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Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is an approach to linguistics that considers language as a social semiotic system. It was developed by Michael Halliday, who took the notion of system from his teacher, J. R. Firth. Whereas Firth considered systems to refer to possibilities subordinated to structure, Halliday in a certain sense "liberated" the dimension of choice from structure and made it the central organising dimension of this theory. In other words, whereas many approaches to linguistic description place structure and the syntagmatic axis in the foreground, Hallidean systemic functional theory adopts the paradigmatic axis as its point of departure. The term ''systemic'' accordingly foregrounds Saussure's "paradigmatic axis" in understanding how language works.〔Halliday, M.A.K. 2004. Introduction: How Big is a Language? On the Power of Language. In The Language of Science: Volume 5 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Edited by J.J.Webster. London and New York: Continuum. p. xi.〕 For Halliday, a central theoretical principle is then that any act of communication involves choices. Language is a system, and the choices available in any language variety are mapped using the representation tool of the "system network". Systemic functional linguistics is also "functional" because it considers language to have evolved under the pressure of the particular functions that the language system has to serve. Functions are therefore taken to have left their mark on the structure and organisation of language at all levels, which is said to be achieved via metafunctions. The term ''metafunction'' is particular to systemic functional linguistics. The organisation of the functional framework around systems, i.e., choices, is a significant difference from other "functional" approaches, such as, for example, Dik's functional grammar (FG, or as now often termed, functional discourse grammar) and lexical functional grammar. Thus, it is important to use the full designation—systemic functional linguistics—rather than just ''functional grammar'' or ''functional linguistics''. For Halliday, all languages involve three generalised functions, or metafunctions: one construes experience (meanings about the outer and inner worlds); one enacts social relations (meanings concerned with interpersonal relations), and one weaves together of these two functions to create text (the wording). Because these functions are considered to come into being simultaneously—viz., one cannot mean about the world without having either a real or virtual audience—language must also be able to bring these meanings together: this is the role of structural organisation, be that grammatical, semantic or contextual. These three generalised functions are termed "metafunctions".〔Halliday, M.A.K. 1977. Text as semantic choice in social contexts. Reprinted in full in Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. Volume 2 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by J, J. Webster. London and New York: Continuum. pp. 23–81.〕 ==Multidimensional semiotic system== The point of departure for Halliday's work in linguistics has been the simple question: "how does language work?". Across his career he has probed the nature of language as a social semiotic system; that is, as a resource for meaning across the many and constantly changing contexts of human interaction. In 2003, he published a paper setting out the accumulated principles of his theory, which arose as he engaged with many different language-related problems. These principles, he wrote, "emerged as the by-product of those engagements as I struggled with particular problems",〔Halliday, M.A.K. 2003. Introduction: On the "architecture" of human language. In On Language and Linguistics. Volume 3 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan Webster. London and New York: Continuum.〕 as various as literary analysis and machine translation. Halliday has tried, then, to develop a linguistic theory and description that is appliable to any context of human language. His theory and descriptions are based on these principles, on the basis that they are required to explain the complexity of human language. There are five principles: # ''Paradigmatic dimension:'' Meaning is choice, i.e. users select from "options that arise in the environment of other options", and that "the power of language resides in its organisation as a huge network of interrelated choices"〔 (see Linguistic system) # ''Stratification dimension.'' In the evolution of language from primary to higher-order semiotic, "a space was created in which meanings could be organized in their own terms, as a purely abstract network of interrelations".〔 Between the content of form-pairing of simple semiotic systems emerged the "organizational space" referred to as lexicogrammar. This development put language on the road to becoming an apparently infinite meaning-making system. # ''Metafunctional dimension.'' Language displays "functional complementarity". In other words, it has evolved under the human need to make meanings about the world around and inside us, at the same time that it is the means for creating and maintaining our interpersonal relations. These motifs are two modes of meaning in discourse—what Halliday terms the "ideational" and the "interpersonal" metafunctions.〔 They are organised via a third mode of meaning, the textual metafunction, which acts on the other two modes to create a coherent flow of discourse. # ''Syntagmatic dimension. ''Language unfolds syntagmatically, as structure laid down in time (spoken) or space (written). This structure involves units on different ranks within each stratum of the language system. Within the lexicogrammar, for example, the largest is the clause, and the smallest the morpheme; intermediate between these ranks are the ranks of group/phrase and of word. # ''Instantiation dimension.'' All of these resources are, in turn, "predicated on the vector of instantiation", defined as "the relation between an instance and the system that lies behind it". Instantiation is a formal relationship between potential and actual. Systemic functional theory assumes a very intimate relationship of continual feedback between instance and system: thus using the system may change that system.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Systemic functional linguistics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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