English Text: System and structure

by J.R. Martin

This book is a comprehensive introduction to text forming resources in English, along with practical procedures for analysing English texts and relating them to their contexts of use. It has been designed to complement functional grammars of English, building on the generation of discourse analysis inspired by Halliday and Hasan's Cohesion in English . The analyses presented were developed within three main theoretical and applied (i) educational linguistics (especially genre-based literacy programmes) (ii) critical linguistics (as manifested in the development of social semiotics) and (iii) computational linguistics (in dialogue with the various text generation projects based on systemic approaches to grammar and discourse). English Text's major contribution is to outline one way in which a rich semantically oriented functional grammar can be systematically related to a theory of discourse semantics, including deconstruction of contextual issues (i.e. register, genre and ideology). The chapters have been organized with the needs of undergraduate students in theoretical linguistics and postgraduate students in applied linguistics in mind.

634 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1992

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly comprehensive, detailed throughout and practical, English Text introduces an approach to discourse analysis called discourse semantics. As with all Systemic Functional Linguistics, the basic unit of meaning is the text. Discourse semantics provides an ambitious framework to bridge grammatical analysis and contextual and generic meanings. It reexamines Halliday's metafunctions beyond the clause and provides detailed analyses and system networks to apply to text. This is a dense text that rewards readers with detailed models of analysis and highly relevant practical approaches to analysing discourse

[Guanyue8011 · Rating 1 out of 5]

good

[Oktavia]

I just want collect some information to complete my thesis theory