I'm writing a final paper for an intro linguistics course.
I'm trying to represent the following sentences as:
- Message
- Exchange
- Representation
using Halliday's Functional Grammar.
Anyone have any ideas on how to show the exchange and representation?
1. The old couple are leaving their house to thier grandchildren.
- Message: The old couple
- Exchange:
- Representation:
2. A part of the population may worry excessively about dieting.
- Message: A part of the population
- Exchange:
- Representation:
3. Mary has put her blouse neatly in her drawer.
- Message: Mary
- Exchange:
- Representation:
Halliday's Functional Grammar
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
I must admit that although I have studied Halliday and Functional Grammar, you might be using a different reference than I did. In your declarative example:
'The old couple are leaving their house to thier grandchildren.'
According to my studies, I would call the nominal group 'the old couple' the 'theme' of the sentence. The theme is the subect of the sentence while all that comes afterwards is called the 'rheme'. The verb 'are' in its present form is a 'temporal operator' I believe the exchange in this sentence is characterized by the verb 'leaving' as is the verb 'put' in the third example. Finally, the nound 'grandchildren' is the 'finite'
I never heard the term 'representation' in discussing Halliday before, but maybe you can tell me when you have the occasion to do so?
I wish I could help more, but I thought I'd give it a shot when I saw that you weren't getting a reply. Good luck!
WJ[/u]
'The old couple are leaving their house to thier grandchildren.'
According to my studies, I would call the nominal group 'the old couple' the 'theme' of the sentence. The theme is the subect of the sentence while all that comes afterwards is called the 'rheme'. The verb 'are' in its present form is a 'temporal operator' I believe the exchange in this sentence is characterized by the verb 'leaving' as is the verb 'put' in the third example. Finally, the nound 'grandchildren' is the 'finite'
I never heard the term 'representation' in discussing Halliday before, but maybe you can tell me when you have the occasion to do so?
I wish I could help more, but I thought I'd give it a shot when I saw that you weren't getting a reply. Good luck!
WJ[/u]
-
Stephen Jones
- Posts: 1421
- Joined: Sun May 18, 2003 5:25 pm
I don't know Halliday. I would divide the sentecnes into theme and focus. The theme would be the given information and the focus would be the new information. So
"The old couple" is the theme
and "are leaving theri house to their grandchildrent" is the focus or new information.
Sometimes the focus can be quite near the end of the sentence as in
The old people are leaving thoir house to the GOLDFISH!
and contrastive strss is used to show that the focus falls in an unusual place.
"The old couple" is the theme
and "are leaving theri house to their grandchildrent" is the focus or new information.
Sometimes the focus can be quite near the end of the sentence as in
The old people are leaving thoir house to the GOLDFISH!
and contrastive strss is used to show that the focus falls in an unusual place.
I think I might have it kind of figured out.
It took me a few nights and several searches using google but I found a source that helped a bit.
Here is one of the sources I used in case you're interested.
http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/funcgrammar ... ologue.htmThanks.
It took me a few nights and several searches using google but I found a source that helped a bit.
Here is one of the sources I used in case you're interested.
http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/funcgrammar ... ologue.htmThanks.