Systemic Functional Grammar: A Text-Based Description of English, Spanish and Chinese

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a usage-based theory of language, founded on the assumption that language is shaped entirely by its various functions in the contexts in which it used. The first of its kind, this book advances SFL by applying it comparatively to English, Spanish and Chinese. By analysing English alongside two other, typologically very different major world languages, it shows how SFL can effectively address two central issues in linguistics – namely typology and universals. It concentrates in particular on argumentation, carefully explaining how descriptions of nominal group, verbal group and clause systems and structures are motivated, and draws on examples from key texts which display a full range of ideational, interpersonal and textual grammar resources. By working across three world languages from a text-based perspective, and demonstrating how grammar descriptions can be developed and improved, the book establishes the foundations for a groundbreaking functional approach to language typology.

J. R. Martin is Professor at the Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney and was Visiting Professor at the Department of Language Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is best known for his work on discourse analysis, appraisal and genre. In April 2014 Shanghai Jiao Tong University opened its Martin Centre for Appliable Linguistics, appointing Professor Martin as Director.

Beatriz Quiroz is Associate Professor in Language Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her current research, informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), focuses on developing a text-based and functionally oriented description of Spanish grammar.

Pin Wang is Associate Professor at the Martin Centre for Appliable Linguistics of the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. His chief research interests are Systemic Theory, Functional Grammar, and Functional Language Typology, with particular focus on Mandarin Chinese and minority languages of China.