call. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x interpersonal x systemic x clause rank] Systemic term in the system MINOR CLAUSE CLASS.

Carrier. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role, the participant to which the Attribute is ascribed in an ascriptive relational clause. => LexCart Section 4.10.1.

[Carrier/ Medium:] The Barracks [Process:] is [Location: time:] now [Attribute/ Range:] a museum of the history of Sydney and New South Wales. (Fodor's Sydney)

[Carrier/ Medium:] this city park [Process:] comes [Attribute/ Range:] alive [Location: time:] on Sundays. (Fodor's Sydney)

case marking. The term case marking was originally restricted to the marking by morphological case (such as nominative, accusative, dative). It has now been extended to include other means of such as adpositions and sometimes even word order. In systemic work, it would still be used in its original sense since "case" has not been extended as a descriptive category.

case marking system. The system according to which different cases are assigned to different nominal groups in a clause. Two different systems are widely discussed, the nominative-accusative and the ergative(-absolutive) systems. Languages may implement either of these or a mix of the two (a "split" system). These systems have now been extended to include phenomena such as reflexivization and structural ellipsis in coordinated clauses. The notion of a case-marking system is related to the systemic notion of transitivity model; and nominative-accusative and ergative are related to the transitive and intransitive transitivity models of systemics. However, while the systemic transitivity models are confined to the experiential metafunction, the notion of case-marking system is not tied to a particular metafunction. (In systemic accounts, the different metafunctional influences on case marking are teased apart. Thus a language may be experientially ergative without interpersonal or textual ergativity in the 'case marking'.)

case role. The role served by an argument of a verb (predicate) -- sometimes also called semantic role; the notion goes back to Fillmore's (1968) category of deep case. It corresponds largely to the systemic notion of transitivity function or role (including participant roles and circumstance roles; e.g. Halliday 1967/8; 1985: Ch. 5), except that case role may sometimes be interpreted as entirely semantic and not grammatical whereas systemic transitivity functions are grammatical. Another difference is in the theoretical status of case roles or deep cases vs. transitivity functions: inventories of the former are often taken to be universal where the transitivity functions presented in e.g. Halliday (1985: Ch. 5) are not. See Martin (1996) for detailed discussion of case role/ deep case vs. systemic transitivity function.

category. [theoretical] A construct or abstraction in systemic theory; units, functions, classes, and so on are categories of the theory of grammar (cf. Halliday, 1961). Caterogies are distinguished from scales such as delicacy and stratification. In formal linguistics, "category" has been used in a much more restricted sense, corresponding to 'class' in systemic linguistic.

category. As in phrase category. The systemic term for the category of formal grammar is the traditional term class (as in word class).

Cause. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank]

[Cause: concessive:] Despite Bush's sweeping rhetoric, his closest advisers predict that he will stick to the cautious script he has followed since Hungary, Poland, East Germany and most recently Czechoslovakia began loosening the grip of Communist repression.

challenge. [descriptive: semantics x interpersonal x systemic x move rank] A move in an exchange that challenges the previous move.

circumstance. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Generalized transitivity function in the clause, which consists of a process, participants involved in it, and attendant circumstances. Circumstances belong to four types: (i) enhancing circumstances: Location, Extent, Cause, Manner; (ii) extending circumstances: Accompaniment; (iii) elaborating circumstances: Role; and (iv) projecting circumstances: Angle, Matter. For example:

[Angle:] According to government sources [Verbiage:] the new peace plan [Process:] will be discussed [Location:] on Monday.

Participants tend to be more centrally involved with the process than circumstances, which are consequently said to be attendant, more peripheral, or obliquely related to the process. The difference, which is comparable to Tesni貥's (1959) distinction between actant and circonstant, between participants and circumstances is a cline; it is clearer in some languages than in others. For instance, in English, it is fairly clear since, broadly speaking, (i) participants can be Subject but circumstances cannot, and (ii) participants are realized by nominal groups but circumstances by adverbial groups or prepositional phrases. In Akan, the difference is much less clear: there is no voice system to differentiate between participants and circumstances and both are realized by nominal groups (rather than nominal groups vs. prepositional phrases); circumstantial relations are marked by dependent verbs in serial verb constructions. => LexCart Section 4.11.

class. [theoretical] The systemic term for the term category in formal grammar. It generalizes the traditional notion of word classes and thus applies to morphemes, groups, phrases, and clauses as well as words. The least delicate classes are sometimes called primary classes and further differentiations are secondary classes. For example:


Classifier. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x group rank: nominal] Function in the structure of the nominal group; a premodifier specifying of subclassification of the thing represented by the nominal group. Classifier corresponds to Fries' (1970) close-knit modifier. It is usually realized by a noun. Classifier is differentiated from Epithet. For instance: a (Epithet:) soft-spoken (Classifier:) Government (Thing:) aid. (In typological literature, the term classifier is used for nouns expressing classes of things in languages such as Chinese and Thai. In systemic work, this has often been called "measure".) IFG p. 164-5. => LexCart Section 7.3.3.3 .1.

