We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Despite the fact the systemic grammar has a relatively long history, and has been adopted in several computer implementations (Davey, 1978; Mann and Matthiessen, 1983), it has never been rigorously formalized in the way that traditional grammars have. The reason for this appears to be that the formal tools applied to traditional structural (syntagmatic) grammars are not so easily applied to a functional theory. In addition, it seems that the “rigorous rules” used to formalize traditional grammars are viewed by systemic linguists as inherently structural (e.g. Halliday, 1978, pp. 191–2). The formal model of systemic grammar presented here will involve “rigorous rules” but will not compromise the functional perspective. This formalization will allow the definition of such notions as the language generated by a grammar, and the demonstration of results relating to properties of a generation algorithm based on the previous chapter. The central issues discussed include the correctness and efficiency of this algorithm.
Two warnings should be given concerning this formal model. First, the generation algorithm presented (§5.3 and §5.4) is based on the description of systemic grammar presented in Chapter 3 which was in turn based partly on Halliday (1978). As a result of certain assumptions (especially concerning the input to the generation–in this case involving preselection), it may not be compatible with models based on other versions of the theory. Second, this formalization is largely exploratory, in that it is meant to investigate and illustrate the possibility of providing a rigorous formalization of systemic grammar suitable for defining a generation mechanism–it is not meant to be the definitive formalization of systemic grammar.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
