SISTEMAS GRAMATICALES

MÁSTER EN LINGÜÍSTICA INGLESA APLICADA

UNED
SONIA MUÑOZ GÓMEZ
PEC
ÍNDICE

1. GLOSSARY…………………………………………………………………….2

a. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS…………………………………………....2
b. SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUSITICS…………………...………5

2. SELF-ASSESSMENT………………………………………………………….8

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1) GLOSSARY
a. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

- Attribute: Attributes are the set of statements that provide information about the
members of a cognitive category. They are often referred to as properties or
features.

- Categorization: The term refers to the complex mental operations and processes
by which humans group and classify ideas and objects, producing the so-called
cognitive categories -such as the categories of vehicles, furniture, mammals…-.
The concept of categorization has been addressed under the principles of two main
accounts: on the one hand, objectivism is identified with what has been labelled
the ‘classical theory of categorization’, which conceives these mental processes
as a way of grouping together elements that share some necessary properties to
conform the category in question. These properties are binary and has no middle
ground. On the other hand, experientialism is identified with the principles of the
‘prototype theory’, which assume that category membership is not a matter of
binary distinction but rather it involves different degrees of typicality, as is
supported by goodness-of-example ratings, recognition, matching and learning
tasks.

- Cognitive linguistics: the term refers to a branch within the frame of modern
linguistics, which includes several compatible approaches that share some
common basic features. First, these include the assumption that language is not an
autonomous cognitive faculty -as stated by Formalist approaches- but is seen as
an integral part of human cognition where social, cultural, psychological,
communicative and functional considerations merge together. Second, they
oppose the principle of truth-conditional semantics where language is evaluated
in terms of truth or falsity relative to the world. Finally, whereas Formalism and
truth-conditional semantic approaches stand up for the idea that language does not
emerge from language use -they disregard language use as peripherical-;
Cognitive Linguistics contrast with this view for it focus on language use as the
main generator of meaning.

- cognitive models: the set of open-ended and interrelated cognitive representations

that belongs to a certain field stored in an individual’s mind.

- Conceptual hierarchies: Cognitive categories can be classified as basic level -

which is a generic level, in which differences between members can be best
understood-; and subordinate and superordinate categories -those categories that
contain prototypes of an upper or lesser degree of generalization-. These
categories are not static drawers but they interrelate in our minds establishing
hierarchical relations, so that we can distinguish between type-of hierarchies -the
attributes found for a given category are collected from experience-; and part-

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 whole hierarchies or partonomies -related to the notion of metonymy for it serves
to connect categories in terms of their co-presence in time and space-.

- context: within the frame of Cognitive Linguistics, we use ‘context’ to refer to

the mental phenomenon for which human beings are able to build all the cognitive
representations stored in their minds that conform the cognitive model.

- cultural models: a sort of cognitive models whose information has been provided
by the cultural background of certain social group or subgroup. One example of
cultural models can be the so-called ‘folk models’ or ‘naïve cultural models’,
which, as opposed to the ‘expert models’ employed in all sciences, these models
are subjective and are based on informal observation by individuals, their beliefs,
traditions, perceptions…

- Experientialism: The term was first introduced and developed by Lakoff and his
associates during the 1970s and 1980s to refer to a new philosophical tradition as
opposed to the pervading objectivism. The main principles of objectivism had
influenced every field of human sciences including linguistics, thus leading
linguists to hold assumptions such as the view of meaning as an objective entity;
the conception of words as fixed in meaning or the condemnation of figurative
language. In contrast, experientialism conceives meaning as embodied within the
interactions with objects and entities of the real world; they have argued for the
centrality of figurative uses in general -such as metaphor, metonymy, irony,
exaggeration…- and brought the concept of categorization to a new, more
relativist level (see Categorization). Cognitive Linguistics is framed under these
principles of experientialism.

- Family resemblances: this concept was first introduced by philosopher Ludwig

Wittgenstein and later developed by Rosch and Mervis to offer an alternative to
the classical view that properties of the same category must be common to all its
members. The principle of family resemblances proposes that each item of a given
category has at least one, and probably several, common properties with other
items of the same category, but not all.

- Holistic perception: According to Labov, the process of categorization involves

a first step of holistic perception, that is, the perception of an object as a whole. In
this process of categorization, the term ‘prototype’ plays an important role, for it
consists of a mental representation, as an ‘image’ that serves as a reference point
for such categorization. Another important notion related to the holistic perception
proposed by Labov is that of ‘gestalt’, developed by psychologists in order to
provide an explanation to the categorization processes of organisms and concrete
objects.

