Università di Cagliari

Corso di Laurea in
Economia e Gestione Aziendale
Economia e Finanza
CdL interclasse in
Lingua e Culture per la Mediazione
Linguistica

Prof.ssa Luisanna Fodde

a.a. 2013/2014 1
 Using English

The structural features of the English language include:

Vocabulary, Grammar, Phonology…..

They help us to describe the way we build up sentences, the way we

link words syntactically and semantically, the way vowels and
consonants are pronounced to make meaningful words.

who uses
During our lessons instead, we are going to talk about

these words and sentences, when, where and why!!!

 Using English

The structural features of the English language are finite and easy to
identify.

Instead, the way English is used implies an unlimited number of

situations, in which the features of spoken and written language
appear in an unlimited number of combinations and variations.

Social, regional dialects, humour and literature, for example, may use
highly distinctive features.
 Using English
Discourse: The term which describes spoken and
written communications.

Also, the language used in a given field of research

and social practice, such as legal discourse, medical
discourse, religious discourse, advertising discourse,
media discourse, economic and financial discourse,
academic discourse.
We study language as a form of behaviour.
There is no separation between language and society.
Language and communication are formed by social processes

Of course language is only one of a number of ways of

meaning, ways to mean, which build a culture or social
system.

Forms of art, of dress, family and other institutional structures

etc. etc., are all forms of cultural behaviour as well.
Culture, in itself, can be defined as a system of interrelated

meanings, or networks of relationships, or as a set of interrelated

semiotic systems.

Thus language is one among a number of these networks, or

semiotic (meaningful) systems of meaning that – together – make

up human culture, or the social system.

(Halliday in Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 4).

This social-semiotic system of meanings is also known as a
belief and value system.

We may also refer to this system as a world-view, or cultural

paradigm, or ideology – which can be broadly defined as the
common sense, taken-for-granted assumptions, interests,
values, and biases that groups give to or have towards their
world.
Another way of putting all this is to say that culture is

“an integrated body of the total set of meanings available to a

community: its semiotic potential. The semiotic potential
includes ways of doing, ways of being and ways of saying”
(Hasan in Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 99).
So then, in order to study the social system from a linguistic
point of view, we study its ways of saying:

the language of the texts it produces, in the firm conviction that

a text is a fragment of the culture that produces it (Miller,
1993a).
A text is “language that is functional”, that is to say …….

“language that is doing some job in some context” (Halliday in

Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 10).

In this functional perspective, a text is therefore always seen as

being strictly related to:
1- its Context of Situation, which is defined as the immediate
social and situational environment in which a text is being
realized,
2- the Context of Culture which is the ‘outer’, more external,
or ‘higher-order’ context surrounding both the text and its
specific Context of Situation.
A text, therefore, is basically made of meanings that, in order to

be communicated, need to be encoded and expressed through a

system of graphic, phonic or visual signs. As a thing in itself,

however, it is a consistent semantic unit.

A text is both an object, a product of its environment, of its
Context of Situation and Context of Culture, and an
instance of social meaning in a specific situation.

The relation between text and context is a systematic and

dynamic one:

- on one hand, a text is the result of the context in which it is

being realized and where language is being shaped to function
purposefully;

- on the other hand, a context is then realized in turn by the

text, i.e., through a text, a context is being created.

(Halliday in Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 10-11).

Context of Situation
Context of Situation is seen as being comprised of 3 components,
or values, or dimension of variation:
Field, Tenor and Mode, or, respectively:

FIELD: what is going on?

TENOR: who is taking part?

MODE: how are the meanings being exchanged?

Field, Tenor and Mode.

