feature. [theoretical] The label of a term in a system; it can be semantic, lexico-grammatical, or phonological. For instance, in the system 'indicative/imperative', there are two terms, the features 'indicative' and 'imperative'. Feature is also used widely in the non-systemic literature, where it does not entail systemicization in a system. It is used quite extensively in phonology and lexical semantics but also (increasingly) in grammar, in particular in Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar and Lexical Functional Grammar. The term component is also used (as in componential analysis). => LexCart Section 1. 2.2.

field. [theoretical] [French: champ] Field of discourse; one of the aspects of context. The field is the social activity relevant to a text; it includes the traditional notion of subject matter. It may be similar to certain uses of the term domain in computational linguistics. => LexCart Section 1.6.1.

floating quantifier. Transformational term for items such as all in the boys all laughed; originally treated as moved (floated) out of quantifier position in the noun phrase, i.e. from all the boys laughed. In systemic analysis, such items would not be floating quantifiers but circumstances of Manner, as in (Actor:) the boys (Manner:) all (Process:) laughed.

function, function. [theoretical] Common term both in systemic and non-systemic linguistics. In systemic linguistics, there are three terms for particular types of function. (i) micro-function: language use/ domain of meaning in proto-langauge, before use and metafunction have become differentiated. (ii) macro-function: language use in the transition between proto-language and adult language. (iii) metafunction: generalized functional principle of linguistic organization. There are three metafunctions - ideational (with two modes: experiential + logical), interpersonal, and textual. (iv) structural function: functionally defined constituent; e.g. Subject, Actor, Theme.

Structural functions are configured in => function structures; each structural function derives from one or other of the metafunctions. The table below summarizes the structural functions used in the descriptions of the grammar of English according to rank and metafunction.



(Note that there is a special use of the term function in mathematics and formal semantics: such a function takes an argument and returns a value.)

function structure. [theoretical] A function structure (or structure for short) is made up of a configuration of grammatical functions such as Actor, Subject, and Theme. Each function may be realized by either a set of grammatical features or a set of lexical features. The grammatical feature set constitutes a preselection of features that have to be chosen when the grammar is re-entered to develop a function further. For example, the function Actor may have the associated preselection 'nominal group', which means that once the structure of the clause of which Actor is a constituent has been fully defined, the grammar is re-entered and Actor is developed as a nominal group. The term function structure is used inside and outside systemic linguistics. It always refers to a configuration of functions, but in certain non-systemic theories there may be only one functional layer. In systemic theory, function structure is contrasted with syntagm (Halliday, 1966). In Lexical Functional Grammar, there is a similar contrast between function structure (f-structure) and constituent structure (c-structure). => LexCart Section1. 4.

functional dialect. The Prague School notion of functional variation; corresponds to the systemic notion of register.

Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP). Prague School term roughly equivalent to the textuall clause and information unit systems (cf. Halliday, 1974), including centrally something like the Theme ^ Rheme structure in English.

Generic Structure Potential (GSP) is Hasan's term for a statement of the resources for structuring a particular type of text. 'Generic' is related to genre: the structure is defined for a particular genre, such as a type of service encounter, a type of advertisement, or a nursery tale. 'Potential' refers to the fact that a given generic structure potential specifies the set of possible structures for a defined genre. => LexCart Section 1.7.1.

Given. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x texual x structural x information unit rank] Textual function of the information unit: information presented as recoverable to the listener. Part of the Given + New structure of the information unit. Unless the assignment of New is marked (as opposed to unmarked), the boundary between Given and New is variable. The term given is also used outside of systemic linguistics. Given has sometimes been combined with Theme as one function, but they are independently variable (see Fries, 1981). => IFG p. 59-60; Section 8.6 (278-81). => LexCart Section 6.5.

Goal. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x experiential x structural x clause rank] Participant role in the material clause, in the transitive model of transitivity (the goal of the impact), together with the function Actor. For instance: They shoot horses don't they. Bloomfield (1933) uses the term Goal, but nowadays Patient (sometimes Undergoer in roughly the same sense) is the common term outside of systemic linguistics; it is comparable to Goal but Patient is not necessarily restricted to the context of material clauses, so the two terms are not equivalent. => IFG p. 103. => LexCart Section 4.7.

grammar. [theoretical] The term has the traditional sense in systemic theory. That is, it includes syntax as well as morphology, the two simply having different domains on the grammatical rank scale. Grammar is taken to be the most general part of lexicogrammar, the system of wording. The other part of lexicogrammar is lexis (vocabulary). Lexicogrammar realizes semantics and is realized by phonology (graphology).



grammar. In linguistic work influenced by Chomsky, grammar is the model of the overall linguistic system: it includes semantics and phonology as well as syntax (and morphology).

grammatics. [theoretical] Systemic term for grammatical theory, sometimes used to avoid the potential ambiguity between grammar in the sense of grammatical theory (as in Functional Grammar) and grammar as the phenomenon under study (as in the grammar of Hopi).

group. [descriptive: lexicogrammar x rank] Group is the rank between clause rank and word rank: groups function in clauses and are composed of words. A group is in many respects a group of words or a word complex: words enter into logical structure to form a group. Examples:

well he'd been doing a thesis on feet (CEC 484)




This aspect of the group explains its difference from the phrase; a phrase does not have a logical (univariate) structure but rather an experiential (multivariate) structure: the structure of the prepositional phrase is like a miniature of the transitivity structure of the clause, viz. Minorprocess: preposition + Minirange: nominal group. In the terms of Bloomfield (1933), we can say that groups are endocentric and phrases are exocentric. If groups were only word complexes, we would not need them as a separate rank; there is more to them than logical structure (a b g ...). The degree to which other metafunctions contribute to their structuring depends on the class of group; the primary classes of group in English (as described in IFG Ch. 6) are tabulated below:



As the table indicates, nominal and verbal groups are interpreted as having both logical, univariate structures and multivariate structures; the other classes of group are interpreted as only having logica, univariate structures (although multivariate ones could be set up). => IFG Ch. 6. => LexCart Section 7.2.

Outside systemic linguistics, the distinction between group and phrase is not usually made; phrase is the usual term for both (cf. noun phrase, verb phrase, and prepositional phrase). While the nominal group of systemic linguistics is comparable to the noun phrase in formal grammar (although they are interpreted in terms of different types of structure), the verbal group is not equivalent to the verb phrase; the verbal group is a purely verbal construct while the verb phrase is roughly the predicate of traditional grammar and logic. => LexCart Section 7.1.