoric: From Transaction
to Transformation 247
Arlene Harvey
14. Ideological Resources in Biotechnology Press Releases: Patterns
of Theme/Rheme and Given/New 264
Inger Lassen
15. We have the Power - Or do We: Pronouns of Power in a Union Context 280
Maurice Ward
Index 297
List of Contributors
Faiz Sathi Abdullah is Lecturer and English Language Programme Co-
ordinator at the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication,
Universiti Putra Malaysia. In 1998 he completed a Ph.D. at Heriot-Watt
University, Edinburgh on cognitive genre analysis in TESOL. He currently
teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Critical Discourse
Analysis, speech communication, and English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
Besides presenting his work at various local and international forums, he is
writing a book on ESP from a critical perspective and finalizing plans for a
national research programme on Malaysian identity.
Ralph Adendorff is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at
Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. His principal areas of
interest and research are sociolinguistics (particularly code-switching and
the pidgin, Fanakalo) and the critical microethnographic investigation of
literacy practices, the topic of his Ph.D. dissertation.
Tom Bartlett is currently writing up his Ph.D. thesis for the University of
Edinburgh Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. The thesis
looks at agency and power in foreign-language learning and the appropri-
ation of dominant codes by minority language cultures. It is based on field-
work with the Makushi people in Guyana, South America.
Chng Huang Hoon is an Assistant Professor with the Department of English
Language and Literature, National University of Singapore. Her teaching
and research interests revolve around language, gender, law, and ideology
issues. Her most recent publications are the book, Separate and Unequal:
Judicial Rhetoric and Women's Rights (John Benjamins, 2002); and a 2002
article entitled 'Who are My Peers? Women, Men, and the American Jury'
in the Australasian Journal of American Studies, 21 (1): 46-62.
Frances Christie is Emeritus Professor of Language and Literacy Education
at the University of Melbourne and Honorary Professor of Education at the
University of Sydney. She has research and scholarly interests in language
Vlll LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
and literacy education, pedagogic grammar, children's writing develop-
ment, and classroom discourse analysis. Recent publications include: (ed.)
Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes
(Cassell, 1999) and Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Functional Perspective
(Continuum, 2000).
Débora de Carvalho Figueiredo holds a Ph.D. in English and Applied Lin-
guistics from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). She is a
professor at the Graduate Programme in Linguistic Sciences at Universi-
dade do Sul de Santa Catarina (UNISUL), and a lecturer at the Depart-
ment of Foreign Languages at UFSC. Her main interests lie in the area of
Critical Discourse Analysis and gender studies with an emphasis on legal
discourse and violence against women.
Norman Fairclough is Professor of Language in Social Life at Lancaster
University, UK. He has published extensively in Critical Discourse Analysis,
including Language and Power (Longman, 1989), Discourse and Social Change
(Polity Press, 1992), Media Discourse (Edward Arnold, 1995), Critical Dis-
course Analysis: The Critical Study of Language (Longman, 1995), Discourse in
Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis, with Lilie Chouliaraki
(Edinburgh University Press, 1999), New Labour, New Language"?
(Routledge, 2000), and Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research
(Routledge, 2003). He is currently working on issues of citizenship,
governance, and globalization from a Critical Discourse Analysis
perspective.
Phil Graham is Senior Lecturer in Communication at the UQ Business
School, University of Queensland. His research interests combine political
economy, media studies, and discourse analysis. He is currently (re)writing
two books for Peter Lang, Hypercapitalism and The Digital Dark Ages.
Claire Harrison is a professional writer and editor with 25 years' experience
working for government and corporate clients. She recently completed an
M.A. with Distinction in Applied Language Studies at Carleton University,
Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in writing and rhetoric research and theory,
social semiotics, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Critical Discourse
Analysis. She is the co-author of Developing Online Content: The Principles of
Writing and Editing for the Web (John Wiley & Sons, 2000) and has published
papers on hypertext, professional writing, and visual social semiotics. She is
currently enrolled in a doctoral program in Communications at Carleton
University.
Arlene Harvey is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Business Adminis-
tration at the University of Macau, China. Trained in the Systemic Func-
tional Linguistic approach to discourse at the University of Sydney in the
1990s, her early research focused on the grammar of definitional clauses,
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ÍX
which she has published in journals such as Functions of Language and Prag-
matics. Since 1999 she has worked in business faculties in South East Asian
universities. Her current research involves text analysis that not only
illuminates the rhetorical features of charismatic leader discourse, but also
attempts to make functional linguistic insights accessible to business
researchers.
Ruqaiya Hasan was taught linguistics by Ian Catford, David Abercrombie,
Angus Mclntosh, John Sinclair, and M. A. K Halliday. While teaching at
Macquarie University (NSW, Australia) she has researched in the areas of
linguistic stylistics, relations of context and text, lexis as delicate grammar,
message semantic, socio-semantic variation, and the concept of semiotic
mediation. She has published in all these areas, and has held visiting
appointments at several universities, including University of California
at Berkeley, University of Illinois at Urbana, Yale, North Western
University (Evanston), National University of Singapore, Copenhagen Uni-
versity (Denmark), and the City University (Hong Kong). Some of her
papers have appeared in Ways of Saying: Ways of Meaning: Selected Papers,
edited by Carmel Cloran, David Butt, and Geoff Williams (Cassell, 1996).
Currently, she is Professor Emérita (Linguistics, Macquarie University,
Australia).
Inger Lassen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Language and
Intercultural Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark where she teaches
discourse analysis, genre analysis, and technical communication. She has a
position as Director of the B.A. study programmes in International Business
Communication and is a board member of the Centre for Discourse
Studies. Her main research interests and publications focus on genre
theory, discourse analysis, text accessibility, and style in communication
in professional settings.
José Luiz Meurer is Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at Univer-
sidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil. He holds a Ph.D. in
Linguistics from Georgetown University and was a visiting researcher at the
University of Birmingham, UK where he also taught courses in discourse
analysis. He is the author of Aspects of Language in Self-help Counselling
(UFSC, 1998) and co-author of Parámetros de Textualizaçâo (UFSM, 1997),
and Géneros Textuais (EDUSC, 2002). He is interested in Systemic Func-
tional Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, genre studies, and the
integration of sociological theories to explain the interdependence
between language and other forms of social practice.
Dragana Polovina-Vukovic holds an Honours B.A. from the University of
Sarajevo and an M.A. in Applied Language Studies from Carleton University,
Ottawa, Ontario. Presently she is a doctoral candidate at the School of
Journalism and Communication at Carleton University. Her research
