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ABSTRACT
This paper explores a potential avenue of dialogue between Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), namely genre. SFL's approach to modeling genre is briefly introduced, and key discourse analyses informing genre description are reviewed. Subsequently, the approach is illustrated with respect to analysis of a text from a tertiary law lecture, specifically a legal exemplum genre. The paper closes with commentary on some possible misunderstandings that might stand in the way of practical applications interfacing SFL and CHAT research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The system name connexion is taken from Hao (Citation2015), replacing Martin’s earlier term conjunction in order to more clearly differentiate discourse semantic and lexicogrammatical terminology (reacting in particular to confusion arising from the use of grammatical terminology for semantic description in Halliday & Matthiessen, Citation1999).
2. We are following Hao’s (Citation2015, Citation2020a, Citation2020b terminology here; in her model, discourse semantic figures can be positioned by projecting figures.
3. The double square brackets in examples, ‘[[…]]’, enclose embedded clauses.
4. The double angle brackets in examples, ‘≪ … ≫’, enclose interrupting clauses.
5. In simple terms, Greek letters mark dependency relations and numerals coordinating ones; ‘ = ’ stands for elaboration (specification), ‘+’ for extension and ‘x’ for enhancement (by time, cause etc.).