Misrepresenting Functional Varieties Of Language As The Cultural Context Of Language

Martin & Rose (2007: 22):

Finally in Chapter 9 we outline connections between the discourse analysis tools we have discussed and other modes of analysis. These connections include firstly the model of social context we introduced briefly above, and assume throughout the following chapters. This model of register and genre is crucial for interpreting the roles of interpersonal, ideational and textual meanings in social discourse.

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[1] This follows Martin (1992) in misrepresenting functional varieties of language, register and genre, as the cultural context of language.  In SFL theory, register and genre (text type) are two ways of looking at the same thing: register is text type viewed from the system pole of the cline of instantiation, whereas text type is register viewed from the instance pole of the cline.  The relation between context and language is realisation — they are different levels of symbolic abstraction.  Viewed from the system pole, registers are sub-potentials of language that realise sub-potentials of context; viewed from the instance pole, genres are types of text that realise situation types — a situation being an instance of context.

[2] The use of the word 'social' to characterise the cultural context invites a confusion between two distinct orders of experience: the first-order experience of the interlocutors who create a text, and the second-order experience that is the text they produce which realises the instance of semiotic context (situation).