Working with genre: A pragmatic perspective (original) (raw)
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Genre in Language, Discourse and Cognition: Introduction to the volume
Genre in Language, Discourse and Cognition, 2016
The notion of 'genre' designates a conventional way of performing communicative activities using language. Examples of genres include novels, poems, songs, films, news broadcasts, news features, speeches, debates, meetings, classes, conversations, chat, email, web pages, and so on. All of these are text-based activities that people engage in for a wide variety of reasons and in a broad variety of manners. However, this variation is both enabled and restricted by concerted action a constant structure involving language, discourse, and cognition. This is captured by the notion of 'genre', which is a well-established concept in communication science, discourse studies, stylistics and applied linguistics. Genre has also proven to be a useful concept in the area of language pedagogy and other educational contexts. The concept has a long tradition in the study of arts and rhetoric, dating back to Antiquity. In view of the omnipresence of 'genre' across research domains, it is surprising that we hardly know how genre operates from linguistic, discoursal and cognitive points of view. This may be due to the fact that genre is a complex and multifaceted concept, comprising linguistic, pragmatic, and content-related knowledge with psychological, social and communicative aspects, and thus crosses traditional theoretical borders in linguistics and beyond. Another reason may be that research on genre faces a number of empirical problems, one crucial issue being that assumed models are not always unambiguously reflected in the linguistic form of 'real life' genre texts and events. This volume intends to explore how recent insights regarding the relation between language, discourse and cognition may contribute to solving a number of long-standing empirical and theoretical problems surrounding the concept of 'genre'. Examples of such questions are the degree to which genre is anchored in language use, the role of genre in discourse processing, the relationship between the concept of genre and schematic knowledge, etcetera. A second, and closely related goal is to advance our ideas about how to conceptualize and theorize about the role of genre in the study of language, discourse and cognition.
A Review of Genre Approaches within Linguistic Traditions
Language for Specific Purposes International Journal, 2015
This paper reviews three major approaches to genre analysis; Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS), English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Based on the review, it is noted that RGS is an approach which regards genre as a form of social action involving analysis of genre through detailed accounts of the social and cultural contexts with an emphasis on how a genre fulfills its social purpose and actions. On the other hand, ESP is an approach which views genre as a communicative event characterised by their communicative purposes as well as rhetorical features where the discourse community acts as those which recognises and sanctions the acceptance of a genre. The final genre approach, which is SFL, perceives genre as the cultural purpose of texts, achieved through a genre’s structural and realisational patterns where meanings are made within the genre. Overall, the ESP and SFL approaches share fundamental view that linguistic features of texts are connected to social context and function. Thus both of the approaches take on a linguistic approach in describing genres. RGS, in contrast, investigates genres through the study of society in which genre is being used thus taking an ethnographic approach to analysis of genres. This paper concludes with a discussion on the concept of genre presented in the various approaches and the possible emergence of other approaches in the study of genre.
The Conceptualization of Genre in Systemic Functional Linguistics
Jurnal RETORIKA: Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa, 2018
Genre constitutes the rhetorical features of a text and the semiotic communicative purpose(s) it serves. It has marveled Systemic Functional Linguistics' (SFL) scholars as to whether it should be treated as an aspect of the situational context (register) or as a distinct cultural semiotic system that correlates with texture-i.e. the three register categories of field, tenor, and mode. This paper aims to review the conceptualization of genre in the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) tradition. Whereas Halliday associates genre with mode, Martin coordinates the three register variables of field, tenor, and mode in relation to social purpose. The elements of a schematic structure are generated by genre networks, which in turn preselect particular values of field, tenor and mode in a given culture. Both Halliday's context of situation and Martin's context of culture levels are dynamic connotative semiotic systems through which new meanings are created by the three processes of semogenesis. Genre is conceived as a distinct cultural semiotic system, rather than an aspect of 'mode', that correlates with texture. Martin later avoided the intertextual glosses context of culture and context of situation since Halliday used them for instantiation, and not supervenience. The three register variables of language organize information at the level of genre into coherent texts. Modelled as register and genre, the stratified model of context configures meanings not only through discourse semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology but also through the prosodic phases of evaluation. Halliday calls this model appliable linguistics since it enables us to develop a powerful model of language that is both "theoretical" and "applied" (Mahboob & Knight, 2010).