[Classifier:] Ebola [Thing:] infections end in death from 50% to nearly 90% of those clinically ill. (WER)

During the same period, total [Classifier:] hotel [Thing:] capacity increased from less than 500 rooms to over 25,000. (Bali, Periplus Travel Guides)

Even if you have no particular interest in [Classifier:] war [Thing:] memorials (this one was dedicated to those who served in World War I), do stop a minute inside. (Fodor's Sydney)

clause. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x metafunction: general x systemic/ structural: unit x clause rank][French: phrase] The highest-ranking unit in the grammar. It is the point of origin of the systems of TRANSITIVITY, MOOD and THEME, realized by three simultaneous structural layers (transitivity structure, modal structure and thematic structure). In the unmarked case, it realizes a figure (experiential), move (interpersonal) and message (textual); and it is realized by a tone group. Examples (ranking clauses separated by ||, clause complexes by |||; included clauses separated by << >>, downranked clauses by "'):

||| It might have been otherwise || had President Bush not waited until after the election || to announce || that he was nearly doubling U.S. troop strength in the Persian Gulf.||| As it was, || only a few sitting members of Congress were defeated, hardly enough "to make more than a token difference in the composition of the Senate <<(where the Democrats picked up one seat)>> and the House <<(where they picked up eight)>>'. ||| In fact, the most significant result involved a politician "who wasn't even on the ballot'. ||| For if the election of 1990 changed nothing else, || it undermined the perception "that George Bush is all but immune to the normal vicissitudes of politics'. ||| Suddenly, and for the first time in his presidency, Bush seemed vulnerable. |||

The weakening process began || when Bush abandoned his "no new taxes" pledge || and deprived Republican right-wingers of their favorite issue. ||| Then Congress rejected the deficit-reduction package "negotiated by White House aides and congressional leaders'. ||| After that, the President went from bad to worse || as he alternately attacked the Democrats, || tried to explain his domestic policies || and confronted growing doubts about the U.S. deployment in the Persian Gulf. ||| By the time he finally signed a budget deal last week, || his performance ratings in the polls had dropped 20 points. ||| (Time)


clause complex. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x logical x structural x clause rank] [French: phrase complexe] Halliday's (1965, 1985) term for a combination of clauses related paratactically (as in I came, I saw, I conquered) or hypotactically (as in when I came, I conquered) but not through embedding (i.e. downranking of clause to serve within another unit); the mode of combination is the mode of organization of the logical subtype of the ideational metafunction. For example, clauses combined through coordination form a clause complex. IFG Ch. 7. => LexCart Section 3.2.(For examples, see under "clause".)

The term clause complex corresponds roughly to the non-systemic term clause combining, except a clause complex never involves embedding and 'clause combining' may include embedding (i.e., constructions where one clause serves as a constituent in another unit as if it were a group/phrase or word).

cleft. (Sometimes it-cleft.) The it be ... that construction in English and its equivalent in other languages (as in it was the dog that died : the dog it was that died). It corresponds to the systemic notion of => theme predication (IFG p. 59-61). => LexCart Section 6.2.1.4.

Client. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant function in the transitivity function of the clause. It represents the participant a service is done for. It is related to one type of cause, viz. Behalf. For instance: Sir Chris built (Client:) him a gazebo; Sir Chris build a gazebo (Client:) for him. Cf. I'll do it (Behalf:) for you. IFG p. 132. => LexCart Section 4.7.1.

Shall I run your bath [Client:] for you?

cline. [theoretical] Introduced in Halliday (1961), in opposition to a hierarchy of discrete terms, as a continuum along a single dimension with potentially infinite gradation - as in "cline of instantiation". "Cline" might be glossed as scale, except that this term has a special technical sense, particularly in early systemic linguistics.

