Having established the genres we are working with, our next step in analysis is to interpret how the field unfolds through each genre. One reason we start with the field is that the steps in which it unfolds are readily accessible to conscious reflection. This can be illustrated by asking people to retell a text they have heard or read; they will rarely repeat its language features, but will typically summarise its sequence of phases. As analysts, the things we are interested in include the ideational language resources that construe the unfolding field, the interpersonal resources which evaluate it from phase to phase, and the textual resources that present each phase as a pulse of information. First identifying phases from the perspective of genre and field can provide a useful scaffold for us to identify other less obvious discourse patterns.
Blogger Comments:
[1] To be clear, in terms of SFL Theory, there are two serious misunderstandings here. Firstly, it is a text that unfolds, not a text type (genre). This is because the unfolding of text, logogenesis, occurs at the instance pole of the cline of instantiation (text), not at a point of variation halfway up the cline (text type/genre).
Secondly, 'field' refers to the ideational dimension of context, the culture as semiotic system, not to the ideational dimension of language. It is the ideational dimension of language that unfolds through the instantiation of text, not the ideational dimension of context, since text is an instance of language, not context. In short, the authors here confuse ideational semantics with ideational culture (field). For evidence that Martin (1992) routinely misunderstands the SFL notion of field, see the clarifying critiques here.
In terms of the authors' own model, the claim is that the ideational dimension of register, field, unfolds at a level of symbolic abstraction (stratum) above register, genre. This is analogous to claiming that a metafunctional dimension of phonology unfolds through lexicogrammar. That is, Martin & Rose confuse a stratal relation (between genre and register) with logogenesis (unfolding of text).
[2] As this demonstrates, what Martin & Rose regard as 'field' is actually the ideational meaning of language itself.
[3] There are multiple confused misunderstandings here. Firstly, as a dimension of context, field is construed by all of language, not just by its ideational resources. This is because 'construal', in SFL Theory, means the assignment of an intensive identifying relation between two levels of symbolic abstraction — in this case: between the semantics and context — irrespective of metafunction. For example, the field of science is construed by propositions, interpersonal meaning, whose validity is contested by scientists.
Secondly, the interpersonal resources of language do not evaluate field, because language and field are different levels of symbolic abstraction (strata). An analogous claim would be that interpersonal phonology (lower stratum) evaluates ideational grammar (higher stratum).
[4] To be clear, the reason why Martin & Rose suggest identifying phases from the perspective of genre and field, is that, in terms of SFL Theory
- their phases are ideational semantic units,
- their genres are identified by ideational semantic units (stages),
- their field is ideational semantics misconstrued as field (their register).
No comments:
Post a Comment