Field – the nature of the ongoing social speech event and its
subject matter, what is being spoken about;
Tenor – the human participants in the interaction and the
relationship between them, involving their status and discourse
roles, as well as the attitude they take towards the subject
matter and their interlocutors,
Mode – the way that language is functioning in the interaction,
which involves a series of features such as the degree to which
the process of interaction is shared by the interlocutors, its
‘channel’, its ‘medium’ etc.
(see Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 12)
 Using English

Two approaches:
1- The bottom-up approach, which studies the way sentences
combine into larger units of discourse (analysing the lexico-
grammar of a text), and concentrates on the role played by
specific features of language in facilitating successful interaction
(i.e. the role of you know in conversations; the use of Lei in
formal Italian)

2- The top-down approach, which starts with a difined category

of discourse, such as an area of knowledge (politics, economics,
medicine, media) or of social situation (gender, class), or
communicative genre (poetry, joke) and examines the features
found in them.
 Using English in a social context

The various branches of linguistics which investigate the

topic «language in use» are:
Sociolinguistics; Stylistics; Discourse Analysis;
Pragmatics; Textlinguistics

All share the common idea of studying language in a

particular social context
 Texts and Varietion according to use
(Registers)

English can be used in a distinctive way in a very wide

range of situations.

These situations vary and are not always easy to define.

We start by looking at the COMMUNICATIVE PRODUCTS
of such situations, or at the TEXTS with which these
situations are associated.

Then, we will look at the LINGUISTIC FEATURES

defining the identities of a text.
Texts and Variations according to use
(Registers)
Texts and Registers
 Texts and Registers

SITUATION (driving) TEXT (road signs)

TEXT uses a series of Imperative mode, figures

distinctive linguistic and symbols, condensed
features language

REGISTER
(advertising register,
persuasive language)
 REGISTERS
(advertising discourse)
 Texts and Registers

Register.
It is defined by Halliday as “variation according to use” (in
Halliday & Hasan, 1985/ 1989: 41).

This is to say that there are typical conglomerations of

linguistic resources that are made use of in a text, and that
this is a result of certain types of contexts, certain Contextual
Configurations, and of the purposes they serve.
 Varieties & variety features

Variety features are not the typical features of the English language
as a whole. Such features or characteristics depend on certain factors
occurring in the social situation.

Sociolinguistic features: they relate to very broad situational

constraints, and identify the regional (dialect, diatopic) and social
varieties (sociolect) of any language (e.g. American, Sardinian,
Southern, Cockney, middle-class, educated, beurocratic….).

Some of these permanent features are so ingrained in ourselves that

we are not conscious about them. (Cfr. Idiolects)
 Varieties & variety features

Stylistic features: they refer to personal preferences in language usage

(humour, poetry), or are typical of the registers associated with
occupational groups (lecturers, lawyers, journalists).

They are temporal constraints of our spoken or written language, over

which we have some degree of conscious control.
During the day we may change our speaking or writing styles according
to the situations:
SMS’s, exams, telling a story, formal application or letter…

CONSTRAINT: a restriction on the operation of a linguistic rule or the

occurrence of a linguistic construction
 Texts and Varieties
The two dimensions of a language
variety

1- MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
Speech and writing – spoken English and written English

Obvious difference: voice (phonic substance) vs hands/instrument

(graphic substance).

They are independent methods of communication

But what are the main differences???

 Texts and Varieties
The two dimensions of a language
variety
2- The type of participation (the communication participants)

Number of participants involved: monologue or dialogue?

Monologue (reading & writing); Dialogue (listening & speaking)

????
A monologue is an activity in which the producer does not expect a
response, even if an audience may be present.
In a dialogue the participants expect each other to respond

Exceptions: spoken monologues (political & public speeches); written

dialogues (questionnaires, registration forms, classically dialogic in
form); transcribed spoken dialogues…..
 Written/Spoken Language

Face-to-face communication

Writer-reader communication

Speech production/Written production

Language control in speech and writing: Pronunciation,

intonation, accent, non-verbal communication (SPEECH)
Style, grammar, structure, orthography (WRITING)
 Written/Spoken Language

What has happened to such differences with the advent of

digital communication??