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- idealized cognitive model: it is a notion of major importance within the
framework of Cognitive Linguistics and it refers to the way in which the human
mind organizes knowledge in order to produce cognitive structures that represent
reality in certain perspectives, so that they result in an idealization of reality. We
can find four types of ICMS: propositional models, metaphor, metonymies and
image-schemas.

- image-schema: This term was first introduced by Johnson to refer to the set of
patterns that are embodied and give coherent meaningful structure to our physical
experience at a preconceptual level. They constitute a key tool for the construction
of metaphors and metonymies.

- Mapping: The term is referred to in Cognitive Linguistics as the set of

correspondences that we can trace within the metaphoric or metonymic uses of
language. In the case of metaphors, this correspondence occurs between its
elements -target and source domains-; whereas in the case of metonymy the
mapping scopes within the same category of experience.

- metaphor: For Cognitive Linguistics, the term ‘metaphor’ refers to one of the
conceptual mechanisms we use in order to communicate our ideas. It involves
both a conceptual level -which in Cognitive Linguistics is expressed as A IS B- ;
and a linguistic level where the linguistic expression is actually realized in the
form of metaphors. Metaphors are made up of two elements: the source domain -
the element of the metaphor that we use as a way to understand a more complex
concept- and the target domain -the complex concept that we are describing-.

- metonymy: similar to metaphors, this term refers to the process of communicating

ideas by means of establishing links between cognitive models. As was the case
for metaphors, metonymies involve a conceptual level -that in Cognitive
Linguistics is represented as A FOR B- and a linguistic level where the metonymy
takes form. In contrast with the notion of metaphor, where two domains map
together in terms that one is understood in terms of the other, metonymy implies
a relationship between elements of the same domain, where one stands for
another.

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 b. SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS

- Behavioural processes: They constitute a process type that can be considered as

a ‘half-way house’ between mental and material processes, for they contain an
action that has to be experienced by a conscious being, such as breathe, smile,
taste… They usually involve only one participant -called the Behaver- but can co-
occur with an optional one -the Behaviour, that is, the statement of the process-
and are often combined with Circumstantials.

- Context: from a purely linguistic point of view, the term ‘context’ refers to the
knowledge of the situation and the background that is necessary for an utterance
to be understood. Within the frame of Systemic Functional Grammar, context has
been studied under the so-called Register Theory, which seeks to describe the
impact that the immediate context of a language event provokes on the way
language is used. Since Systemic Functional Linguistics sees language use as
realized by means of three simultaneous strands, this term is also related to the
textual metafunction of meaning, where the notions of Theme -the elements that
occupy the first position in the clause- and Rheme -the ones that follows the
Theme- are of major importance since speakers collocate these different elements
in different positions depending on the their purpose and context.

- Existential processes: The term stands for the process type that includes in its
action the statement that ‘there is/there was something’. Although they can
include a Circumstantial, the only obligatory participant in this process type is the
Existent -the participant that exists-.

- Genre: the notion of genre in the Systemic Functional Linguistics context is

related to the idea of ‘identity’ of the text, that is, the purpose the text fulfils and
its role in the culture where it is delivered. In this sense, a ‘text’ is staged, goal-
oriented and purposeful activity where a speaker engages as a member of its
cultural context.

- Grammatical system: The system that conforms the different grammatical

choices that can be realized through the order and structure of particular
grammatical elements when language is in use.

- Ideology: within the frame of SFL, the notion of ‘ideology’ is increasingly

growing as a central issue as related to ‘context’. It has to do with the different
perspectives, values, traditions and beliefs that texts reproduce as products of a
particular culture and the way language is influenced by such aspects as
ideological positions.

- Material processes: It stands for the kind of process type that involves a verb of
doing -where an entity undertakes some action-. Depending on the participants
involved, we can distinguish between intransitive processes -where there is only
one participant; and transitive processes -where two or more participants are
present-. The most frequent participants in material processes are the Actor -who
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 performs the action-, the Goal -to whom the action is extended- and the
Beneficiary -the one to whom something is given or the one for whom something
is done-. In transitive processes, where clauses can be either active or passive, the
Actor role and the Subject of the action map on to the same constituent, whereas
in passive clauses the Subject is realized through the Goal.