Cognizant. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Older term for what is now usually called => Senser (IFG p. 111) - the senser of a mental process, i.e. the participant involved (inertly) in conscious processing; it corresponds roughly to the non-systemic notion of => Experiencer.

cohesion. [theoretical] [French: coh鳩on] The textual lexicogrammatical resources for expressing relations within text without creating grammatical structure. The cohesive resources include reference, substitution / ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion. The term cohesion is also used in non-systemic literature, sometimes in direct reference to systemic work on cohesion (particularly, Halliday & Hasan, 1976), sometimes more loosely to refer to the text-ness of a text. (The term has a different use in Tagmemics, where it refers to one of the four cells in a four-cell tagmeme.) => IFG Chapter 9. => LexCart Section 2.3.6.

collocation. [theoretical] [French: collocation] Non-structural, lexical relation between lexical items, measured as the likelihood of their co-occurrence in text. For instance, regret and deeply collocate. => IFG pp. 312-3. => LexCart Section 4.8.2.

complex. [theoretical] Complex of grammatical units of any rank or class, potentially lineally recursive; complexes include coordination (extending complexes) and apposition (elaborating complexes). => LexCart Section 2.3.4. (See also => clause complex.)

conflation. [theoretical] Realization operator used to specify the identity of two functions, as in Agent / Subject. Corresponds to what is sometimes called assignment in non-systemic work (as in function assignment). => LexCart Section 1.4.

congruent. [theoretical] The 'literal' as opposed to the metaphorical realization of meaning: the congruence between semantics and lexicogrammar (IFG Ch. 10). => LexCart Sections 1.5.3; 2.4.2; 3.2.6.1; 4.12; 5.1.2.2; 7.3.3.3.5.

CONJUNCTION. [descriptive: lexicogrammatical x textual x systemic x clause rank] [French: CONJONCTION] Textual system of cohesion: resource for making rhetorical-semantic relations explicit. => IFG Section 9.4. => LexCart Section 6.1. The basic CONJUNTION TYPES are 'elaboration', 'extension' and 'enhancement'; examples are given below:

It might have been otherwise had President Bush not waited until after the election to announce that he was nearly doubling U.S. troop strength in the Persian Gulf. As it was, only a few sitting members of Congress were defeated, hardly enough to make more than a token difference in the composition of the Senate (where the Democrats picked up one seat) and the House (where they picked up eight). [elaboration: clarification: verificative:] In fact, the most significant result involved a politician who wasn't even on the ballot. [enhancement: causal-conditional: general:] For if the election of 1990 changed nothing else, it undermined the perception that George Bush is all but immune to the normal vicissitudes of politics. Suddenly, and for the first time in his presidency, Bush seemed vulnerable.

The weakening process began when Bush abandoned his "no new taxes" pledge and deprived Republican right-wingers of their favorite issue. [enhancement: temporal: following:] Then Congress rejected the deficit-reduction package negotiated by White House aides and congressional leaders.[enhancement: temporal: following:] After that, the President went from bad to worse as he alternately attacked the Democrats, tried to explain his domestic policies and confronted growing doubts about the U.S. deployment in the Persian Gulf. By the time he finally signed a budget deal last week, his performance ratings in the polls had dropped 20 points. (Time)


context. [theoretical] [French: contexte] Context is a higher-order semiotic system located stratally above the linguistic system. Context is functionally diversified into field, tenor, and mode. The notions of context of situation and context of culture originate with Bronislaw Malinowski, an anthropologist working in the first half of this century. Doing field work in the Trobriand Islands, he came to recognize and argue for the importance of context in the interpretation of text. His work on context was further developed within linguistics, first by Firth and then by Halliday and others.

Context is differentiated along the cline of instantiation, from context of culture to context of situation. Context of culture is the context of the overall linguistic system and context of situation is the context of a text, an instance of the system. Intermediate between the two is situation type - the context of a registerial variety of the overall linguistic system. => IFG p. 370. => LexCart Section 1.6.

In earlier systemic writings, context was used for what is now called semantics. The term context is also used widely in non-systemic literature, sometimes in the systemic sense sometimes not. Frames, schemata, and scripts within cognitive psychology and AI are similar to situation and situation types in many respects.

cryptotype, cryptotype. [theoretical] Whorf's term for a covert grammatical category. For instance, the process types, material, mental, verbal, and relational, are largely cryptotypes in English. It has been taken over in systemic work (e.g., Halliday, 1983). Cryptotypes affect the organization of the grammatical system; that is, the grammatical system 'reacts' to their presence and we can identify cryptotypes by reference to such reactances.

culmination. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x textual x systemic x clause rank] The textual choices controlling the relative sequence of clause elements after the Process, in particular in examples such as I gave him some money vs. I gave the money to a friend (cf. IFG p. 149-50). The transformational term for the relative sequence of direct and indirect object (complement), as in the pair above, is dative shift. => LexCart Section 6.4.