>Judy, is it your understanding of SFG that there is a kind of one-to-one
>mapping between
>the form of an utterance and its function?

absolutely not.
>
>In other words, do questions (my previous sentence is an example) have a
>particular function or functions from the SFG perspective?  If the
>answer is yes, what is/are it/they?

I'm not sure what you mean... Does your question have a function
other than its function as a question? (yes -- it functions in
relation to the rest of the text is some way[s])

>
>I can not speak for Johanna, but the kind of semantics she is talking
>about is very different from the kind in your message.  The actual
>semantic relationships between the underlying subjects and objects of a
>particular verb can't be reduced to one particular relationship for the
>subjects of all verbs or the objects of all verbs.  It is something
>different for each verb.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the underlying subjects and objects of
a particular verb" -- you mean the sorts of subjects and objects that a
particular verb can take?

I have to stress once again that I've no training in linguistics and
I am certainly no authority on SFG (to say the least). It is my understanding,
though, that Halliday assumes that langue and parole are part of the same
system,
a meaning-making system. He has used the analogy of the weather/climate
distinction
to discuss phenomena (like langue/parole) at different "time depths" -- Like
the
relationship between a particular situation or text and the wider culture it is
part of (and that it "realizes") It takes many many instances of "parole" for
there to be a "langue" -- not that parole comes first -- they grow up together,
but they grow at different 'time depths'. They are different 'levels' of a
dynamic open system. It's because Halliday insists
(as I understand him, anyway) on the interrelatedness of these two
perspectives that makes his description of grammar
so useful for talking about text.

I realize it sounds like gobbledygook to you. It's the same for me
conversely. I wish we had a translator.

Judy


Judith Diamondstone  (732) 932-7496  Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183

Eternity is in love with the productions of time - Wm Blake