Finding Out Personal Viewpoint by Means of Grammatical Features
Finding out personal viewpoint by means of grammatical features
Cinthia E. Scholles
Universidad Nacional del Litoral – UNaM
Abstract
When expressing ideas a speaker or writer has to make the very personal decision to state his/her point of view subjectively or objectively, denying responsibility for what is being expressed. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the grammatical features used in a written text to express writer’s personal point of view about what is said. It does so from a Systemic Functional Linguistic standpoint. More specifically the author looks merely at the interpersonal and textual metafunctions. The text selected for this analysis is The Human Mind versus the Compute. The author, TOM HYLAND, grammaticalises his opinion at different levels of commitment according to the previously mentioned Systematic Functional Linguistic perspective.
Introduction
According to Thompson (1996) “the main purpose of communicating is to interact with other people: to maintain appropriate social links with them” (p. 38). This idea of communication is closely related to our ability of choosing among the wider range of possibilities, as Halliday calls them the series of system networks, our mind displays in the precise moment of speaking or writing. Along with this concept, a crucial factor that can be considered as the key point here is the context of interaction, that is, the environment of a social man from which we can explore the functional view of language. These are some of the principles underlying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that are to be taken into account for the analysis of the text selected since our aim is not only to identify but also to analyze the grammatical features chosen to support the linguistic function required at a particular time, in a specific context and with a clear purpose. Following the SFL approach, this paper goes into the interpersonal and textual metafunctions to discover the
Cinthia E. Scholles
Universidad Nacional del Litoral – UNaM
Abstract
When expressing ideas a speaker or writer has to make the very personal decision to state his/her point of view subjectively or objectively, denying responsibility for what is being expressed. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the grammatical features used in a written text to express writer’s personal point of view about what is said. It does so from a Systemic Functional Linguistic standpoint. More specifically the author looks merely at the interpersonal and textual metafunctions. The text selected for this analysis is The Human Mind versus the Compute. The author, TOM HYLAND, grammaticalises his opinion at different levels of commitment according to the previously mentioned Systematic Functional Linguistic perspective.
Introduction
According to Thompson (1996) “the main purpose of communicating is to interact with other people: to maintain appropriate social links with them” (p. 38). This idea of communication is closely related to our ability of choosing among the wider range of possibilities, as Halliday calls them the series of system networks, our mind displays in the precise moment of speaking or writing. Along with this concept, a crucial factor that can be considered as the key point here is the context of interaction, that is, the environment of a social man from which we can explore the functional view of language. These are some of the principles underlying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that are to be taken into account for the analysis of the text selected since our aim is not only to identify but also to analyze the grammatical features chosen to support the linguistic function required at a particular time, in a specific context and with a clear purpose. Following the SFL approach, this paper goes into the interpersonal and textual metafunctions to discover the
References: Ø Hyland T. K. (1998). The Human Mind versus the Computer. Ø MATTHIESEN, M Ø THOMSON, G. 1996. Introducing Functional Grammar. London. Arnold. Ø VAN DIJK T Ø VAN DIJK T. A. 1997. Text and context. London: Longman Electronic sources