A Systemic Functional Grammar of English A Simple Introduction

Providing a simple – but not simplistic – introduction to the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) of English, this book serves as a launching pad for the beginning student and a review for the more seasoned linguist. With an introduction to SFG through lexicogrammar and the concept of rankshift, this book is the first introduction to SFG (including Appraisal) with examples exclusively sourced from twenty-first century texts. Written for those learning English and English linguistics as a foreign language, this serves as an easy-to-read introduction or refresher course for Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Contents Preface Chapter 1. Some introductory remarks to get us started. Summary Chapter 2. Grammatical parts and how they work together. Analysing a more extended example. Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 3. Representing the world. The ideational metafunction. Material process. Mental process. Relational process. Verbal Process. Existential process. Oblique participants. Analysing a more extended example; Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 4. The speaker’s relationships. Mood. Analysing a more extended example. Modality. Speech Acts. Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 5. Getting the message in order. Thematic structure. Analysing a more extended example. Thematic progression. Analysing a more extended example. Information structure. Analysing a more extended example. Cohesion: reference. Analysing a more extended example. Cohesion: lexical chains. Analysing a more extended example. Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 6. Extending the interpersonal metafunction. Attitude. Analysing a more extended example. Engagement. Graduation. Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 7. Modelling the text. Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 8. The text in context. Summary Activities & Exercises Chapter 9. Final thoughts: a launching pad. Further Reading. Glossary. Key to Activities & Exercises. Index.

David Banks is Emeritus Professor at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in France. He is former Head of the English Department, Director of Equipe de Recherche en Linguistique Appliquée (ERLA) and Chairman of Association Française de la Linguistique Systémique Fonctionnelle (AFLSF). He is author or editor of 30 books and has published over 110 academic articles. His publication The Development of Scientific Writing: Linguistic features and historical context (2008) won the European Society for the Study of English Language and Linguistics Book Award in 2010. His research interests include the diachronic study of scientific text and the application of Systemic Functional Linguistics to English and French.