- Mental processes: this term refers to the type of processes that involve the
expression of thoughts or feelings. Halliday divided these processes into three
sub-categories: cognition -verbs of thinking such as ‘understand’; affection -verbs
of liking such as ‘love’-; and perception -verbs of seeing, hearing…-. In contrast
with Material Processes, in Mental processes there is always two participants
involved, named Senser -the one who thinks, feels or perceives- and Phenomenon,
that can be either Acts -realized by an imperfective non-finite clause acting as a
noun-; or Facts -realized by an embedded clause acting as a noun-.

- Metafunctions: this term serves to group the three types of meaning that,
according to Halliday’s Functional Systemic Linguistic approach, texts are
typically simultaneously made of. These three types of meaning are: ideational
meaning -that is, meanings about how we represent experience in language-;
interpersonal meaning -which has to do with the relationship between writer and
reader, and with the reader with subject matter-; and textual meaning, which refers
to the organization of the information within the text itself.

- Mood: The notion of Mood is related to that of ‘metafunctions’ in Systemic

Functional Linguistics, for the later implies that when producing texts, speakers
create three types of meanings simultaneously -interpersonal, experiential and
textual- and Mood is attached to interpersonal meaning, for it refers to the
Modality choices that speakers make depending on the relation with their
interactants (tenor). It must contain two elements: the Subject -the entity that
realizes the thing by reference to which the proposition can be affirmed or denied-
; and the Finite -the element that makes the proposition a definite one-. The rest
of the elements in a clause that are not part of the Mood constitute the Residue.

- Relational processes: it refers to the type of process that involves either an

Attributive process or an Identifying process. Both of them can be intensive,
circumstantial or possessive, so that we find the following sub-types: Intensive
attributive processes -where a quality, classification or descriptive epithet named
Attributive is assigned to a Carrier (participant); Intensive Identifying processes -
where one of the participants, name the Token, is defined by a Value -what defines
the Token-; Attributive Circumstantials -being its main feature the fact that the
Attributive is realized by a circumstance-; Identifying Circumstantials -where the
Value is again realized by a circumstance-; Attributive Possessives -where one of
the participants is the owner of the other-; and Identifying Possessive Processes,
where again the participants Token and Value acquire the category of possessed
and possessor.

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- Semiotic system: it can be defined as a finite collection of discrete signs, these
being the realization of a particular meaning through arbitrary particular
representations. The most important, sophisticated and elaborated of all semiotic
systems is the system of language.

- Systemic Functional Linguistics: developed by linguist Michael Halliday, this

approach sees language use as functional, semantic, contextual and semiotic. This
framework served Halliday to develop a detailed functional grammar of modern
English where three simultaneous strands of meanings -ideational, interpersonal
and textual- convey together in clause structures.

- Transitivity or process type: This notion is related to that of ‘grammatical

system’ since it stands for one of the most prominent and salient types of
grammatical choices that serves to structure experiential meaning in languages
such as English, which implies the associated participant roles and its
configuration. Transitivity choices, then, is related in the clause with the notion of
‘field’, for it implies the choosing of processes types and participant roles
depending on the experiential reality interactants are encoding.

- Verbal processes: this term refers to the process type whose action is carried out
by a verbal action, such as say or speak. This type of process involves three
participants: Sayer -the participant who delivers the verbal process-; the Receiver
-the one to whom the verbal process is delivered-; and the Verbiage -the
nominalized statement of the verbal process-.

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 2) SELF-ASSESSMENT
When dealing with Linguistics, it is of no doubt that Grammar has a central position
in most approaches. This is especially true during the past few decades, since the
importance of Grammar theories has quickly increased due to the great deal of
possibilities that it can offer to new emerging fields of Applied Linguistics, such as
Computational Linguistics or Forensic Linguistics. At the same time, Grammar studies
are still the key point for the development of language learning methodologies and
techniques. It is for this reason that, as a language teacher, I consider the study of
Grammar as an essential factor that can make a big difference in my students’ learning
process.
In this sense, the two approaches studied in this subject are equally useful. On the one
hand, Cognitive Linguistics is interesting for it is concerned with language as an
integrated cognitive system, and thus it provides teachers with several theoretical
hypothesis related to the mechanisms of the human mind and the cognitive processes that
can help them in carrying out their professional tasks.
On the other hand, Systemic Functional Linguistics offers a view of language as a
three-stratal system, where interpersonal, textual and experiential meanings converge at
the same time. For language teachers, theories within the frame of SFL are of major
importance since it does not conceives language as an abstract entity but focus on
language use, and that is the actual purpose for which we learn languages after all.