A Study On Halliday's Textual Constructivism From The Perspective Of Semogenesis

Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL)distinguishes itself from the so-called mainstream linguistic schools with its focus on textual rather than syntactic studies.The theoretical terms such as textual metafunction,grammatical metaphor,logogenesis etc.,put forward by systemic linguists(its founder M.A.K.Halliday in particular),may sound bizarre to syntactic theoreticians(TG grammarians in particular)yet have gained wide recognition for their profound implications upon discourse analysis,language teaching,cross-language translations,among many others.However,the nature and metatheoretical connotations of these concepts are far from being fully explored into.Based on the term of“discursive constructionism” initiated by Miao Xingwei(2016),this dissertation ventures to propose that the above-mentioned concepts can well be subsumed under the category of“Halliday's textual constructivism”,which represents a sociocultural view on the nature of text construction and above all the fundamental issue of the relationship between language and reality.The theory of Semogenesis,which concerns the diachronic study of meaning-making processes,has absorbed concepts or ideas advocated in the theories of biological evolution,constructivist psychology and ancient China's yin-yang philosophy.It is maintained in this theory that language evolution should be examined in the functional semantic view and from the dimensions of logogenesis,ontogenesis and phylogenesis.The circular interaction between these dimensions constitutes the mechanism behind semogenesis while the evolution of material,consciousness and lexicogrammar motivates the development of human's semiotic ability.By incorporating SFL's studies in text creation,language socialization and scientific language,this study endeavors to elaborate on the connotations and development of Halliday's constructivism from the above-mentioned three dimensions of semogenesis,which highlights the following major findings.To begin with,since the founding of the theory of Semogenesis,Halliday's textual constructivism has evolved connotatively in both ontological and metatheoretical senses from a theory of grammar into a metatheory which can account for the interrelation between human,language and reality,the process of which well demonstrates some epistemological implications.The essence of Halliday's textual constructivism is proposed in this dissertation as follows.Text is a unity of both form and function as well as the main organization mode in creating and exchanging meanings in linguistic communications,therefore it is endowed with a crucial role in construing experience and enacting social interactions.Language interacts with the real world in a circular fashion via three semohistories,namely phylogenesis,ontogenesis and logogenesis.Taking lexicogrammar as resource and texts as major modes,human beings fulfill the diachronic construction of experience.Second,within the logogenetic dimension of Semogenesis,four major developments of Halliday's textual constructivism are scrutinized.First,the redefinition and reclassification of text-forming resources.Text-forming resources refer specifically to grammatical elements that realize the textual metafunction and are involved in the creation of texts.The change in classification is mainly characterized by the new angle “from above” that swifts from the former “from below”,along with the complementary explanation of two new notions,namely “textual transition” and “textual status”.The new way of classification obviously reflects the main influence of logogenesis in Semogenesis and offers a more reasonable account for texture,which foregrounds the dynamicity and diachronicity of textual meanings.Second,the metatheoretical revisiting of the nature of textual metafunction.Textual metafunction distinguishes itself from the other two metafunctions in its second-order nature,which lays great emphasis on its reality-constructing function and can be regarded as the core of Halliday's textual constructivism.The second-order nature of textual metafunction manifests in SFL theories of language development,thematic progression,grammatical metaphor,etc.Third,the reconstruction of text generation mechanism.By introducing the concept of metaredundancy,Halliday refines his early interpretation of the realization manner between the strata of linguistic system.By referring to the metaphoric relationship between weather and climate,Halliday vividly depicts the instantiation process of text creation.By drawing on notions of reservoir and repertoire,Halliday interprets individuals' textual constructionof ideologies.Thus,the trinity of text creation,i.e.realization-instantiation-individuation,is established.Fourth,the prominent highlighting of constructivism.By investigating SFL learning theories,epistemology in text creation,and the second-order nature of textual metafunction,it is found that Halliday's textual constructivism has evolved into its maturity phase in the metatheoretical sense.Third,within the ontogenetic dimension of Semogenesis,the advances of Halliday's textual constructivism are probed into by overviewing SFL's studies on children's language development.Owing to its stance and purpose in research,ontogenesis in SFL may well be identified as a subbranch of research on language socialization.The review of SFL's studies on language socialization well reflects its theoretical foundation on Bernstein's sociology of education,Vygotsky's developmental psychology,as well as Whorf's linguistic anthropology.Through the review,it is also found that meaning is characterized by sociality,constructivity,relativity,etc,which proves to be one of the main arguments of Halliday's textual constructivism.In SFL,language socialization is,in essence,the development of semiotic ability,and the interactions between text construction and language socialization promote the evolution of individuals' text construction capacity.The development of individuals' ability in text construction is of evolutionary and social characteristic.It is evolutionary in that it is a gradual process which has an internal routine to follow.It is social in that it is an interactive process which is largely driven by social cultural context.SFL studies on children's language socialization not only provides strong ontogenetic evidence for expounding the evolution of human's semiotic ability,but also has relatively profound significance for building a multi-faceted and systemic theory of language socialization.Fourth,within the phylogenetic dimension of Semogenesis,the advances of Halliday's textual constructivism are examined by reviewing SFL's studies on the evolution of science language,the success of which partially reflects the evolution of language as a distinctive feature of human species,which to some extent makes up what archaeology cannot do.Grammatical metaphors as a product of the evolution of human language,nominalizations in particular,are proved to be the chief strategy in organizing science grammar.In semogenic terms,nominalized metaphors are effective in not only categorizing and classifying human experience,but also optimizing textual reasoning and logical progression.The two functions are indispensable,and work together to ensure the“technicality” and “rationality” in science texts.The function of categorizing and classifying can be regarded as the metatheoretical function of grammatical metaphor in text construction,which manifests in scientists' adoption of classification,condensation and distillation,reference to name or create virtual entities for further scientific research and finally constructing “technicality” in science language.The function of reasoning and logical progression refers to the role of nominalizations in promoting cohesion,thematic progression and “information flow”,so as to create coherent science texts and construct“rationality” in science texts.The three semohistories in the evolution of science language demonstrate that this evolutionary process is in fact a diachronic and textual construction of scientific knowledge by the endeavors of generations of scientists.In general,the reinterpretation of the nature of Halliday's textual constructivism from the perspective of Semogenesis not only throws light on the social constructivist connotations of the concepts of textual metafunction,grammatical metaphor,logogenesis,etc,but also serves as a complement to discourse analysis and even the further development of SFL.