Register and Context 2013: Mode, Text and Texture
This symposium is funded by the Faculty of Human Sciences, and the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University.
This symposium is a forum for debating and developing the text-in-context model of the systemic functional linguistic school developed by M.A.K. Halliday. Halliday models linguistically-construed context as the configuration of social action (field), social relations (tenor) and mode of contact (mode) (Halliday, 1985, 2003). Mode is defined as including not only channel distinctions, such face to face communication, phone, email, writing, but also medium, the linguistic texturing of a cline which runs from the grammar of intricate spontaneous spoken language, to highly dense, nominalised, formal written discourse. While there may be typical tendencies between channel and medium selections, in many registers these typical selections are varied.
Since mode is realized through the linguistics resources which create text and texture, then mode interfaces with language’s coherence-creating resources. Consequently, dimensions of mode are relevant to many aspects of application, such as language in education, translation and interpreting, literature and stylistics, child language development, academic literacy, and the analysis of multimodal discourse.
The aim of this workshop is to provide a focused forum to explore, critique and extend Halliday’s original conception of mode and its realization in the textual function. The symposium will:
1) Present, critique, and extend current models of mode in systemic functional theory
2) Address some key theoretical issues in the modeling of mode, including questions of subsystems in mode
3) Explore the resources of the textual function as they are recruited across register varieties, multimodal
discourse, and in the context of sign languages
4) Provide a forum which allows for full plenary style presentations, with generous time for Q&A
Since mode is realized through the linguistics resources which create text and texture, then mode interfaces with language’s coherence-creating resources. Consequently, dimensions of mode are relevant to many aspects of application, such as language in education, translation and interpreting, literature and stylistics, child language development, academic literacy, and the analysis of multimodal discourse.
The aim of this workshop is to provide a focused forum to explore, critique and extend Halliday’s original conception of mode and its realization in the textual function. The symposium will:
1) Present, critique, and extend current models of mode in systemic functional theory
2) Address some key theoretical issues in the modeling of mode, including questions of subsystems in mode
3) Explore the resources of the textual function as they are recruited across register varieties, multimodal
discourse, and in the context of sign languages
4) Provide a forum which allows for full plenary style presentations, with generous time for Q&A