Linguistic features of literary theme: some halliday-type principles applied to 'surfacing' (margareth atwood 1972) Linguistic features of literary theme: some halliday-type principles applied to 'surfacing' (margareth atwood 1972)

• Main Author: M. Nélia Scott
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2008-04-01
• Series: Ilha do Desterro
• Subjects: English Language; English
• Online Access: http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/9397
• ISSN: 0101-4846; 2175-8026

Halliday divides the functions of language into three
 'macro-functions' which he calls: Ideational function,
 expressing content, or the propositional content of the
 speaker's experiences of the real and inner world; Interpersonal function, which is the means whereby we achieve communication, taking on speech roles viz-a-viz other people,00mplaining, narrating, enquiring, encouraging, etc.; and Textual function, which serves to connect discourse, weaving it together. Under this latter function comes the notion of cohesion. Phoric' elements are parts of the reference system needed for a text to be cohesive. We elucidate and refer to 'phoric' elements in more detail below. It is important to note that all these three macro-functions are present at the same time in a text.
 Halliday describes the choice of (sets of different)
 options the speaker makes in the language system, to express
 his experiences. 'All options are embedded in the language
 system: the system is a network of options, deriving from all
 the various functions of language' (1973:111) Thus a certain
 choice of (one set of different) options rather than another
 can be said to have been motivated by what the speaker (or
 writer) wanted to mean -- to convey or emphasize. Prominence of certain features in a text, then, stands out in a particular Way, suggesting or pressing the reader to take notice of it, this recognition contributing towards a more complete understanding of the writer's work. This is Halliday's intention in his study of The Inheritors (Halliday 1973:103-43). Halliday divides the functions of language into three 
 'macro-functions' which he calls: Ideational function,
 expressing content, or the propositional content of the
 speaker's experiences of the real and inner world; Interpersonal function, which is the means whereby we achieve communication, taking on speech roles viz-a-viz other people,00mplaining, narrating, enquiring, encouraging, etc.; and Textual function, which serves to connect discourse, weaving it together. Under this latter function comes the notion of cohesion. Phoric' elements are parts of the reference system needed for a text to be cohesive. We elucidate and refer to 'phoric' elements in more detail below. It is important to note that all these three macro-functions are present at the same time in a text.
 Halliday describes the choice of (sets of different)
 options the speaker makes in the language system, to express
 his experiences. 'All options are embedded in the language
 system: the system is a network of options, deriving from all
 the various functions of language' (1973:111) Thus a certain
 choice of (one set of different) options rather than another
 can be said to have been motivated by what the speaker (or
 writer) wanted to mean -- to convey or emphasize. Prominence of certain features in a text, then, stands out in a particular Way, suggesting or pressing the reader to take notice of it, this recognition contributing towards a more complete understanding of the writer's work. This is Halliday's intention in his study of The Inheritors (Halliday 1973:103-43).