Language Typology: A Functional Perspective

Abstract

functional linguistics (SFL). The organization of the chapters in terms of the ordering of sections on Theme, Mood and Transitivity varies according to the descriptive compatibility of the language being described. LT comprises 10 chapters, beginning with an introduction and ending with a generalized typological survey, with the eight metafunctional profiles between them. Chapter 1, ‘Introduction: systemic functional typology’, by Martin and Matthiessen, begins with the stated ‘aim of the book’ and then moves on to discuss the theory of SFL, explaining salient concepts of it. This chapter foregrounds the context of the book in relation to the typological discipline generally. It also gives an impressive, though very concise, survey of the history of language typology and work carried out within this area. It presents the best available brief introduction to systemic functional theory, making a clear distinction between ‘theory’ of language and ‘description’ of language, extending Firth’s distinction between the two. Chapters 2 9 present descriptions of specific languages with the title ‘Metafunctional profile of the grammar’ (henceforth MPG) of the eight languages in the order French, German, Japanese, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Telugu and Pitjantjatjara. Each of these chapters begins with a brief historical sketch of the language in question followed by a ‘metafunctional preview’ and then moves to the 1 I thank Claire Scott, Kathryn Tuckwell and Bradley Smith for their comments and suggestions on this review article.

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