THE CONTEXT-TEXT

CONNECTION
GEROT AND WIGNELL (p.10)
CONTEXT-TEXT CONNECTION
 All meaning is situated  context of
situation and culture.
e.g. just put it beside those other ones.
what’s the time?
let’s shower!

 Context of culture determines what we

can mean through being who we are,
doing what we do, saying what we say
CONTEXT OF SITUATION
 can be specified through use of the register
variables: FIELD, TENOR, MODE
 FIELD (What is going on): activity and object
focus.
 TENOR (the social relationship between
those who taking part): status of power,
affect, contact.
 MODE (how language is being used) : spoken/
written, action/ reflection.
 CULTURE
Genre (Purpose)

Situation

Who is involved?
(Tenor)

Subject matter Channel

(Field) (Mode)

Register

TEXT
RECONSTRUCTING THE
CONTEXT
 The wordings of text simultaneously encode
three types of meaning:
Ideational Meaning
Interpersonal Meaning
Textual Meaning
IDEATIONAL MEANINGS
 Meanings about phenomena
 About things and goings on
 About circumstances surrounding the
happenings and doings
 Realized in wordings through Participants,
Processes and circumstances
 Centrally influenced by the field of
discourse
EXAMPLES
Polar bears eat fish

Participant: Process: Participant:

Actor Material Goal

Polar bears are good hunters

Participant: Process: Participant:
Carrier Attributive Attribute
WHAT DOES THE SENTENCE MEAN?
 We can answer by explaining what it is about.
 It is about an animal (polar bears) performing
a habitual action (eat) onto another animal
(fish).
 This is known as experiential meaning.
 This represents our experience of the world as
well as thoughts and feelings.
 Concerned with how we talk about actions,
happenings, feelings, beliefs, situations,
states, etc.
 INTERPERSONAL
MEANINGS

 Express a speaker’s attitudes and judgments

 For acting upon and with others
 Realized in wordings through MOOD and
modality.
 Most centrally influenced by tenor of discourse
1. POLAR BEARS EAT FISH
2. POLAR BEARS MIGHT BE GOOD HUNTERS.
3. DO POLAR BEARS EAT FISH?

 No 2 is still a statement, but it introduces into the

sentences an assessment by the speaker whether or
not the statement is true.
 No 2 and 3 differs in the way s in which we act upon
one another through language.
EXAMPLES
(GEROT AND WIGNELL 1995:13)
 Declarative:
 We inspect the growing plants every week
 Imperative:

 Brock, get those plants inspected right now!

Consider the interpersonal relations between

speakers.
 EXAMPLES

 Brock, do you really expect me to believe this crap?

 Mr. Brock, I find your position untenable

Consider the degree of informality or formality

EXAMPLES
 Mr. Brock is a fine, upstanding employee.
 Brock is a lazy, incompetent fool.

Consider the attitudinal lexis which express affect, the

degree of like and dislike
 EXAMPLES: MODALITY
 Unfortunately, Brock is an inspector.
 Fortunately, Brock is an inspector.

Consider the Mood Adjunct which reveal attitude or

judgment.
 The crop might be inspected.
 The crop should be inspected
 The crop must be inspected

Consider modal operators revealing the speaker’

certainty.
 TEXTUAL MEANINGS

 Express the relation of language to its environment

(including what has been spoken or written before),
 Realized through patterns of Theme and cohesion,
 Most centrally influenced by mode of discourse,
 Has to do with the ways in which a stretch of language is
organized in relation to its context
 Is important in the creation of coherence in spoken and
written texts.
 The linguistic differences between the following spoken
and written texts below relate primarily to differences in
thematic choices and patterns of cohesion.

This is yer phone bill and you hafta go to the Post

Office to pay it – uh, by next Monday – that’s what this
box tells ya – or they’ll cut yer phone off!

All phone bills must be paid by the date shown or

service will be discontinued.
 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
CONTEXT, MEANINGS AND WORDINGS
Context Text
Semantics Lexicogrammar
(meanings) (wordings)

Field Ideational Transitivity

(what is going on) (Processes, Participants,
Circumstances

Tenor Interpersonal Mood and Modality

(Social relations) (Speech roles, attitudes)

Mode Textual Theme, Cohesion

(Contextual coherence)