Systemic functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, and the ideology of science
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Susan Hunston
Susan Hunston is Professor of English Language at the University of Birmingham. She has previously held posts at Mindanao State University, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Surrey. She has published books and articles on corpus linguistics, on the lexis–grammar interface, and on the language of evaluation. Her most recent book isCorpus Approaches to Evaluation: Phraseology and Evaluative Language (Routledge, 2011). Address for correspondence: Department of English, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK 〈s.e.hunston@bham.ac.uk 〉.
Abstract
This paper considers the relationship between research using systemic functional linguistics and research of the kind referred to as corpus linguistics, specifically in a study of ideology in a popular science text. The paper argues that ideas in SFL and corpus linguistics may be regarded as parallel (register), divergent (grammar and phraseology), and complementary (lexis and taxonomy). Following a review of research in these areas, the paper presents a case study of evaluation of status in a popular science book (The Rough Guide to Evolution). “Status” draws on the grammatical concept of projection and on a set of lexis and phraseologies. The interaction between grammatical choice and lexical choice is quantified. It is argued that particular combinations of lexis and grammar are preferred when knowledge is presented as in the process of formation, and other combinations are preferred when knowledge is presented as in a state of completion. The case study reveals that concepts drawn from a systemic functional view of grammar and from a corpus linguistic view of phraseology are usefully combined in studying ideology.
About the author
Susan Hunston is Professor of English Language at the University of Birmingham. She has previously held posts at Mindanao State University, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Surrey. She has published books and articles on corpus linguistics, on the lexis–grammar interface, and on the language of evaluation. Her most recent book is Corpus Approaches to Evaluation: Phraseology and Evaluative Language (Routledge, 2011). Address for correspondence: Department of English, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK 〈s.e.hunston@bham.ac.uk〉.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Masthead
- Editorial: The Halliday potential
- Introduction
- Applying systemic functional linguistics in healthcare contexts
- Users in uses of language: embodied identity in Youth Justice Conferencing
- Using systemic functional linguistics to explore digital technologies in educational contexts
- What do texts do? The context-construing work of news
- Evaluating experience in funny ways: how friends bond through conversational hum
- Interlingual re-instantiation – a new systemic functional perspective on translation
- Clause complex manifestation in depression
- Systemic functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, and the ideology of science
- Hallidayan systemic-functional semiotics and the analysis of the moving audiovisual image
- Multimodal digital semiotics: the interaction of language with other resources
- Visualizing patterns of appraisal in texts and corpora
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial: The Halliday potential
- Introduction
- Applying systemic functional linguistics in healthcare contexts
- Users in uses of language: embodied identity in Youth Justice Conferencing
- Using systemic functional linguistics to explore digital technologies in educational contexts
- What do texts do? The context-construing work of news
- Evaluating experience in funny ways: how friends bond through conversational hum
- Interlingual re-instantiation – a new systemic functional perspective on translation
- Clause complex manifestation in depression
- Systemic functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, and the ideology of science
- Hallidayan systemic-functional semiotics and the analysis of the moving audiovisual image
- Multimodal digital semiotics: the interaction of language with other resources
- Visualizing patterns of appraisal in texts and corpora
