Summary: This is an accessible introduction to the most fully developed functional approach to grammar currently available. Now in its second edition, it is closely based on Michael Halliday's An Introduction to Functional Grammar: Third Edition. It can be used either as a comprehensive course book in its own right or as a means of preparing students for the more theoretical treatment of grammar as presented in Halliday's book.In this thoroughly updated edition, Introducing Functional Grammar describes clearly each of the major grammatical systems in terms of the kind of meaning that they contribute to messages. Starting with simple procedures for identifying the choices in a particular system, each chapter discusses the functions of the system in context. New material on the implications of corpus data and an introduction to systems networks is included; and there is greater emphasis on the exploration of how grammatical analysis can illuminate meaning at text and discourse level. Much of the content has been reorganised and made more user-friendly in response to feedback from students as well as teachers and other linguists. There are numerous worked examples to illustrate the analysis at each stage, as well as practice activities for the reader to try out.
Revised in conjunction with new edition of Halliday 'Introduction to Functional Grammar'New material on corpus dataNew overview of system networksMore new work examples and exercises
Table of Contents: The purpose of linguistic analysisIdentifying clauses and clause constituentsAn overview of functional grammarInteraction in the clause: the interpersonal functionRepresenting the world: the experiential metafunctionOrganising the message: the textual metafunction: themeOrganising the message: the textual metafunction: cohesionGrammatical metaphorGroups and phrasesClauses in combinationImplications and applications of functional grammar
About the Author(s): Geoff Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Liverpool
Readership: Undergraduates of linguistics and applied linguistics. Students and teachers of educational linguistics and sociolinguistics. Student teachers (PGCE and overseas equivalents).
Reviews:
This second edition is a more detailed and user-friendly introductionto an approach to grammar through meaning and function. Functionalgramar is presented ere in a context that enables a broadersocio-cultural orientation to be shown of how language works. Thompsondoes this with clarity and the engagement of his readers in the courseof ten chapters ... The book also provides a detailed index,suggestions for answers to exercises, a comprehensive list ofreferences, as well as five pages of further reading, related to eachchapter. This is especially helpful for beginners and researchers, notto mention teachers ... (It) serves as a most worthwhile introductionto systemic functional grammar and should be on the bookshelf of thoseworking in the TESOL field.