The Qualitative Report, 2024
This article discusses Conducting Genre-Based Research in Applied Linguistics: A Methodological Guide, edited by Matt Kessler and Charlene Polio, that addresses the theory-practice gap in genre-based pedagogy. The book emphasizes the importance of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and its integration into the teaching and learning cycle to improve students' understanding and production of different genres. Theoretical foundations of Halliday's SFL are discussed alongside practical methods such as case studies, ethnography and metadiscourse analysis. The volume offers a comprehensive framework for researchers and educators and describes tools and approaches for analyzing multimodal texts, understanding multilingual competence, and applying genre knowledge in diverse contexts. The strengths of the book lie in its interdisciplinary perspectives, clear methodological guidelines, and practical applications, making it a valuable resource for scholars and educators seeking to bridge the gap between language theory and teaching practice.
Systemic Functional Linguistics Genre Theory
2019
A wave of research that began in the late 1970s and culminated with Richard Burridge’s What Are the Gospels? in 1992 effectively established the consensus that the Gospels are to be classified as ancient βίοι. In this article, I respond to Burridge’s work to demonstrate that his approach to genre is problematic in several ways, which calls the foundation of the current consensus into question. Following this ground clearing exercise, I articulate a way forward in how to understand the relationship between the Gospels’ genre and their social purpose, which is more in keeping with modern genre theory, especially as it is envisioned by systemic-functional linguists. The last section of the article then demonstrates the potential benefits of using Systemic Functional Linguistics genre theory by means of a sample genre analysis of the Lord’s Prayer in Matt 6:7–13, which demonstrates how to understand the social function of genres and opens an avenue for fresh research into the question o...
Towards a theory of genre? Reflections on the problems and debates on theorising ‘genre’
The concept of a theory of genre continues to be elusive. The criterion used for the generic classification of texts (both spoken and written) as belonging to given genres seems to continue to be clouded in ambivalence. Current scholarship in its divergence implicates criterion based on either communicative purpose (Swales, 1990: Chandler, 1997) or purpose and audience/discourse community. Other scholarship argues for a content based approach - often including the context as well - (Bhatia, 1981: Chandler, 1997) whereas others argue for a classification based on linguistic structure. On the other hand, recent scholarship has taken a more stylistic approach that adopts a features discrimination (Widdowson, 1998: Bhatia, 1981, Halliday 1994). This paper examines the weaknesses of these approaches working independent of each other and proposes an approach that synthesises tenets from mainstream genre analysis, discourse analysis and linguistic stylistics to create a holistic and more concrete approach to generic segmentation of texts. It argues that the creation of a theory should be based on an established/establishable ‘general bundle of tenets’ that explicate the primary concerns of the theory and that these should be concrete. It therefore adopts a discourse analysis – mainstream genre analysis – linguistic stylistics dialectic approach to suggest a possible ‘bundle’ of basic tenets for use in the generic discrimination of texts within a theory of genre. It suggests that ‘genre’ theorisation from the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective offers a possible way out of the theoretical conflicts with ‘genre’ theory.
Bridging boundaries across genre traditions
Functions of Language, 2017
This study explores the benefits of a synergy between ESP research on genre and theoretical dimensions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It models genre on SFL dimensions and employs this model to analyse 200 biodata written by Applied Linguistics scholars, 100 each from research articles and seminar posters. Data were analysed from contextual, logico-semantic and lexicogrammatical perspectives. The findings reveal five generic stages in biodata. The frequency distribution of these stages and the phases that realise them shows variation between research article bios and seminar bios. The most frequent logico-semantic (or rhetorical) relations identified among stages and phases are of the expansion type, namely addition and elaboration, Further, collocational frameworks are used in organising some generic phases into waves of meaning and in construing different identities. Finally, evaluative resources, in the form of lexical bundles, modification and circumstantial elements ...
Applied genre analysis: a multi-perspective model
Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de …, 2002
Genre analysis can be viewed from two different perspectives: it may be seen as a reflection of the complex realities of the world of institutionalised communication, or it may be seen as a pedagogically effective and convenient tool for the design of language teaching programmes, often situated within simulated contexts of classroom activities. This paper makes an attempt to understand and resolve the tension between these two seemingly contentious perspectives to answer the question: "Is generic description a reflection of reality, or a convenient fiction invented by applied linguists?". The paper also discusses issues related to the nature and use of linguistic description in a genre-based educational enterprise, claiming that instead of using generic descriptions as models for linguistic reproduction of conventional forms to respond to recurring social contexts, as is often the case in many communication based curriculum contexts, they can be used as analytical resource to understand and manipulate complex inter-generic and multicultural realisations of professional discourse, which will enable learners to use generic knowledge to respond to novel social contexts and also to create new forms of discourse to achieve pragmatic success as well as other powerful human agendas.